Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #37
September 18, 2023
Latin Leadership
As I have described in other blogs and podcasts, our congregation has participated in a lunch program for day labors. We have done this for several years. Since the beginning of this year, our Spanish New Church Planter, Ivan, has accompanied me. On one such trip, two other young Latin men joined us. This past Thursday Ivan and I were joined by a college student who has become part of the Spanish-speaking worship group. He had several questions for me and so Ivan, Johan, and myself met for breakfast.
His questions amazed me. He knew a lot about the European Reformation and specifically John Calvin, who is my theological hero. He also had questions about the differences in polity and organization between the Baptist tradition that he grew up in and that of the Reformed Church in America. I had not spent this much time discussing Calvin and Polity since the last seminar that I attended at New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
Johan and his mother had recently begun worshipping with the Spanish-speaking church. Indeed, he and his mother provided music for the worship with him playing the guitar and his mother singing vocals. I posted a clip of their music on Facebook a week ago.
I was impressed by their musical abilities as well as this young man’s dedication to participate in our mission to the day laborers in addition to the well thought out questions that he had for me. I couldn’t help but glorify God that he had sent this future Latin leader to the Spanish worship, our newest outreach effort. It is good that our consistory, who is mostly older than I am, and Ivan who is a bit older than me and myself are organizing this new ministry. Now we have a leader from a new generation who is decades younger than we are. He is an answer to our prayers.
I feel that this is another large step in developing this new ministry and indeed, the future of our congregation. Our town is largely young and mostly Hispanic. Our current congregation is white and older. Now our new worship service has begun to attract new and young leaders. Praise God for this!
Now, I have been given a new job. I must, in tandem with Ivan, nurture and develop this young leader and other leaders who I trust will come in the future. Eight years ago, this congregation made the decision to begin a new outreach to Hispanics. We made our mistakes and had several false starts. Now, in God’s time, things are coming together in wonderful ways. I am excited to see what God has in store for us tomorrow, next week, and the years to come.
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