LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 32

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

32 SYNOD REPORTS

R1-8-04
Blue Ribbon Task Force on Hispanic Ministry

Una Misién, Un Mensaje, Un Pueblo
Hispanic Ministry: Bursting with Life and Energy for the Church

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that
no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing
white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands and they
cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on
the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9 NIV).

God is bringing Hispanic people to virtually every community
of the United States. In doing so, He is also providing great oppor-
tunities for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod to grow, to be
strengthened, and to be enriched.

This report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force for Hispanic Min-
istry seeks to reflect the hopes and needs of the Hispanic commu-
nity within the Missouri Synod and their desire to be a growing
part of this church body. Indeed, the Task Force believes this re-
port has implications for ministry with all ethnic populations and
within the Synod itself.

We see this challenge: As The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod seeks to “be in mission,” striving toward 100 million “criti-
cal events” of its Ablaze! initiative, it also has the responsibility to
“be in ministry”—to baptize, to teach, and to care for those who
are introduced to the Savior, Jesus Christ. The challenge is to wel-
come those whom the Holy Spirit draws into our midst, embracing
them as fellow citizens with God’s people and members of His
household.

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow
citizens with God’s people and members of God's household, built on
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself
as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together
and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are
being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His
Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22 NIV).

Assignment

LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick appointed the Blue Ribbon
Task Force for Hispanic Ministry in June 2006. He charged the task
force to study and determine the best methodology for the Synod to
move aggressively in its mission to Hispanics (Latinos).
Four months later, in October 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau es-
timated that the U.S. population reached 300 million people, in-
cluding an estimated 44.7 million people of Hispanic origin.
¢ Today, about 15 percent of Americans are of Hispanic descent.
(Compare this to 1966 when the U.S. population was 200 mil-
lion and Hispanics totaled only 8.5 million or about 4 percent.)

¢ Over the past four decades, the U.S. population grew by 100 mil-
lion people of which 36 million were Hispanics—and, of them,
29 million were immigrants.

Two decades ago, few could project what was to come. With
the whole of society, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
views an American scene that is increasingly diverse—in color,
world origin, language, and customs. Because of their numbers,
Hispanics are most prominent.

History

Just as there is no single history of ministry with Hispanics in
the Missouri Synod, there is no set of criteria for describing a His-
panic ministry or congregation. Neither does the Synod have a
mechanism for identifying Spanish-speaking families within Eng-
lish-speaking congregations. The task force also is aware that some
Hispanic worshiping groups have not organized into congregations.
We know that the Hispanic population is extremely fluid and while
we may be disappointed to see no growth in a Hispanic mission,

2007 Convention Workbook

we realize that 200 to 300 people may pass through such a mission

on their way to a better life.

Hispanics are a diverse group. Therefore, the task force under-
stands the term Hispanic or Latino to be the broad group of people
with Spanish-speaking Latin-American heritage. A large number
of Latinos are from Mexico, but Spanish-speaking people also
come from Central and South America, plus Caribbean countries
such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The Synod can trace ministry with Spanish-speaking people
back at least 80 years. Rev. Cobian, who was a native of Puerto
Rico, began ministries to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in San
Antonio in 1926. Rev. Andrés Melendez, also a Puerto Rican,
began ministries in south Texas during the 1930s and 1940s. Both
men were products of mission efforts of the Augustana Synod, now
part of the ELCA.

About 1910, the Southern District provided financial resources
and manpower for work in Cuba. That work continued through the
Cuban Revolution, when repatriation of missionaries following the
fall of Cuba in 1959 began work among Hispanics in Florida.

Since the 1960s, ministries in New York and New Jersey
reached communities of migrants from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the
Dominican Republic. In the Midwest, ministries began in Chicago
and Milwaukee during the 1950s and 1960s, in Cleveland during
the 1970s, and in Indiana throughout the 1990s.

On the West Coast, a Rev. Theiss was calling for work among
Hispanics in California as early as 1906. Work was conducted in
the 1930s in Los Angeles, during the 1940s in Santa Ana, and the
1980s in northern California.

Today, Hispanic ministries exist in 24 of the 35 LCMS districts
(and it is likely that opportunities exist in all districts). Seventy-
three mission projects might be called “stand-alone” as a congre-
gation with a Spanish name. Another 70 missions work alongside
Anglo congregations. Since the turn of this century, 76 new mis-
sions have been established. The Synod has 139 workers of His-
panic origin, including 99 pastors, deaconesses, professors, and lay
workers. An estimated 10,000 Hispanics are members of LCMS
congregations.

There have been five major suppliers of ordained pastors for
Hispanic ministries.
¢ Of the 40 bilingual Anglos in Hispanic ministry, nearly all come

from the St. Louis and Fort Wayne seminaries. Most learned
Spanish as undergraduates and served as vicars or called mis-
sionaries in Latin America.

¢ In the 1950s, the Bible Institute in Monterrey, Mexico, trained
men for the pastoral ministry. Most of these pastors, who mainly
served along the U.S.-Mexico border, are now retired or de-
ceased.

* The Institute for Hispanic Ministries was housed at Concordia
University, River Forest, from 1978 to 1987. It prepared men in
Spanish language for ordained public ministry and had a three-
person full-time faculty. Functioning under the colloquy pro-
gram, it prepared men for convertible vicarages after 27 months
of full-time instruction. About 20 men finished the program.

* The Hispanic Institute of Theology, established in 1987 with of-
fices in the Chicago area, prepared Hispanic men for certifica-
tion for ordained ministry and women for deaconess certification.
The institute also trains lay workers. The program successfully
combined video with local instruction in more than 30 cities for a
10-course pre-seminary sequence. Typically, 150 men and
women take the pre-seminary courses at any given time, and
about 15 men and women are enrolled in seminary-level courses
leading to pastoral ministry or deaconess certification.

¢ Since September 2006, the Center for Hispanic Studies at Con-
cordia Seminary, St. Louis, has incorporated—and continued—
the work of the Hispanic Institute of Theology.

Recognizing the growth of the Hispanic population in the
United States, the Synod’s Board for Mission Services established