What I've Learned from my Hispanic Church

One of the common refrains of my life has been leveraging my life for the kingdom of God.  That's why I live and that's why I am studying here at Trinity.  Another, seemingly random aspect, has been my affinity for and ability to speak the Spanish language.  I've visited Spanish speaking countries many times, majored in Spanish in undergrad and even spent extended time living in Mexico with a Mexican family, while studying at a language immersion school.  I've used Spanish to separate myself on scholarship applications and random opportunities, but have never seen it as the gift that it is...that is until recently.  I was having lunch with the national director of church planting for the Evangelical Free Church of America, and the topic of my fluency in Spanish came up.  His words were like a smack in the face.  He said, "You have no idea the gift you have for the kingdom."  I was taken aback.  I hadn't been seeing Spanish as a gift to leverage from the kingdom, like I have seen the rest of my life.
     Fast forward about a month, and I continued to put feel the Holy Spirit stirring in my heart to cultivate my Spanish ability.  With language, you either use it or lose it--and it had been over a year since I lived in Mexico.  Finally, after hearing the cafeteria workers speaking Spanish, I decided to contact a local pastor of a Hispanic church to visit.  Picking the closest EFCA Hispanic church to Trinity, I just showed up one Sunday.  As I walked in I thought, "I am crazy!  Who just walks randomly into a Spanish speaking church?"  Of course, I stuck out like a sore thumb, but it didn't take long to feel welcomed into the family.  Before the service, I talked with the pastor (who speaks mostly Spanish) and we talked about pastoral ministry.  He had great wisdom saying, "You must go to the people."  This was his way of saying, if you truly want to reach out to the marginalized, you need to go to where they are!  Spanish is a reality for our country, and in order to reach out to the most oppressed and needy, it often is needed. 
     After the service, I decided I didn't want to awkwardly stand in the lobby, so I just made my way to my car.  No sooner had I walked to my car, but one of the young women from the church ran up to car and said, "Um, we have coffee and donuts inside...won't you join us?  Don't leave!"  I was blown away by the hospitality.  So I parked my car, and went inside and met many new friends.  What a marked difference from most of our "Anglo" church culture and the personal space we expect and demand.
        To feel out of place and lost in a church service, complete with uncertainty of when to sit and stand during the service, I was reminded of how new people feel in our churches.  Next time I go to my English speaking church, I will be reminded of the hospitality of my Hispanic church and how I felt when I was welcomed.  I so often forget what it feels like to be new.  Let's remember the outcast and the newcomer this week...who knows how God will use our conversations! 

Love

     When I was younger in my faith, I used to dream of being a leader of something big--big in numbers, big in size, big in the world's eyes.  As I grew in age, I was a part of a few large churches...a few that sometimes felt like they wanted to be large for the sake of being large, for the pastor's own kingdom (as I mentioned in an earlier post, "Thorns and Thrones."  In college, I was blessed to be a part of a campus movement that was large in numbers--but for the right reasons.  As I look back on my college experience, my favorite memories are from seeing the two men that I discipled weekly, grow in Christ.  Seeing them increase in faith, sacrifice and vision was worth every ounce of sweat and prayer that I poured into their lives.  As I grew in my faith, the Lord changed my heart to see that growth is healthy if it's Gospel growth...If it's growth based on true believers being faithful to multiply their lives into others.  Then, God is glorified and movements are healthy.  In the same way, Jesus slowly made me realize that being faithful in the small things is exactly what pleases Him. 
      To be honest, the place I've seen this modeled the best is through my mother.  For the 22 years that I've been alive, I've never seen someone with the burning passion for others, shown most clearly through selfless love.  Whether it's the neighbor ladies, the subway worker, the technical college student from a broken home, or the transsexual in the airport, the love of Jesus pours out of her into everyone she meets.  As a family, we enjoy asking each other how we can be praying for one another.  Consistent through the years, my mom constantly asks that God would allow her to love more people, to have more opportunity to connect people with Jesus.  We all need to learn what I learned from my Mom and what Jesus taught in his parable of the talents.  In many ways, it's a tough parable.  I suggest you read it in Matthew 25, if you haven't read it in a while.  In it, the master says to the faithful servant," 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'"  Not all of us will invest our lives in things that will last for eternity, and still others may invest their lives into eternal things that people will never see.  In the same way, others may even oppose the ways that we desire to influence others to labor faithfully in the small things--especially in a business driven church model that we often have today!  But to be faithful in small things, like the struggling single mom or the broken hearted friend, is to be a faithful servant of God, and to love Jesus Himself.  Christians often talk about wanting to hear God say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," but I wonder if we are willing to live the lives that are worthy of such a statement.  It begins today in the small things, in the seemingly fruitless compassion or sacrificial love that no one sees, and will continue until Jesus comes for His own.  To these few, "the King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me'"