Hispanic Assembly stresses growth and discipleship

From DisciplesWorld:


By Ted Parks, DisciplesWorld contributing writer

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. (7/17/08) — Gathering more than 250 Hispanic Disciples from across North America to Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., near Newark, between July 10 and 13, the fourteenth National Hispanic and Bilingual Assembly included workshops, presentations, and rousing worship experiences, with speakers emphasizing evangelism, faithfulness to the Christian message, and training in leadership.

Worship periods opened and closed the assembly, with Disciples’ General Minister and President Sharon Watkins and Huberto Pimentel, national pastor for Hispanic ministries, presiding at communion during the concluding service. The event also included a youth program with a mission trip to feed the New York City poor at the historic Park Avenue Christian Church.

Speaking in Thursday night's opening worship, Juan Dávila, pastor of Primera Iglesia Hispana in Rochester, N.Y., launched the conference theme, "Growth and Discipleship: Challenges of the 21st Century," taken from the book of Acts.

Today's church must love, serve, and educate, Dávila said. The Rochester minister warned Disciples not to see themselves as a "grupito" — a "little group." Rather, Jesus attracted "great multitudes" because he loved people and taught in a practical and captivating way.

Describing twenty-first-century society as highly productive, highly competitive, and consumerist, Dávila said that affirming "absolute truths" is important for growth and essential for educating believers.

In a message the first full day of the assembly, Xosé Escamilla, pastor of Casa de Oración Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in San Diego, emphasized the need to not only train church members biblically but develop their leadership skills. "Edification of the body of Christ includes explosive numerical growth through the faith confirmed in each believer through discipleship to be ministers to do the Work of the Lord," Escamilla said on a presentation slide.

Pastors should include "practical leadership" in their teaching, Escamilla believes. They should not be simply "leaders of followers" but empower others to lead, he said. "Teaching others to carry out the work means reaching more people in need," Escamilla added.

Preaching Friday night, national pastor Pimentel applied colorful metaphors to call the assembly to maintain the unity God bestows the church as a gift.

"We have to be both together and scrambled up," he said, comparing the church to a pupusa, a stuffed tortilla dish from El Salvador. Pimentel also likened the churches of the "Obra Hispana" — "Hispanic Work," a frequent term for U.S. and Canadian Spanish-speaking Disciples — to a fleet. Ships sailing together knew how to avoid crashing into each other and knew their mission and destination, he said.

The national pastor affirmed both the individual nature of congregations and their connection to the broader church.

"Each church has its distinctive particularity, its own personality, and its particular territory where God has planted it to testify of his love and of his grace," Pimentel said. "This local church does not minister in an isolated way in the body of Christ," he added. "This local church forms part of a region, it forms part of a Hispanic convention, it forms part of the Hispanic and Bilingual Fellowship, and it forms part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)."

Before his remarks, Pimentel showed video clips from pastors in border areas who were unable to attend the assembly because of problems with immigration. The national pastor put an empty chair in front of the room to symbolize the scores of people who continue to suffer in the absence of meaningful immigration reform.

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