Photo: Participants at the June 10-12 Hispanic Ministries Continuing Education event at Goshen (Ind.) College. Photo provided. 

Fifty Hispanic Mennonite pastors and spouses gathered June 10-12 at Goshen (Ind.) College for a continuing education weekend full of Bible study, conversation, fellowship and fun. This was the first meeting for Hispanic leaders since the November 2015 assembly of Iglesia Menonita Hispana, when 30 congregations of the “Concilio Hispano,” the Spanish Mennonite Council of Churches (SMCC) of Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite Conference (LMC), announced they would leave IMH and Mennonite Church USA.

“It’s a kind of new beginning … for the Hispanic Mennonite churches,” said Marco Guete, the director of Mennonite Education Agency’s Hispanic Ministries program, who planned the event. “We have on our list about 70 churches that are part of Mennonite Church USA, and this event was a kind of re-encounter and restart. It was a new beginning for the Latino churches in relation to the spirit of the unity with Mennonite Church USA.”

Attendees were led in a variety of workshop and learning sessions. Canadian singer and songwriter Bryan Moyer Suderman was the keynote speaker for the weekend, focusing on the theme “Leyendo la Biblia con Jesús [Reading the Bible with Jesus].”

While Suderman has spent his career focusing on engaging Scripture with congregations and

communities, mostly through song, recently his work has begun to focus a method of reading the Bible that focuses on what we can learn from how Jesus engaged Scripture.

“When we read the Gospels, how do we see Jesus depicted there as interpreter of Scripture? How do we see Jesus interpreting Scripture with others in light of the controversies of that day and what might we learn from that for our interpretation of scripture for the controversies of our day?” said Suderman, in a June 24 phone interview. “It’s a process of reading the Gospel texts with great care.”

In his work with Small Tall Ministries, Suderman has taken this method of reading the Bible in community to congregations and groups throughout Canada and is partnering with the Church Leadership Center at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., to bring educational opportunities to more congregations this year.

Suderman led the group in several sessions, including a Sunday morning conversation with a local Hispanic Sunday school class connected to College Mennonite Church in Goshen.

In addition to sessions with Suderman, participants heard from Sandra Montes-Martinez, moderator of IMH, learned about financial resources for pastors from Everence, and heard a sermon on grace from Ervin Stutzman, executive director of Mennonite Church USA.

When Stutzman arrived at the gathering, he found all the participants dancing, celebrating and enjoying one another’s company.

“I’ve never been at a more exuberant gathering,” he said in a June 22 phone interview. “People were just

enjoying being together immensely.…This was a sort of rally of support around each other and a celebration of Hispanic identity within Mennonite Church USA.”

New forms of collaboration for Hispanic Ministries

This was the first gathering hosted by the newly renamed “Hispanic Ministries” organization within Mennonite Education Agency. Previously, these ministries were part of the Hispanic Pastoral and Leadership Education (HPLE) office.

According to Carlos Romero, executive director for MEA, the program fits with MEA’s mission of strengthening the faith life of MC USA through education. Hispanic Ministries seeks to equip Hispanic pastors, their spouses and congregational lay leaders with Anabaptist education, as well as other tools for ministry and self-care.

The continuing education event was jointly sponsored by MEA, Goshen College and Everence.

Gilberto Perez, senior director of intercultural development and educational partnerships at Goshen College, said that partnering with Hispanic leaders fits with the college’s vision of becoming a more diverse, welcoming campus for students of color. According to Perez, the college currently is 18 percent Latino, a number that he hopes will grow to 25 percent within the next two years.

“We want to be relevant to this group,” said Perez, in a June 21 phone interview. “We want to show them that Goshen College would like to walk with them and learn what their needs are and support the continuing education that they have, because that’s what we want to do as well.” Perez also offered a workshop on establishing a sense of vocation and virtues as a servant leader.

Perez noted that shifting demographics in both the church and the United States must impact the vision for the college and denomination in the future. “This program has the potential to help shape the MC USA church and its vision for who it will be in 20 years,” said Perez. “MC USA really needs to take a hard look at itself and whether it wants to be relevant to the new humanity that God has brought to this country.”

Participants at the continuing education event also joined members of the Goshen community for a

banquet on June 12 at College Mennonite Church that focused on sharing stories from the Hispanic Ministries program. Guete also was the guest preacher at College Mennonite Church, and the group joined the congregation for Sunday morning worship.

Madeline Maldonado, pastor of Iglesia Arca de Salvacion in Fort Myers, Fla., is also serving as a guest pastor at College Mennonite while Phil Waite, College’s lead pastor, is on sabbatical. She also participated in parts of the continuing education event.

“I think it was pretty renewing for the pastors to get together, those of us who have stayed [with MC USA] and to hold hands again together and see ourselves in a new place with the perspective that we’re here and we’re staying,” said Maldonado. It doesn’t mean that some are staying forever, but for now they’re staying, and we support each other in that decision with a new outlook. It was a great time.”

Guete ended the weekend with an open-mic time, when people were able to share their reflections on the weekend. Pastor Juan Limones of Iglesia Luz del Evangelico in Dallas, Texas, reminded the group that, just as they had felt throughout the weekend, “the Spirit of God is with us.”