New England Hispanic Churches Launch Mission Partnership in Spain
Momentum continues in the partnership between the Baptist Churches of New England and the International Mission Board in Europe. This began with a request from IMB Vice President John Brady, who believes that New England churches are best suited to help in Europe because New England and European Baptist churches have similar postmodern ministry contexts. Since then, BCNE churches have shown remarkable eagerness to help our IMB workers in Europe and the indigenous churches they serve. Currently, mission partnerships are underway in Ireland, Wales, London and Manchester, UK, Scotland, Portugal, and Spain, while initial vision trips to Italy and Sweden are planned for 2024. Below is an interview with Pastor Raul Elizalde, who reports how BCNE Hispanic churches are involved.
Pastor Elizalde, you just returned from leading a team of five Hispanic pastors from New England on a trip to Spain. Who participated and what was the purpose of your trip? The five pastors who attended were William Sustache (Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Comienzo, CT), Alex Vargas (Iglesia Cristiana Bautista Jesus de Nazaret, CT), Louis Arias (Iglesia Bautista Fuente de Vida, MA) Jose Nater (NAMB, Iglesia Bautista Dios con Nosotros, CT), and Raul Elizalde (Iglesia Bautista Casa de Oracion, MA). Our purpose was to meet Spanish pastors, and explore ways to help them. We wanted to know how we could be a blessing to them, realizing that they would also be a blessing to us.
Your vision trip was organized by IMB missionary Rusty Ford. How is his ministry going? Rusty is doing an excellent job. He made everything easy and arranged for each of us to visit different churches. Rusty is a catalytic person. He has a good relationship with Spanish pastors and they respect him.
Tell us about the spiritual situation in Spain. In general, Spain is like New England in that most people do not identify with evangelicals and yet neither do they participate in the indigenous Catholic church. Most places in Spain have no evangelical church. Churches are pretty much in survival mode. They have good fellowship among themselves, but are spread out, one or two hours apart from each other. While there are exceptions, in general, Spanish evangelical churches reach more Latino immigrants than indigenous Spaniards. People there, who are passionate about God’s work, are desperate to see kingdom growth.
Many churches in New England are numerically small and struggle with limited finances. Is it reasonable for small churches to engage in mission partnerships in Spain, or other European countries? The answer is yes. We must remember the principle that when you give, you will also receive. So, whatever you can give, even if it is something small, you should do it. For example, I visited a young church that needed the wisdom of an experienced pastor to help them know how to select an additional pastor. We currently have four pastors at our church in Worcester, and I was able to share my insights to help them. Every church has to discover what they can do to help a partner church. It may be sharing pastoral wisdom, prayer support, or financially supporting a small project, like helping to purchase an inexpensive video monitor.
How do you envision a church in Spain benefiting a partner church in New England? From my own experience, when I visited and saw the energetic spirit of the church in Spain, their example stirred and motivated me and continues to motivate me.
Will the pastors who accompanied you engage in on-going partnerships with churches in Spain? Definitely yes. That was our goal. I don’t want to be guilty of what I have experienced here in New England, when a visiting team comes, talks about being our mission partners, then disappears without anything resulting from their visit. We are praying that our team of Hispanic churches remain united and work together to help churches in Spain.
To discover how your church can become a mission partner in Spain, contact Pastor Raul Elizalde at pastor.raulelizalde@gmail.com If you are interested in participating in a Mission Partnership Vision Trip to Italy or Sweden, please contact Sam Taylor at staylor@bcne.net
Sam Taylor serves as the Global Partnerships Mobilizer at the Baptist Churches of New England.
