CHESAPEAKE, Va.—The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia kicked off its “Mission on the Move” emphasis April 22, at Centerville Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Va., with a Mission Immersion Experience featuring a Latino buffet dinner served by the church.
The event, attended by about 50 persons including some families, was part of a multi-site, multi-night emphasis on Latino missions in Virginia. Between April 22 and 25, CBFVA held similar events in three other Virginia cities—Richmond, Waynesboro and Roanoke.
Children learn to make corn tortillas during Richmond’s Mission on the Move. (Photo by Warren Johnson)
|
According to CBFV field coordinator Rob Fox, “Mission on the Move” is a new model aimed at involving more people in the ministries of CBFV.
“At this point we have about 400 more people in the four locations registered for this kind of experience than attended the annual meetings we have had in the past,” he said.
Although ministry to Latinos is this year’s focus, Fox says the emphasis will vary from year to year. Subject to approval by the CBFVA’s board, “Next year we will focus on the exploding church growth in China,” he adds.
The Mission Immersion Experiences in all four locations were led by Greg and Sue Smith, affiliate missionaries among Latinos with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Kingdom Advance Ambassadors to Latinos for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
The Smiths work in Fredericksburg, Va., through LUCHA Ministries, which assists Latinos in the area.
At the CBFVA meeings, children were led by Sue who was assisted by members of each host church and by Devita Parnell, who represented national CBF and who also led in worship.
The Smiths stressed that Anglo churches beginning ministries to Latinos need to be aware of cultural differences—especially as they relate to familia (family).
“To Latinos,” they counsel, “family means moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins—everybody even remotely related.”
Greg continued, “When I have to enter a meeting late, I want to slink in unnoticed. But when a Latino enters a meeting already underway, he greets everyone, ‘Buenos dias!’ and shakes everyone’s hands. He is not being rude, it’s just that Latinos have a sense of being family. Their value is family. They wouldn’t think of coming in to a group of family members and not say, ‘hello!’”
With the children, Sue stressed that children and grandchildren of Latino immigrants sometimes have difficulties identifying who they are. Often the third generation will not even speak Spanish.
While they consider themselves American, their classmates consider them Latinos. Even as they assert their American customs, their grandparents exert pressure to be true to their Latino heritage.
Speaking on the same theme with adults, Greg emphasized that this is often a source of conflict within Latino families and that the most effective ministry Anglo Christians provide may be care for individual Latino family members who are experiencing this kind of hurt.
Rob Nash, who will step down in June as national CBF missions coordinator to teach at Mercer University, joined Mission on the Move in Richmond, where it was hosted by River Road Church, Baptist.
“It’s important for us to grasp that the family of faith is widening,” said Nash. “The gospel is moving from everywhere to everyone.”
“Mission on the Move” also was held at First Baptist Church in Waynesboro and at Rosalind Hills Baptist Church in Roanoke.
Jim White ([email protected]) is executive editor of the Religious Herald.