MATAMOROS, Mexico — Baptists in Mexico started about 800 churches in the past year, which leaders hope will help trigger a “spiritual revolution” in Mexico and beyond.
The new-church total is impressive because it almost doubles the previous number of congregations in the National Baptist Convention of Mexico, which now stands at about 1,700.
Mexican Baptists hope to have 10,000 Baptist churches in the country by 2010. At the heart of that strategy is a discipleship course that teaches laypeople how to start congregations. Enrollment has reached 10,000 students across Mexico, providing laypeople basic knowledge of pastoral skills, church starting, preaching, teaching, theology and administration.
Not all the lay students will start churches, but an estimated 60 percent will, predicted Otto Arango, director of the Church Starting Institute, who designed the course. The rest of the students will become stronger members of existing churches, added Arango, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Getsemani in McAllen, Texas. Baptists are a minority in the predominantly Catholic country. Only 5 percent of Mexico's 104 million people are evangelicals.
But if the church-starting model gains momentum, Mexico can be transformed, said Antonio Villa, vice president of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico.
For Baptists to have a larger impact in Mexico, they must be unified and committed to work under the direction of Christ, Villa said. “Together we believe we can usher in a spiritual revolution in Mexico,” Villa told more than 300 church starters at a January training event in Matamoros.
Arango and Villa said they hope this model of church planting will run rampant throughout Central and South America, sparking a church-starting movement. “This will be the platform that other countries will imitate,” Villa explained.
The duo added they think the project will stir church-starting efforts in Texas as well.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas is working with the Mexican convention through a partnership between the two entities. A Texas Baptist donor pays for the printed materials related to the courses, training events and some travel expenses. Both conventions are encouraging their churches to work with congregations on each side of the border.
This cooperation is key to increasing Mexican Baptist work, BGCT executive director Charles Wade noted. Texas resources help spread Mexican Baptist work while Mexican faith inspires Texas Baptists to serve faithfully, he said. “Some plant the seed. Some water it. Others harvest it. But it is together that God's work is done.”
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