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Latino churches in New England grow – are Anglo churches next?
STAMFORD, Connecticut – Cloonan Middle School is an ordinary urban middle school in downtown Stamford, but on Saturday evenings it vibrates to the beat of vibrant Latino worship music. And it will for at least a year.
Ministerios Fraternidad Cristiana (MFC), a fast-growing network of cell churches in Connecticut and New York, took out a year-long contract with Cloonan after a clear sense from God that they were not to buy property – even though they’d already raised $60,000 in a building fund.
“God is asking us to give back to the community, to bless our cities,” said network leader Alejandro Colindres, who moved to the U.S. from Honduras 21 years ago. He came to Christ through the ministry of Amor Viviente, an EMM partner in Honduras, and was trained there as a disciple and as a cell group leader.
MFC now includes a network of 140 cell groups organized into seven congregations that include a mix of people from all Latin American countries and the U.S. The largest group that meets weekly at Cloonan averages 700-800.
“But when you’re renting you have to be flexible,” Colindres stated the obvious. “Last Sunday we met in the park and baptized 70 new people. Five times we’ve met in the city hall, and sometimes in other schools or hotels.”
Colindres was also excited about a recent concert the church had sponsored for the city. “The gala event packed out the Palace Theatre in downtown Stamford. There were at least 500 non-Christians among the 1,700 who attended the event, and brought more than 100 new people into our cell groups,” he said.
In the weekly meeting at Roger Elementary School on August 25, three brothers and their families came forward for special prayer. They’d just learned that their grandfather, who’d raised them back home in Guatemala, had died. They wouldn’t be able to go to the funeral, but before he died they’d said goodbye on the phone and led him to salvation in Christ.
Colindres seized the opportunity to urge everyone to be sharing Jesus with unsaved family members here and in their home countries. Besides Honduras, worshippers hailed from Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Belize, and the U.S.
The audience cheered as a young woman testified about deliverance from demons that had often tried to drive her to suicide. In one attempt she had jumped from a bridge. “Your testimony encourages us,” Colindres said. “But let’s not only give testimonies in church. Let’s be ‘chatting’ about Jesus every day at work and with our families.” He estimates that they see about 10-25 new people beginning to attend their cells and churches every week.
Ever outward focused, he explained that many in the church are first generation Christians and come from abusive backgrounds. Many need deliverance from curses, addictions, vices, and involvement in occult activities. The cell group leaders are trained to minister deliverance and to teach discipleship. They introduce important disciplines like prayer, witness, and tithing.
“Many Latin Americans believe that they have a right to get as much as they can from the rich, that they are justified in taking advantage of the rich. Poor people wouldn’t think of tithing – until they meet Jesus. Then they understand how much they have to give, and they experience the blessing of giving,” Colindres said.
Antonio Ulloa, a church consultant with EMM, has assisted with leadership training and coached Colindres and MFC for the past five years. “But I learn so much from them,” Ulloa said. “They inspire me, and I often use them as an example of healthy church life when I resource other Mennonite churches. Earlier this year I connected one Lancaster Mennonite Conference church team I’m coaching with the group from New England, and they were blown away!”
“We’re not reaching Anglos yet,” Colindres said. “When you’re ‘fishing for people’ you need to know how to ‘bait the hook.’ We haven’t ‘baited the Anglo hook’ yet, but we’re studying it and starting slowly.”
Maybe someday soon Anglo churches in New England will be growing too.
-Jewel Showalter
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