TOPEKA — The current state of Hispanic ministries in the Great Plains Conference and plans for the future were the subjects of a task force gathering called by Bishop David Wilson on Sept. 11 at the conference office.
Twenty pastors and laity, either Hispanic/Latino themselves or those who serve cities in the Great Plains with large Hispanic/Latino populations, met with Rev. Dr. Lydia Muñoz from the General Commission on Race & Religion.
Muñoz is executive director of The Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry, a network of United Methodists across the country.
“The denomination has made a commitment to support The Plan,” she told the task force. “The rhetoric has been that everybody is doing their own work. The truth is we have always had a response and a plan to develop Hispanic/Latino ministries.”
The Plan, she said, was modeled after the Catholic Social Movement, expanding the witnesses in the country, as well as a dose of John Wesley theology.
“There’s nothing new under the sun, right?” she said.
Goals for The Plan, she said, include more training for lay missioners and Lay Servant Ministries in the Hispanic/Latino communities.
Bishop Wilson said the task force heard about the Biblical Institute, which began last year for Hispanic/Latino clergy for fellowship and education.
Members of the task force said they were impressed and encouraged by Muñoz’s presentation.
“We are very scattered around the conference,” said Juan Espinoza, associate pastor of Dodge City UMC. “Through this conversation we realized that there’s a lot of potential to do Hispanic ministry in the Great Plains, and we start the idea to create basic education and recruitment so we can identify some lay people. We need to start somewhere. That’s the thing. With this kind of meeting, we’re trying to build a foundation about the procedure we need to do and how to do it properly.”
A meeting Nov. 8 in Dodge City will help identify possible laypersons for ministry, he said.
“There’s so many Latinos we can reach out to, but we want to equip leaders as well as support, guide and instruct,” he said.
Rev. Rusty Husted is pastor of Liberal UMC in southwest Kansas’ Seward County, where 42% of the population is Hispanic/Latino.
“This is such a great building and learning opportunity for someone like me who has a Hispanic ministry and an associate pastor who’s Hispanic,” Husted said. “There’s a need to know the cultural differences and how that relates to training our Hispanic ministers, not in our context but in their context.”
In Liberal, the Rosa De Saron UMC closed this year, and its members became part of the Anglo church.
“The Anglo part of our congregation needs some clarification on what it means to have a Hispanic congregation,” he said. “Learning that kind of process will help me translate some of the issues we might run into later on.”
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