There is a local church that has had a TUMI (The Urban Ministry Institute) satellite at their church for over four years. During this time, seven students who are leaders in the church have been attending the seminary program faithfully. I met with the pastor of this church six months ago and he couldn’t stop talking about how effectively it had trained and grown his leadership team. They graduated five students this summer from the program and each of them is growing in leadership roles at the church. It made the pastor feel like he wasn’t alone in ministry and that he had faithful men and women who he could rely and depend on who had spiritual maturity.
This opened up all kind of possibilities for this pastor that he didn’t have before. In fact he felt so confident in the health of his church and leadership that he began to think about starting another church and letting one of his leaders take over as head pastor. We have been meeting with this pastor for the past six months to pray for God’s guidance in the next steps. Over the past month it has become clear that God is calling him and his family to start a new church ministering to younger second generation Hispanic families.
There is often a significant culture gap between first and second generation Hispanics. Most first generation Hispanic churches tend to struggle to minister to the younger generation that identify more with American culture and speak English as their primary language. Sometimes they end up leaving the church because they feel like there is not a place for them. The same is true of English-speaking churches as well. He is passionate about ministering to this population group! We will be working with him to continue to identify a church plant team and help train and equip him and his team as they plant a new church in Wichita. It all started with his church being empowered to train their leaders through TUMI. He and his leaders have been trained and equipped so that healthy church replication can actually happen!