Nearly two years ago, Jesus Navarro felt God calling him to Blount County, Alabama, from Houston, Texas, to lead a congregation of Spanish speaking people.
Today, that congregation is thriving, averaging about 50 people per service and preparing to move out of their current room into First Baptist Church Oneonta’s main sanctuary.
Navarro said he was filling in for a pastor at a Friendship Baptist Association church when he learned about the struggle to reach the area’s Hispanic population.
Following this, a friend prayed over him and asked God to “make it happen” if Navarro were the man to lead this new, much needed congregation.
“That’s how everything started,” Navarro said. “It took about a year and a half. I was refusing because, for us to move here, it meant to separate our family — leave behind my grandchildren, my house, 45 or 46 years of memories from Houston.”
Calling
However, he said God’s calling was greater than his reservations, and his children encouraged him to go where he was being led.
Some of his children came with him and his wife to Oneonta and assist in the operations of the church, and they have all been pivotal in the growth and proper functioning of the church.
The work that has been put into this congregation is not going under the radar. Because of Navarro and his family’s faithfulness, the church plant is seeing salvation after salvation, even baptizing 17 people on one Sunday in May.
At the beginning of the year, Navarro told his congregation that they needed to pray and set a goal for baptisms for the year. Their number was 25, and they have already baptized 20 in only half the year, having baptized a family of three the same day.
‘God moving’
“It’s God moving. God is doing everything,” he said. “I’m just staying behind and letting God do what He is doing, and I just follow God.”
While they’ve nearly met their goal for salvations for the year, Navarro said he expects God to continue moving within the congregation as long as they keep doing what they’re doing: being open to the whims of the Spirit and preaching a simple, yet true, gospel message.
“I think as long as we keep believing that God can [keep working], He’s going to keep moving in our congregation,” he said. “He is assuring people and giving them confidence … and [people] are establishing their faith with dignity.”
Navarro is hoping to see the hand of God all throughout the church, allowing his congregants to continue growing in every way possible.
“I hope it keeps growing,” he said. “But [I want it to be] growing in knowledge, growing in faith, and if we’re able to establish that, I think the church will grow in numbers also.
“Here in the next two months, we’re going to start holding our services in the sanctuary because the room we’re in, we can set up 52 chairs, and we’re already 80% capacity.”
As the church’s two year-anniversary approaches in August, Navarro said he was grateful for all the growth the church has seen, the support the church has received and the new faces he sees nearly every Sunday.
“A church that is baptizing, a church that is dedicating, a church that is being saved is a church that is fulfilling the Great Commission,” Navarro said. “That’s what a church should be doing — fulfilling the Great Commission. We teach. We baptize. And people are being saved. God has given us his favor.”
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