Hispanic fellowship provides resources, network for work in state

Hispanic work in Alabama has moved to a new level with the formation of the Fraternidad Hispana Bautista de Alabama, or the Hispanic Baptist Fellowship of Alabama.
   
Led by Hispanic Baptist pastors, lay leaders and missionaries, the fellowship is a resource for the state’s Hispanic pastors and congregations, according to fellowship president Carlos Lemus.
   
Lemus, who serves as the Hispanic missionary in Autauga and Chilton associations, said the fellowship began out of a need to better organize Hispanic workers and leaders in Alabama.
   
“Before, we were just meeting from time to time at Shocco or when the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC) held events,” Lemus said. 
   
“We wanted to hold something more specific, not only for fellowship, but to encourage each other and to have special training if we see a need for it,” he explained.
   
Out of that desire grew the fellowship, which celebrated its first anniversary Jan. 15. Lemus said the fellowship’s vision statement is for “each (Hispanic) mission and Baptist church of Alabama to be a part of the fellowship to promote unity, sound doctrine and congregational work through fellowship, ministerial support and the development of leadership.” 
   
He noted that the fellowship is also open to non-Hispanics who work with Hispanic missions or churches.
   
“We want to have a fellowship among the churches so the churches in each region can know what the others are doing in the state,” Lemus said.
   
As a resource, the fellowship has plans to meet regularly, provide training events specifically for Hispanics in Spanish and also promote Hispanic events initiated by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions  (SBOM).
   
“We’re trying to be an instrument of the (state) convention so that it can do a much better job with Hispanic work in Alabama,” Lemus said.
   
Richard Alford, director of language missions in SBOM’s office of associational missions/church planting, has been working as a liaison between the fledgling fellowship and the state convention. 
   
“The Hispanic fellowship adds a valuable new means of promoting church planting and church development with and for Hispanics,” he said. “It gives an opportunity for people to come together who have commonality.” 
   
And it is a place for Hispanic leaders to network for extra resources, Alford noted.
   
He said the state convention has a long history of working with ethnic congregations within the state, which now number 58 and include the languages and cultures of the deaf, Messianic Jew, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Choctaw, Creek and Vietnamese communities, to name a few. 
   
“Our relationship with each is unique,” Alford said.
   
Despite this history, Hispanic work in the state is fairly new, and the only records of the work are those in human memory, Alford noted. 
   
In 1991, Alabama had four Hispanic missions and one Hispanic missionary who worked in Birmingham Baptist Association. 
   
In the 14 years since, the work has grown to include 31 Hispanic congregations — either in churches or missions — that are reaching nearly 2,000 Hispanics. And there are six associational language missionaries who work directly with one to three associations like Lemus. 
   
Alabama associations are also beginning to form coalitions to hire catalytic language missionaries appointed by the North American Mission Board. 
   
Currently, three such coalitions exist in Alabama — the North Alabama Hispanic Ministry Coalition, the Central Alabama Hispanic Ministry Coalition and the Southeast Alabama Hispanic Ministry Coalition. Alford said the Northwest Alabama Hispanic Ministry Coalition is in the process of being developed. 
   
Ed and Linda Ables work with the 11 associations in the North Alabama Hispanic Ministry Coalition, while the positions with the other coalitions are vacant. 
   
Now that the Hispanic Fellowship has formed, it can be a central point of contact to track all these different aspects of the work, Lemus said.
   
For example, the fellowship has been working with James Blakeney, VBS promoter in SBOM’s office of Sunday School, to set up two training sessions in Spanish for Hispanics who want to lead an Hispanic VBS in their area. 
   
Lemus said one will be held in Madison Association March 5 and the other will be at the SBOM building in Montgomery March 12, both 10 a.m.–3 p.m. 
   
Lemus said Hispanic leaders will be encouraged to report their VBS statistics to the fellowship, which will then report them to SBOM to facilitate better records of Hispanic VBSs.
   
The fellowship also has plans for other training and special events to be held later this year. “There are so many things happening among the congregations,” Lemus said. “I thank God, because God is the One who put the vision in the hearts of the leaders and He deserves the glory for what this fellowship will do.”