When the first Baptist missionaries arrived in Argentina in the late 1800s, they found a country filled with European immigrants and their descendants with fading memories of the faith they had left behind.
According to the Web site of the Argentina Baptist Mission, the organization of Southern Baptist missionary personnel serving in Argentina, evangelical Protestants arrived among the immigrants that flooded Argentina in the second half of the 19th century. These Christians desired worship experiences like those they had in their native land. In 1881, a small French Baptist agricultural colony welcomed a Swiss Baptist pastor named Pablo Besson, and Baptist work began in the country.
Besson soon moved to Buenos Aires, where he organized the first Argentine Baptist church to witness in Spanish. In 1903, Sidney Sowell arrived in Argentina as the first North American Southern Baptist representative. He and Besson became partners in the missionary work, which by then included a small number of independent Baptist churches organized by Besson.
In 1909, the Convención Evangélica Bautista was formed, and three years later, the Baptist seminary in Buenos Aires was founded. Sowell became the president of the seminary in 1918 and served for 23 years.
Alan Culpepper, dean of the McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, was a missionary kid in Argentina in the 1950s. His parents, Hugo H. and Ruth Culpepper, served as Southern Baptist missionaries in Buenos Aires, where Hugo taught at the International Baptist Theological Seminary from 1953 to 1958.
“The mission family was close-knit and deeply committed to the work of starting churches and training pastors to carry on the work,” Culpepper said. “They went to Argentina to plant their lives and raise their families there. They learned the language and embraced the culture, and they loved the people.”
Culpepper wrote about his parents’ missionary work in his book, “Eternity as a Sunrise: The Life of Hugo H. Culpepper.” In a 1955 report written by his parents and transcribed by Alan Culpepper, Hugo Culpepper praised the “laying of a sound foundation” by early missionaries in Argentina and the organizational structure they had put in place. His report also included a plea for prayers and support from Baptists in the United States.
“The general environment and individual lives cry out that they do not know Christ,” Hugo Culpepper wrote. “We believe the country … can only be won as we come to have more and better Baptist churches. Christ is building His kingdom through His churches. This makes all the more urgent the need for helping to provide the churches with adequate meeting places.”
Present-day Baptist work shows that Baptists responded. Since those first two missionaries, Baptist presence in Argentina has grown to more than 450 churches and more than 400 potential future churches affiliated with the convention. There are more than 560 Argentine pastors and 72 International Mission Board representatives currently serving Argentina. Yearly baptisms recently passed the 5,000 mark and membership in Baptist churches exceeds 67,000.
According to the Web site of the Argentina Baptist Mission, Sunday School, with an enrollment of more than 41,000, and Women’s Missionary Convention, with more than 17,000 members, are two important outreach tools used by missionaries today.
Fellowship also plays an active role in church life in Argentina, as Christians seek to reach the lost in a secular society.
“People don’t think they need religion,” said Stanley Clark, Sr., a career missionary who, along with his wife, Kathleen, served 40 years in Argentina. They are currently serving their second term as volunteers with the Mission Service Corps.
“There is considerable materialism. [As a result,] Argentina has not experienced the kind of [spiritual] growth seen in some Latin American countries,” said Clark, whose tenure included service as professor, dean and president at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Buenos Aires.
As in many countries, the media is a huge influence on Argentine culture, said Clark, especially when it comes to morals and human sexuality.
Southern Baptists have responded with radio and television programs produced by the Argentine Baptist Convention. These programs are used in Argentina and other Latin America countries as well.
Baptist churches also sponsor children’s homes, retirement homes, kindergartens and elementary schools. The seminary is still going strong and has a current enrollment of 260 students. Seminary extension centers and Bible institutes around the country offer training to more than 1,500 Baptist leaders.
Ongoing concerns about Argentina’s economic and social climates continue to motivate Baptist leaders to action in the country. After celebrating its centennial in 2003, the Argentina Baptist Mission is looking forward to another 100 years of bringing salvation to the “land of silver.”
“God’s message of redemption … has relevance as never before. To this cause the Baptist Mission in Argentina is dedicated and, alongside capable national leadership, is cooperating in building a new Argentina for today and tomorrow.”
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