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Cross-cultural Ministry Challenges--Spanish Missions in Phoenix, AZ

© Pastor Theodore G. Bodjanac

Editor's Note: Rev. Bodjanac and I have been friends for many years and were roommates at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. He has a heart for the people of God he serves--both at his first call among the Apaches and now with an inner city congregation in Phoenix reaching out to Spanish speaking peoples. Rev. Bodjanac granted me permission to share his letter with you. It gives you, the reader, a taste of the challenges facing mission congregations, particularly in a cross-cultural setting. I hope that you join me in prayers and support for this mission work. And I also seek to remind everyone that the harvest is in His hands and He controls all things for the good of His Kingdon and His people.

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September 5, 2003

Dear Christian friend,

Greeting in the name of Jesus !

I am writing to you today to invite you to take up an opportunity to make a difference in inner-city mission work.

Our congregation is located in an area of Phoenix, which has changed greatly over last 30 years. At one time it was located on the edge of the desert with farms all around it. Today we are in the middle of the 6th largest city in the United States.

The neighborhood we are in today offers challenges but also many opportunities to lead people to Christ who have not known Christ well or at all. Our church has changed its ministry plan to meet these challenges. Today we are able to offer all areas of ministry in English and Spanish or in a bilingual format. This past Lenten season we were the only church in the Synod I know of to offer midweek Lenten worship in a bilingual format. We also conducted a 1pm Lenten worship in English. Both services were well attended, and over all we saw a 50 percent increase in attendance over the previous years.

Also this past April in a special worship service in Spanish we had our largest attendance in 5 years. 138 people attended this special Worship to celebrate the 15th birthday of a young lady who was also baptized that day. It is normal in the Mexican community to celebrate the 15th birthday of a young lady in this manner. As a result word of mouth is serving us well with our continued evangelism of the Mexican-American community, which surrounds us.

Like many inner-city congregations we have suffered the loss of many members in death and families who have moved to the suburbs and other states. While we still average between 70-80 people in our two services combined (50-60 in our English service and about 20-25 in our Spanish service) many of them are elderly on fixed incomes and others are lower income families. It is very obvious that we will not be able to continue to do this important work in Jesus' name without outside help. We have gone to the Synod to be put on subsidy, which would be normal for a church in our situation. However we were told that there simply is no money and the Synod cannot help us.