We are excited to share the story of Dr. Nathan Luis Cartagena, one of our new scholars-in-residence. Dr. Cartagena shares his testimony of faith, the migration journey of his family, and how he hopes to contribute to the World Outspoken community.

We are excited to share the story of Dra. Itzel Reyes, one of our new scholars-in-residence. Dra. Reyes shares her testimony of faith, how language shapes the experiences of the marginalized, and how she hopes to contribute to the World Outspoken community.

Bienvenidos to The Feature, a podcast where we highlight individuals who are doing great work in the culture, bearing witness to the Kingdom, bringing about justice, or addressing a cultural change. In honor of Women’s History Month, we partnered with scholars Sito and Ina Esquilin to bring you the stories of two Latina ministry pioneers of the Hispanic church in the US. As second and third generation Latin@ church leaders, we need reminding of the rich heritage of faith and theology that was given to us by our abuelitas. To honor the legacy of these women, the following interviews are en Español. We hope that these stories will remind you to treasure the history of the brown church in the US.

How can the Church thrive even in times of crisis? Roadblocks are nothing new to the Venezuelan church. In fact, they have been ministering through national crisis for years. We recently interviewed Pastor Jose Hernandez to ask how his pastoral ministry has developed as the layers of crises grew in his context. There is much we can learn more about how to minister from our Venezuelan brothers and sisters. The interview is partially in Spanish, but the conversation that follows is edited and condensed version that can be read in English. Question 1- Introduction Hi! How are you guys doing? My name is Pastor Jose Hernandez. My family is doing well, thank God, although we are currently in quarantine. We’re just trying to take safe precautions, that’s our motto around here. Question 2- Profile I’ve been pastoring Centro Evangelistico Peniel (CEP) for 4 decades. Prior to being a pastor at CEP, I was an itinerant evangelist for 7 years. After my time as an evangelist, my wife, Esther, and I planted CEP. At first CEP was a community of believers that organized a series of evangelistic gatherings in Valencia, Venezuela in order to start a church and they invited me to come to preach. During the course of these gatherings, the organizers begged me to stay as their Lead Pastor because they had not found one yet (lol). It’s been a while and they still haven’t been able to find another Lead Pastor so I’ve stayed. Thus, I’ve been pastoring CEP since 1981; a church that has been influential in our city and a church community that has done a great job in developing pastors and ministries.  Question 3- La Crisis The Venezuelen humanitarian crisis dubbed, ‘La Crisis’, has been in effect for a number of years now. Interestingly, ‘La Crisis’ helped both pastors and the church mature in Christ, but we must understand the dimensions of the crisis. First of all, ‘La Crisis’ has everything to do with political ideology. When the current governing authorities came into power, they entered a capitalist form of government but made it their agenda to install communist form of government. This created polarization between those who sympathized with the government and those who opposed the government; even between pastors and therefore the church. The tension was so tense in the church that many churches in Venezuela divided. Thus, pastors became a sort of ‘referees’ between both sides. That was our initial experience with ‘La Crisis’. Second, the conflicting worldviews of ‘La Crisis’ brought forth much societal strife, which impacted the economy. Because it impacted our economy, Venezuela then entered a humanitarian crisis. In the midst of ‘La Crisis’, our church made many adjustments to our work. First, we had to adjust our worship services. For example, we used to have multiple services throughout the week, but now we only have 2 worship services. As a matter of fact, we have had to reschedule the days and times of our services. Another adjustment we had to make was in regards to the way we did discipleship. Our discipleship method used to be more centralized; we used to have discipleship classes offered on 2 different campuses. However, we had to decentralize these classes. Our people could no longer access our building due to the absence of public transportation. Furthermore, if public transportation was running, prices were too high to afford because the sector was experiencing an economic deficit. Hence, we’ve had to adjust in order to survive.  Although  ‘La Crisis’ has impacted the church severely, it has not stopped the work that God has called us to do in Venezuela. This is very important to highlight because since ‘La Crisis’, the church in Venezuela has done more than ever before.  Question 3b-Ministry at CEP CEP has been a church that has experienced significant growth. When we first planted CEP, we had 1 pastor, a leadership board, and the congregation. Later we grew into having a pastor, a volunteer ministry staff, and the congregation. Now my wife and I serve as lead pastors, we have a pastoral team, a leadership team, a volunteer ministry staff, and we have the congregation. This is to say that our leadership structure has grown as the congregation has grown.  The ministry philosophy of CEP can be summed up in one word: care. We believe that growth must give a great amount of attention to caring for the holistic needs of one’s humanity. This means we care for the family unit too: young adults, children, women, men, and youth. Up until this point, I’ve been speaking about our ministry within the church. We also have ministry from the church to our wider community. We call this initiative, “The Church Outside the Walls.” This initiative does everything from street evangelism to creative intercessory campaigns; praying with the community and for the city. Also, CEP provides food for hospitals and jornada integrales in the poorest neighborhoods of our city [jornadas integrales are outreach fairs that include food distribution, medical help, evangelism, performances, and prayer]. In addition to this, we do cross-cultural missions to places in Venezuela that have indigenous/native populations.  Question 4- COVID-19 in Venezuela To be sure, the COVID-19 pandemic has created chaos in Venezuela. It has produced significant changes in our context. Obviously the church has not been able to escape the realities of this pandemic. We are currently ordered to practice social distancing and to be in quarantine [per the government] to the degree that the church has not been able to gather in the same way as before. As of right now, our public worship services have been canceled. We are still wrestling with the prolongation of our canceled in-person services. In facing this crisis, one of the essential practices that we’ve developed as a church is prayer. If there is 1 good motivation that has developed through this pandemic, it’s a motivation for prayer. And I’m not just saying this for just CEP, I am also noticing this among my pastoral colleagues and their churches. I’ve even noticed this motivation to pray on social media. So I would say that this has been amazing because this means the church is winning and will ultimately be victorious through this process of suffering.  The other essential practice we’ve had to adopt is to stay connected through social media as a church community. However, this is difficult because we have internet connection that is extremely slow and is unreliable. Yet we are doing everything we can to make things work. Question 4b- Pastoral Development in Venezuela My pastoral formation came about more than 40 years ago, and I’ve lived through various turning points in CEP and through various turning points in Venezuela’s history. With that said, I think pastoral formation must include a keen awareness of their particular social context. What I am about to say is different from when I was training for pastoral ministry. Current pastoral training must take into account that our pastoral theology remains, but our theology must work itself with a high capacity to engage sociological themes. More specifically, pastors need to know how to engage new ideas pertaining to sexuality and the breakdown of the family. Nowadays we need to put much emphasis on the character of the minister and integrity because we live in a world that is extremely broken. Furthermore, society can only be transformed if we have pastors that are holy and that really challenge hell.  Question 5- Ministry Practice in COVID-19 What I think is playing the greatest role in the church in Venezuela right now is social media. Social Media has helped us cultivate relationships even though we are not able to hold public services. In terms of church structure, every pastor is assigned a group of ministry leaders to provide oversight and care; every ministry leader has leaders under them; and then there are congregants. In this format, the lead pastor, which is me- Jose Hernandez, sends voice messages through Whatsapp that can be passed down through the chain… you know, these past few days I’ve been thinking about what I call, “Floaters.” I refer to “Floaters” as folks who are not as engaged with the church and more of Sunday attenders. These are the sheep that concern me the most. However, I’m glad because we have been able to connect with our cell groups via their leaders on social media platforms like Whatsapp. [Cell groups from CEP exist all over the city of Valencia.] So this is what we are doing to stay connected relationally. The other thing I’m doing is preaching via live stream on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram. I do this to orient people toward God, to teach God’s Word, to edify and to motivate. And this actually helps with relationship building because it helps us to mobilize our evangelistic efforts. As a matter fact, I was recently speaking to our church leaders via Zoom. I told them the church buildings are closed, but the church is still open, which means that the church is still speaking. Frankly, there is a voice that is speaking and that’s the voice of the church- the voice of every man and woman- that is speaking about Jesus in one way or another. We are preaching about the signs of the times, how we should live, and about deliverance from these times. That’s evangelism to the degree that the church preaches the Gospel to the greatest dilemmas of the world. Hence, I believe that the church will come out strengthened because our leadership is already seeing it. We’ve heard from our ministry leads and cell groups that many people are coming closer to Jesus. Some have even placed faith in Jesus! Others have asked for prayer. What I’m saying is that the church is alive and active; praying, caring for one another, and preaching the Word of God.  Question 6- Lessons from Venezuela Attempting to teach something to the brothers and sisters in America requires some good analysis and evaluation. Surely, it's one thing to speak of learning theology or evangelism, topics the church in the US played a role in shaping for the evangelical churches in Venezuela, given that we’ve received American missionaries for years. But, we are talking about ‘La Crisis’ and what it can teach Americans. Honestly, the situations are different, given that we have different cultures; Americans and just different than Venezuelans. Still, there is something that can be learned from us for the Americans.  For instance, speaking of cultural differences, the Venzuelan is very empathetic. We are a close people. We like to establish relationships, and enjoy a good deal of physical contact. This characterizes us. On the other hand, Americans seem to be more distant; they are not as interested in close contact. Maybe I am wrong, but that’s what I have seen during my visits. And, well, in a situation like this pandemic, where believers cannot meet in-person for their worship service, one of the main points of contact, American believers may have a harder time losing their main point of contact. But, for us, we hunt for ways to further connect because we are used to reaching out when we miss contact. So, when we see each other via zoom, social media, or these other social platforms, that generates great joy. When people write us or reach out, there is an expectation, an anticipation, of the contact that is coming. I think, if there is something we can project from our culture as a lesson for Americans, it is the need to grow in empathy - be friendlier, be closer, more communicative. I think that is important and it is something the American church can do. You guys depend a lot on the meeting for your only contact. I think this will be good. I think it will bring good in that it will develop closeness and empathy for your church.  So, how has ‘La Crisis’ prepared us? Well, it forced us, as I mentioned, went through some hard things that pressed us to change service schedules, our teaching styles, etc. When this pandemic came, we felt prepared to go through it, given all the changes we’ve made in the past. We have 20 years of economic, social, and public crisis. I’ve reminded my pastoral leaders, we are ready for this. Question 6b- Lessons from the Past I think my colleagues in the US should learn from this crisis to be more personal in their pastoral ministry, to get closer to the people. Sometimes there is a distance between the pastor and people caused by the pulpit, so sometimes we become distant pastors. I believe pastors should be as close to the people as possible. This is what we’ve learned from Christ’s ministry. Today more than ever, the pastor should be an open, close person. I imagine this isn’t possible for every member at the church, particularly for larger congregations, but at minimum, the pastor should be close to his leaders and empathetic with them because this will inspire them to be likewise with the rest of the congregation. And this is absolutely necessary given the way society works today. With all the different crises, growing loneliness, the fear of the future … today more than ever, people need both spiritual and emotional support. The pastor is an important figure that can bring that kind of help to people.  Obviously, this crisis has also changed the way we sing, the way we worship. I believe the content of the music that we are commonly singing today is mostly about adoration - by which I mean the recognition of who God is and the expression of our profound need for His presence. The other theme that comes up frequently is the theme of prayer because, of course, that is our greatest need. These make sense because they reflect our greatest need: to get close to the God who can do all things, confess Him to be the one who can do all things, and ask, from the depths of our hearts, for Him to intercede in the things we need to resolve this situation. The theological themes we’ve been preaching from the pulpit, even before the pandemic because of our other crises, has been the theme of hope and peace. May we preach, sing, and provide hope and peace to churches and communities both in Venezuela, the US, and the globe.

Looking back at 50 years of ministry, Tim Keller says this about the Western church: “While many Christian leaders were bemoaning the cultural changes, Western churches continued to minister as before – creating an environment in which only traditional and conservative people would feel comfortable … All they preached and practiced assumed they were still in the Christian West, but the Christian West was vanishing.”[1] The church got stuck moving to the same rhythms, singing the same songs, year after year until the world around them no longer understood the melody. Today, as non-Hispanic whites already are less than 50 percent of the youth population in 632 of America’s 3,142 counties, worship leaders like Sandra Van Opstal introduce us to The Next Worship. This is not about updating the playlist for relevancy or belittling the old hymn. It is about worship that captures the full picture of God’s Church, His mestizo people. How do we worship God in a diverse world? Should a monocultural church really sing songs in different languages? What forms of leadership do we need to make the diversity of the Church plain in our context? What if we don’t have the musicians to pull this off? We explore these questions and more with your host Emanuel Padilla and our guest, author Sandra Maria Van Opstal.

On this episode of The Feature we sat down with Hannah Olson, the director of Arise Creations, to hear stories of what drew her to Chicago, what keeps her here, and how a jewelry making program is changing the story of her neighborhood. She tells us about the urban hope necklace and the girls who make them. She introduces us to a beauty that emerges from the violence of the city.

According to recent UN estimates, there are 22.5 million refugees globally. In a country like Greece, the solutions to the refugee crisis had come from somewhere beyond government aid programs. Crises like these force the Christian community to wrestle with the connection between the gospel and human needs. One Greek pastor, writing about the movements in Athens, saw two types of responses from the church. He wrote, “At one end of the spectrum is the fundamentalist trend, which views the refugees chiefly as objects of evangelism, only to be clothed or fed if it leads to an opportunity to share the gospel. At the other end is the social gospel trend, which views sharing bread already as sharing Christ and considers verbal gospel proclamation unnecessary and even undesirable.” What you are about to hear is a conversation with Masoud and Matt on this question. This was recorded during our time in Greece at the Anastasi conference, so you’ll hear some ambient sounds and some fluctuations in our voices. We apologize about that in advance, and we’re confident the conversation will still be enriching. In a world needing a story that makes the city whole, Matt and Masoud share compelling testimonies of integration, hospitality, and grace. If you would like to financially partner with Mercy Ministries, please follow this link: https://hellenicministries.org/give For more information or ways to get involved please send us an email at [email protected].

There is a short film about a young, Dominican man named Miguel “Sugar” Santos who moves to Iowa to play in the minor leagues. He dreamed the dream of many young Caribbean-Latino, young men; all he wanted was to be a professional baseball player. However, the movie highlights the challenges of being an international player, and the ending is a bleak reality-check of the more likely outcome. Sugar never makes it big, and the audience last sees him playing pickup baseball in an amateur league. Few “Sugars” make it to the minor leagues, and even fewer make it into the MLB. Because of this, some people question Major League Baseball’s relationship with Latin-American countries like the Dominican Republic. Is the MLB good for Latin America? We had the opportunity to sit down with Joel Araujo, an MLB executive responsible for international player development, to discuss his work overseas. Joel is himself Dominican-American, and his work reflects his commitment to the growth of baseball AND the health of the countries he serves. In the video below (in Spanish), Joel shares his vision for players who become healthy, whole, and active citizens whether they make it to “the Show” or not. Joel is a bridge-builder, a link between two worlds that brings flourishing to both. Listen to this week’s podcast and watch the video below to learn more about Joel’s work supporting the countries he serves. About Joel Araujo Joel Araujo is the senior manager of Major League Baseball’s International Talent Development Department where he leads the group’s talent development efforts abroad. Since joining MLB in 2008, he has been involved with nearly every aspect of international baseball operations, from contracts and visas to winter leagues and international talent procurement. He founded the Major League Baseball Amateur Prospect League, which gives Dominican prospects a weekly opportunity to showcase their talents before officials from all 30 MLB Clubs, and the first-ever MLB Elite Development Program for Puerto Rican high school players. He now oversees MLB's Elite Baseball Development Programs in Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Curacao and South Africa. Araujo also established the MLB International Showcase, an annual event which allows Clubs to view and evaluate the best international amateur talent on the market, as well as the Coach Development Program, a two-week course that trains coaches from around the globe so that they can better develop players in their home countries. MLB now holds multiple showcases in various countries each year (some of which are attended by upwards of 300 Club scouts), and over the last four years, more than 500 coaches from 30 different countries across four continents have completed the coaching curriculum. He continues to work to expand MLB’s baseball development efforts into new markets.

A recent Metropolis article opened by asking, “If Jesus were alive today, would he be a property developer?” The question is being asked by a writer who is recognizing the Church’s behavior as a reflection of Jesus’ character. Because churches are partnering with developers to create new places of worship and community service, the writer identified this as a potential testimony of who Jesus would be today. It isn’t clear if this writer fully grasps the implications of what she asked, but her question says something about the work of gospel-preaching and ministry. To quote another journalist, “Shouldn’t it be our moral responsibility to finally make it our city's top priority to aggressively rebuild parts of [the city] that in some ways our city leaders have had a hand in helping destroy?” Dr. A.R. Bernard and his congregation have answered yes to this second question, choosing to address the gentrification of Brooklyn, New York with an astonishing development plan. In partnership with a developer and working with the city’s existing policies, the Christian Cultural Center is working an aggressive plan to build an 11-acre Urban Village equipped with a performing arts center, local retailers, affordable housing, and everything necessary for a walkable community. The project, an estimated $1.2 billion endeavor, will begin as early as next year. Speaking at the 100 Cities Summit, Dr. Bernard said this about the project: “In cities like New York, there is gentrification taking place. Gentrification could be racial, it could be economic. For us it is economic. Individuals who are working class or in a certain income range are being squeezed out. We wanted to respond by creating affordable housing. We didn’t want to do what has typically been done over the last 70, 80 years in America and that is warehousing people with one income, which perpetuates poverty and perpetuates inner city condition.” We sat down with Dr. Bernard to discuss the Urban Village, asking him about the way the project developed for the church, how they chose their partnerships, and how this project could be replicated. At a fundamental level, this church is making something new of the city, choosing to shape a large section in response to the broken structures of New York and as a testimony of the kind of community that is promised in Scripture. In this way, the Urban Village is a new World Outspoken, a story told in concrete buildings that point to what Jesus is doing in the city. Listen to the podcast to learn more. About Dr. A. R. Bernard A.R. Bernard enjoyed a successful career in finance before opening a small storefront church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. From a handful of members the church has blossomed into the Christian Cultural Center (CCC), one of America’s fastest-growing churches with 40,000 members. Considered by many to be the most influential and respected Christian in America, A.R. Bernard has been featured on Fox News, CNN, NBC’s Today, MSNBC, CBS News, and BET — and has his own weekly show on Daystar TV. Revered as the “Power Pastor” by The New York Times, Pastor Bernard was recently a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul Sunday, where he discussed his bestselling book, Four Things Women Want from a Man.

Ballet, as with many of the “fine arts,” is perceived as art for the aristocracy. The art form is commonly expensive, exclusive, and occasionally elitist, but Ballet 5:8 subverts these common values to provide accessible, high-quality dance training to students of all ages, levels of ability, and ethnic backgrounds. Their school commits to fostering a nurturing environment where instructors care for the students’ spirits and bodies. This is Ballet reimagined. This is a studio telling a different story. Ballet 5:8 is a non-profit dance company and school changing the way this art form is perceived and used in the Chicago-land area. Their faith-based commitments drive their pursuit of excellence in their craft and informs the outward focus of all their programming and performances. According to their handbook, “We see dance not as a means of self-glorification, but as a way to share the joy of our faith with the communities around us and to invite others into meaningful discussion of faith topics.” We sat down with Ballet 5:8’s Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Julianna Rubio Slager to discuss their commitment to share their faith and make quality ballet accessible to all. Watch the video below, then listen to the podcast to learn more about Ballet 5:8 and the city they make. If you are in the Chicago-land area, you should make it out to their upcoming show! The Space in Between | Elgin Saturday, February 16, 2019 | 7:00pm The Hemmens Cultural Center 45 Symphony Way, Elgin, IL 60120 Details & Tickets | Learn more about the program at ballet58.org/space-in-between