Summer Celebration classes to bring Nashville's Hispanic community together
Janel Shoun |
Summer Celebration at a Glance
Summer Celebration Home Page
Lipscomb University holds its four-day lecture series Summer Celebration every year, but this year, the university is working to use the event as a catalyst to strengthen the local Spanish-speaking Church of Christ community.
This year Summer Celebration will include for the first time a complete track of lectures all held in Spanish and a track of courses targeted to English-speaking churches that wish to reach out to the Hispanic community. Keynote speeches will also be translated into Spanish, as has been done in the past.
If you are interested in attending the Spanish-language classes at Summer Celebration, e-mail Roberto Santiago at rroberto_santiago [at] comcast.net (subject: Summer%20Celebration) (oberto_santiago[at]comcast[dot]net).
The fellowship of the Churches of Christ are beginning to face some hard truths: most significantly that while the U.S. population has grown 32.2 percent since 1980, the membership in the Churches of Christ has grown only 1.6 percent.
The Christian Chronicle is currently doing an excellent series of articles on various facets of this concern, including an article about Churches of Christ incorporating the immigrant communities. According to the May article, only 445 out of 13,000 American Churches of Christ worship in Spanish.
Off the top of his head, Roberto Santiago, minister at Iglesia de Christo en Grandview (Grandview Church of Christ) can count up about nine Hispanic Churches of Christ in the Nashville metro area. Most probably have between 30 and 80 members, said Santiago, who is overseeing development of the Spanish-language classes at Summer Celebration.
With such young congregations scattered throughout a large metropolitan area, it’s important for them to have a network and support system, said Santiago, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration is providing the first opportunity to gather everyone to begin forming such a network, he said.
“(Summer Celebration) is an opportunity to gather all the area churches and for the first time have an educational workshop, to help each other and come together as a community. And Lipscomb has provided a forum to do that,” said Santiago.
In addition, several Churches of Christ Hispanic ministers have recently combined forces to hopes of marketing the local Hispanic Churches of Christ holistically, Santiago said. They are discussing ways to present a common message through radio and newspaper advertising.
“Newcomers who move to Nashville and don’t have any ties to the culture, no family ties, they see church as a place to find those ties, speak their own language and sometimes get social services,” Santiago said.
The Spanish-language classes at Summer Celebration will follow the same theme as the overall lecture series: “Messiah! The Astonishing Stories and Timeless Teachings of Jesus from Matthew.” Santiago also plans to inject some inspirational words on unity, he said.
In addition, Dan Rodriguez, associate professor of religion and Hispanic studies at Pepperdine University, will hold a four-part series of classes on how Churches of Christ can reach out to the Hispanic community. Rodriguez will speak on:
Hispanic MInistry: Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Church, July 5, 8:30 a.m.
The Immigration Dilemma, July 6, 8:30 a.m.
Beyond the Immigrant-Church Model, July 7, 8:30 a.m.; and
The Great Omission: Overlooking the "Nations" in Our Own Backyard, July 7, 11 a.m.