When Faith Catches Fire: Embracing the Spiritual Passion of the Latino Reformation
240
When Faith Catches Fire: Embracing the Spiritual Passion of the Latino Reformation
240Paperback
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Overview
What can move your faith from a principle you learn to a passion you experience? According to Samuel Rodriguez and Dr. Robert Crosby, the answer might be found in a surprising place: the Latino church. As the fastest growing minority in America, Latinos are impacting church culture through vibrant worship, fervent prayer, and a commitment to change the world—one soul at a time.
As a follower of Jesus, has your soul been truly set afire?
Christian leaders are witnessing a remarkable phenomenon, kindled first in the Latino/Hispanic community and spreading like wildfire throughout the global church.
Latinos are much discussed in the United States for their dynamic political and socioeconomic impact, but not as much is said about their spiritual influence. In reality the effects of the Latino church are more akin to a spiritual awakening than a mere social trend. And there is so much all believers can learn from Latino Christ-followers.
At the core of this dramatic shift is a call to embrace a more soulful, passionate faith. In this powerful book, Christians will gain valuable insights on how to:
• fully experience the joy of God and the passion of His Spirit
• develop a true sense of unity amidst diversity in the body of Christ
• make an eternal impact on their families, communities, and the world
Complete with discussion questions for individual reflection or small group use, this timely work will challenge the status quo of passionless Christianity and set the believer’s soul ablaze.
“When Faith Catches Fire is both an exploration and a celebration of the ‘salsafication’ of the church….God will use it in splendid ways.”
-John Ortberg, senior pastor and author of All the Places to Go
“The passionate fire from the heart of this book will serve as a rallying cry to all Latinos and beyond.”
-Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor, past president of the Southern Baptist Convention
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780735289680 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Random House Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 06/20/2017 |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
DR. ROBERT CROSBY is a pastor, conference speaker, and the co-founder of Teaming Life (teaminglife.com). He serves as professor of practical theology at Southeastern University. He has pastored multiethnic churches in New York, Boston, and Tampa. His most recent books include The One Jesus Loves, The Will of a Man and The Way of a Woman, and The Teaming Church.
Read an Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
Those Salsafied Christians!
Embracing a More Passionate Faith
One consequence of the growing Latinization of American society is the increasing Pentecostalization of American Christianity.
- Dr. Luis E. Lugo, director, Pew Research
Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life
There is something about a fire, something so compelling about a flame, something that catches our attention and makes us want to stop whatever we are doing and draw closer. Whether blazing amid logs under a living-room mantel or encircled by stones at a campsite, a fire quickly becomes the hearth,and heart, of a family or a community. There is a magnetic attraction. It keeps people warm, illuminates their interactions, and becomes a focal point that brings people together.
And fire is an ideal metaphor for passion, a burning and consuming force that is unquenchable. It is also a fitting image for faith. When belief moves from mere mental assent to a deep, convictional belief, it does something powerful. Faith catches fire.
Latino Christians are catching the fire. In many ways they are changing their world today, and in the past five years, they have changed mine (Robert’s)! In fact, Latino Evangelicals, “up from 14 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in2013,” are the “fastest-growing religious group in the country.”1 There is just something about their faith in God and the ways so many of them experience it, practice it, embrace it, and live it that I find absolutely compelling. There is a passion burning in the souls of so many Latino Christians today, blazing trails of local, regional, national, and global change. The jury is no longer out on this. The tipping point has hit. In the next few years (and decades), their influence will continue to grow and be felt in the church, in business, in government and politics, in the economy, in arts and sports, and in the important and pressing arena of race relations.
If the white Euro-American church has led the way in stewarding the last millennium, then quite possibly the Hispanic church is being called on to rise up and steward the next one. If the white church has filled the practical role of the global Elijah for the past several decades, serving as prophet-leader, then she now needs to recognize that a new Elisha (that is, the Latino church) has been busy working in the fields and is ready to bear a mantle of responsibility, ananointing of ministry, and servant-leadership for days to come.
The change isn’t coming.
It's here.
We are convinced a major change is upon us. But far too many churches, pastors, Christians, leaders, government officials, and others have not yet acknowledged what is growing up all around them. That is one of the main reasons we have joined together to write this book.
Reformation
As this book releases, this very year we celebrate the five-hundredth anniversaryof the Protestant Reformation. At that critical point in history, an uncertain monk with a certain fire burning within challenged man-made misconceptions that were fueling ministerial malpractices of all sorts and relegating the Word of God to popes, priests, and prelates. Martin Luther unsuspectingly sounded the clarion call of reform to a church much in need of it.
Today we are watching a different type of “reformation” occur. A few years ago, I (Samuel) was interviewed by Elizabeth Dias, a reporter for Time magazine,on the phenomenal growth of the Latino church. As we pored over multiple statistics and stories on the growth of this movement, I suggested to her that this represents “a Latino Reformation.” Her eventual cover article concurred: “What I discovered signaled a Latino Reformation.”
The Latino Reformation is in full swing.2
Our prayer is that this book will bring awareness and inspire action. As you read it—we urge you to really read it, fully read it—you will find something much more than just interesting or informative insights. You will realize there is something compelling and dynamic going on all around us, something not to be missed.
A soul moment.
God is blessing the Latino church in the United States and across the world in incredible ways. One of the most notable ways is the spiritual passion that seems to characterize so much of Latino spirituality, faith, community, service, and worship.
While much of America and the rest of the world focus on an immigration problem, the church should and must focus on an immigration opportunity. While government officials squabble over what it takes to become a citizen of our nation, Christians have an opportunity to welcome hundreds of thousands of souls as citizens of the Kingdom of God. While politicians are arguing their opinions, church leaders need to be busy serving and winning souls of every color and background and to find ways to welcome them into their churches, their homes, and their hearts.
Catching the Fire
Latino Christians are the most open and passionate souls I (Robert) know or have ever known. In the past five years, my wife, Pamela, and I have been amazed to see the soul-full faith lived in the lives of so many Latino Christians, from Los Angeles, California, to Lima, Peru. God is doing something special among this group, and the rest of the church needs to see and embrace it.
No one in recent years has challenged me or taught me more about growing my soul than Latino Christians, and one of those I most respect is my coauthor on this book, Samuel Rodriguez. Latino Christians have become to my wife and me such an encouragement and example of passionate, wholehearted, open-souled, and on-fire Christianity.
From my connecting with Hispanic pastors and churches in the United States to enjoying fellowship and ministry together with brothers and sisters in Peru, Ecuador, Spain, Argentina, and Chile, there is just something about Latino passion for God, for one another, and for the Kingdom of God that is compelling. Added to that are my friendship and interactions with Samuel and my respect for the work he and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) are doing around the world.
After overseeing a merger in 2014 of NHCLC and Conela (a Latin America–based organization that serves Latin churches across the world), Samuel now leads the organization. Collectively it is estimated that this coalition represents around five hundred thousand churches worldwide. This is one of the largest networks of believers anywhere. Also, earlier this year Samuel had the honor of becoming the first Evangelical Latino ever to participate in a swearing-in ceremony of a US president. When asked about the invitation to be a part of this event, Samuel said, “The opportunity to speak on the quintessential political platform in the world, and to be able to lift up Jesus on that stage before that global audience, without a doubt is one of the greatest privileges I have ever received in my life.” He added, “It’s a God-graced opportunity that one cannot turn down.”3
Here Is the Church
The face of global Christianity is changing. More than we know, the change is happening in our heads, hearts, and hands. Do you remember reciting this as a child?
Here is the church.
Here is the steeple.
Open the doors, and
See all the people!
This two-handed, rhyming childhood ritual tapped our earliest imaginations about the church. Testing more than our dexterity, this rhyming exercise formed ideas and expectations in our minds about where, how, and with whom we worship.
In my young mind at that time, I (Robert) pictured the church as a building whose architecture pointed toward heaven and opened up to reveal a place teeming with people, really wiggly people, and to be really honest, at that point for me—really wiggly white people. My understanding of church has evolved and expanded since my childhood. While our faith is forever tethered to the person of Jesus and our essential beliefs, I now understand that, throughout history, it has experienced both sweeping and subtle adjustments of form and function in order to reach an ever-changing world. As Heraclitus of Ephesus, the famed Greek philosopher, once said, “Everything changes and nothing stands still.”
Samuel and I decided to write this book for a few key reasons: (1) we believe the most staggering and significant demographic change facing the church today is the phenomenal growth of the Latino church in North America, South America, and other parts of the world with an infectious passionate faith; (2) we are convinced that much of the non-Hispanic church in the United States and other parts of the world is unaware of this significant development; and (3) we want to make sure that as many Christians as possible are “making the most of every opportunity” for the gospel and especially the ones the Latino Reformation presents to us now (Ephesians 5:16).
The Latino Reformation is impacting the nature of all the church in worship, politics, and servanthood. Not only are these changes occurring in multiple cities, communities, regions, and nations, the potential of more impact is sitting latent in the lives and hearts of many Latinos yet waiting to be welcomed, affirmed,and encouraged by open souls, both ours and yours.
Table of Contents
Foreword Robert Morris xv
Introduction: Those Salsafied Christians! 1
Embracing a More Passionate Faith
Part 1 Living with Passion: Loving God with All Your Soul
1 A Soul Moment 15
2 The Salsafication of the Church 29
3 The Third O 43
Passto Dei
4 The Pentecostal Paradox 57
Part 2 Uniting With Passion
Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself
5 The Cries of a Community 73
6 Introducing Billy Graham to MLK 87
7 A Latino Pope? 101
The Francis Effect
8 Race and Grace 113
9 Answering the Prayer of Jesus 125
Drawing Circles of Honor
Part 3 Changing the World with Passion: Open Your life and Grow Your Soul
10 Beyond a Voting Bloc 139
How Latino Christians Will Change the World
11 Next-Gen Latinos 153
How They Will Be Led
12 Project 133 165
Conclusion: Enter the Joy! 177
Appendix: Racial Confessions 185
Black, White, and Brown
Acknowledgments 197
Notes 199
Resources 219