Building Community with Praise, the Good Word, and Barbeque

Synod 2017 discussed declining membership and asked staff to seek out best practices related to church planting and renewal, and to share their findings with classes and churches. In light of this, CRC News will be running a series of occasional stories on churches and ministries that are addressing church renewal or church growth and sharing lessons they have learned.

The veins in Eliel Melgarejo’s neck bulged as he played guitar and belted out a praise song during the Saturday-evening service at Ethnos Community Church in Bellflower, Calif.

Nearby, Angel Chun was monitoring the audiovisual system, flipping switches and changing screens while Pastor Tomas Ivens stood to the side of the stage, his head bowed in prayer, getting ready to preach.

Though it may sound as if this service was  in the auditorium of a megachurch, this gathering of a small emerging church was taking place in an upstairs classroom on the campus of Bethany CRC in Bellflower. The congregation is made up mainly of young families, drawn to the church because of its vision to meet the social, spiritual, and physical needs of Latino families living within a mile or so of the church.

The worshipers were swaying with the music, and many were singing along: “I give myself, I give myself to you, Lord!”

Earlier that day, while helping to oversee an art class, funded with help from the CRC, that was taking place in another of the buildings on the sprawling Bethany CRC campus,  Ivens spoke about the mission and focus of this church, which launched a year ago and has become an example for doing Hispanic ministry in this part of California: “We believe it is important to help people explore the fact that Christianity isn’t a religion but is instead a desire for life in Christ.”

"In our church, we are thinking outside the box," added Ivens. "We look for ways in which we can share the gospel with our community and not just have the community come to us."

Ivens has a background as a church planter and, before launching Ethnos, he served as a pastor of nearby Anaheim CRC. Before that, he worked to start churches in Mexico for another denomination.

As the children worked on their art, Ivens said he believes that worship combined with community outreach — and for Ethnos, especially, working in connection with local schools — is crucial to starting and sustaining a church.

In his case, Ivens spends time walking through the neighborhood meeting and talking to people, nearly 60 percent of whom are Hispanic and living at or below the poverty line.

In this area of California, where the CRC continues to work on building up ministry among Latinos, Ivens sees one-on-one relationships as key, whether that be working with people who have some religious background or none.

"We know that we have an important message, but we have to realize that the hearts and minds of many people in the urban setting are closed to Jesus these days," he said.

“If we are not aware of that and do not find ways to adapt to it, we won’t see any changes in people. In order to help people learn about Jesus, we have to develop a sense of community and a sense of becoming a family first.”

One of the ways he does that is through the Saturday-afternoon art class that draws young people from the neighborhood so that they can learn how to draw and paint with the help of Ivens' wife and others.

As they develop relationships with the students, they also get to know the parents and invite them to the worship service and then to the weekly cookout that follows.

“We have visited people who live in our neighborhood, and we know that many are living in depression and feeling alone in this country,” said Ivens. "We are finding ways to bring them out and to involve them."

Ethnos also offers discipleship classes, a U.S. citizenship course, and job development opportunities.

"Tomas is a good teacher and has open arms for people," said Mirtha Villafane, a Hispanic ministry developer for the CRC in southern California.

"Tomas and I have been friends for a long time. I’m excited to see the new things he is doing with Ethnos."

Villafane said it has been challenging to start Hispanic congregations that endure, but Ivens seems to be laying a solid groundwork that promises success.

Rev. Jim Kuiper, pastor of Bethany CRC, said Ethnos is part of a plan he hopes can become reality — namely, using the entire Bethany campus to help different ethnic ministries get on their feet.

Along with Ethnos, a Thai and one other southeast Asian group use space on the grounds for worship and other gatherings. The goal is to one day find ways to unite various ethnic groups on the campus in order to pray and work together on different efforts, at church and in the community.

"Tomas has been integral here to helping make this happen," said Kuiper. "He realizes that there is a great harvest out there and that the Spirit is drawing us together to do God’s mission."

Rev. Harold Caicedo, pastor of Iglesia Cristiana El Sembrador (Church of the Sower) in nearby Fontana, Calif., agrees that Ivens is doing what it takes to make inroads into the Latino community.

Ivens is especially tuned in to the need to make a church part of the surrounding neighborhood, once home to middle-class families that have moved on, he said.

"If the Lord gave us the privilege to be part of his kingdom, I know that it is important to love my community," said Caicedo, whose church of more than 200 members was organized in 2008.

“We know that the people are trying hard and that many are suffering, and we have to be part of the incarnation of Jesus and reach out to the people.”

With a radio ministry through which he preaches to the surrounding area, Caicedo uses his gifts to share a message of salvation that can mean so much to people who have so little.

"We have to be the light of our communities,” said Caicedo, who grew up Baptist and fixed computers and did other jobs before getting full-time into ministry. "We participate in parades. We have food booths in the park. We pray when the city council meeting opens. We want to be connected in many ways to our city.”

Caicedo holds a Bible institute at his church on Thursdays, has nearly 40 people now involved in aspects of ministry at his church, and often leads people on prayer walks around the city.

"We need to do something different in the CRC if we want to have good Hispanic churches," he said.

"We need to open ourselves to our Latino brothers and sisters and invite them to be part of the CRC. If we do, they will come in because we have good Reformed theology, good church order, and discipline."

Just remember, he said, that many Hispanic people are also attracted to worship that is emotional, to prayer that is spoken out loud and with passion.

Some of that excitement was apparent at Ethnos on that Saturday evening. The singing was loud and full of emotion; people waved their hands in the air, and a few called out in praise as Ivens preached in Spanish (with his words translated into English on the video screen) about God calling people to do his work.

"When God has a calling on you," said Ivens, "he changes the way you think and declares to you his divine plan. Have you ever been called by God?"

After the service, Ivens changed roles from preacher to chef, helping to grill meat for people who gathered under a tent outdoors to eat and talk.

Angle Chun, the audiovisual operator, took time as he finished eating to talk about how he got connected to Ethnos. He said he came to the U.S. from Guatemala in hopes that he could finish high school, learn to become an electrician, and study to return to Central America as a missionary.

He met Ivens when he and his wife, Alexandre, who is from the U.S., were taking a course at a small missionary school where Ivens teaches in a nearby community.

"He shared his vision for starting Ethnos, and we wanted to become part of it," he said. "My wife and I are learning what we can here in the U.S. so we can apply it on the mission field later."

In the year that Ethnos has been in existence, it has "already been blessed by God," said Chun. "It has a lot of programs for people of all ages. My wife is teacher of the kids. I help the pastor with the service when he is away."

Eliel Melgarejo, the guitarist, said he grew up as a pastor’s son in a nondenominational church in nearby Pasadena. He said he drifted away from church for a time, but returned after he "had an encounter with God."

After returning to church, he got interested in playing the guitar and singing praise music. Several months ago, Ivens approached him and asked if he would be willing to sing and play during worship at Ethnos.

Melgarejo added that his father knew Ivens from when they both attended nearby Fuller Theological Seminary together.

"I was too busy and didn’t want to do that at first," said Melgarejo. "But then I decided to help when I learned of how Tomas is working with the community. The people come from being [former] Catholics or . . . [not being] from a church — and they hear testimonies, and God creates a curiosity in them to come."

When people arrive for worship at Ethnos, the music is rich, the preaching is strong, and the Spirit is alive, said Melgarejo. "The defenses of the people drop down, and when they experience God, all of their walls fall so they can experience God’s love."