One of the challenges of Hispanic ministry is finding a way to understand each other.  The culture, the language, and the values are all distinct from one culture to another. (An important sidenote is that even a culture that values multicultural pluralism is a separate culture in itself and not cross-cultural.) Our call to the world requires a message and strategy that are tuned to the needs of each person. 
     CHM’s activities through interpreting (spoken), translating (written), sharing materials, strategizing in church ministry and leading conferences and seminars are all for the purpose of understanding how we can work together for a common cause.  In this sense CHM is a servant both to the Anglo and Hispanic church. 
     This is also the area where we often find the most opposition since representing the Anglo perspective to Hispanics and vice versa makes CHM the point of anger and frustration for both sides when cooperation is challenged, which it often is in ministry.  The Anglo church needs to learn about the pressures of the immigrant community and about its role in seeking justice and expressing compassion for those living without documents in our communities.  The Hispanic church must consider the relationship of obedience and discipleship in its civic participation.  And all of us must allow ourselves to be challenged daily toward living in God’s holiness.
     This bridging role is also one of the points of greatest blessing: to be able to see how God has equipped His body with all the gifts and temperaments it needs to accomplish all of His purposes. To see His hand fully at work is a beautiful thing.

    One of the primary ministries that CHM identified as a key contribution to the Hispanic Church since the beginning of its ministry was leadership training.  We continue that emphasis through our ongoing leadership training program whose name in Spanish speaks to both personal spiritual development and evangelistic outreach.
     The pictures above shows a class that was hosted by the Mexico  City Amigos Institute brought in March and taught by CHM director David Byrne.  Our mission is to provide a training program which is now almost exclusively through online videos and web pages that were set up by former Instituto ALMA director Jerry Clarkson with occasional local site cla sses that we are able to host.  Our goal is to make Christian leadership tools available to leaders at whatever stage in their development and whatever their personal resources.  We thank God for the many new training options that are now available to Spanish-speaking Christian leaders since when we first began this ministry.  We also continue with our commitment to do all that we can to help those who serve God in the church.



Where can a church go to get good material in Spanish for its adult Sunday School classes, or for its discipleship training, or for detailed Bible study and teacher training?  On our InstitutoALMA.org literature pages we have a good selection of material that can be useful for the Spanish-speaking church and its leaders.  Materials are all readily available without cost and can give church leaders important tools they can use.