Hispanic / Latino Ministries
National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministries
Rev. Francisco Cañas, National Coordinator
Email: fcanas@gbgm-umc.org
Website: www.gbgm-umc.org
Phone: (212) 870-3693
Goals for 2009–2012
Congregational Development
- Charter 75 new Hispanic/Latino churches.
- Form 500 new faith communities.
- Accompany 100 congregations in the Congregational Mobilization Process to revitalize their ministries.
Immigration Ministry and Other Critical Social Issues
- Develop new models of centers dealing with immigration and advocacy for many other critical social issues.
- Strengthen our collaboration with Justice for Our Neighbors project.
- Create and nurture national, regional, and local partnerships and networks between local congregations and community-organizing grassroots groups.
Annual Conference and Local Church Strategy
- Identify and train new lay and clergy leaders.
- Enhance and develop Module III workshops and materials on new congregational development with emphasis on values, cultural needs, and socioeconomic realities.
- Assist annual conferences in developing strategic plans focused on congregational and leadership development, immigration, and social justice and accompany these conferences on plan implementation and evaluation.
Leadership Formation Goals
- Develop, implement, and evaluate at least one alternative model to the traditional seminary education for Hispanic/Latino pastors on the pathway to ordination.
- Continue to equip lay missioners and pastor-mentor teams, facilitators, consultants, commissioned missionaries, and other leaders, and to assist them in forming a network for mutual strengthening, updating, and cross-fertilization of ideas and models.
- Identify, train, and deploy at least 50 commissioned missionaries to provide leadership with special focus on congregational development, conference accompaniment, and local church mobilization, including immigration and other critical social issues.
- Train and equip conference committees on Hispanic/ Latino ministries, conference staff, and other lay and clergy leaders according to priorities of the National Plan.