We were glad to have Pastor Ted Krey, overseer of LCMS missions in Latin America, lead our devotions Saturday evening on the veranda. We listened to Corinthians, specifically Paul's reminder of being in Christ means the old has gone and there is now a new creation; there is change. It is not as it used to be.
Pastor Krey spoke of baptism being the means by which the old is drowned so that the new surfaces and rises again - it is the Easter season! He reminded us of what Luther said about the old within us, "Though drowned, the old is still a pretty good swimmer!"
There are definitely changes taking place here in the Dominican Republic. For a church which is five years old, it is inspiring to hear the stories of individuals who have been changed. There is the 18 year old girl whose parents, in exchange for about 18 months of income, "gave" their daughter to another who would "care for" her. The "care" amounted to prostitution. She eventually gave birth to a daughter. Her mother despises her for having taken the child to be baptized in the church. This young woman, though the "old" is swimming hard, is one of the "new," changed in the church here.
Speaking of church, they tend to not speak of "church." Church has the reputation of being instituitionalized. The "established" church tends to be void of relationship - as in "new," changed relationships. So, Pastor Krey says they don't speak of themselves as church planters as planting churches, but as planting familia Cristiano, "Christian family." The "new," changed church of the Dominican Republic is Christian family which is not limited to what we tend to think of as family - our own flesh and blood immediate and extended family. Familia Cristiano consists of those who once were very lost but now have been found, and in being found have been changed, made new for the first time in Jesus Christ.
On a side note, the church building (perhaps it would be better to refer to what we are constructing as the Center for Familia Cristiano) sits on rock - literally solid rock through and through. Our host facilitator, Brian Keller, says that the maestros will go three feet deep into the solid rock for the building's footings. In his opinion, that's 2 feet more than what's really needed. But they want to make sure the building will stand no matter what (Haiti is the other part of the island, and we know what happened there). Figuratively, what a powerful witness and reminder to the universal familia Cristiano. We are built and we stand upon The Rock, which is Christ risen.
And as to familia Cristianos throughout Latin America, Pator Krey says there are some tough times in Guatemala, Bolivia, Panama and other places. I asked him what he thought is behind the present struggles of these familia. He said two things - theological education, and planting other familia Cristianos in their own countries. What he was saying is how these two things are not as prevalent as they once were for these churches.
I hear him saying it all comes down to The Word and Reaching Out. Our theology as Lutherans is firmly Word-based. We are educators, or at least have been known as such since we became the second largest parochial system in Norte America (the Roman Catholics being the largest). Our education has always insisted the tenets of the Reformaton: Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, and Sola Gratia - by Scripture alone, by faith alone, and by grace alone. And as it's put in a song I learned years ago in Mexico, "Solamente en Cristo," Only in Christ.
This is what we are seeing and hearing and experiencing today in the Dominican Republic. We are meeting people who are being theologically educated by The Word Alone so that their footings will be will grounded and established in The Rock upon which they stand as new creations, Jesus The Christ. And we are seeing and hearing and experiencing familia Cristianos being planted here in Santo Domingo and to the north of us in and around Santiago - all within a mere five years time!
Is this all happening too fast as if it's all but a passing fad? Not so long as there is all this rock beneath our feet and theirs - "They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ." Again, Corinthians...
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