Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas received a grant from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity to support its “Bienestar: A Collaborative Helping Hispanic Pastors Thrive” project.
The goal of Bienestar is to discover how collaboration could increase the quantity and quality of resources available to Hispanic pastors to enable them to thrive in ministry.
The cohort grant brings together four Thriving in Ministry Grant recipients serving Hispanic pastors in the United States:
- Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas, founded in 1910, serves 1,070 Hispanic Baptist churches in Texas. Convención’s Thriving in Ministry programs include the Conexión Pastor peer-group initiative and the newly formed Conexión Esposas, serving the wives of Hispanic pastors in Texas.
- Esperanza is the largest Hispanic faith-based community development corporation in the United States. Founded in 1987 by Luis Cortés Jr. and the Hispanic Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, its purpose is to strengthen the Hispanic community locally and nationwide by raising awareness and identifying resources through a network of more than 14,000 participating Hispanic faith groups, churches and leaders in 42 states, representing 27 countries of origin.
- Urban Strategies, headquartered in Washington, D.C., exists to equip, resource and connect faith- and community-based organizations engaged in community transformation to help families reach their fullest potential. Urban Strategies supports a pastor peer group opportunity, Caminando Juntos.
- MMBB—the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board—headquartered in New York, has provided financial wellness to clergy, churches and faith-based organizations for more than 100 years.
The grant will allow these groups over the course of one year to explore strategic efforts, work on vocational exercises and engage in an Envisioning Experience to explore collaborations that will serve Hispanic pastors better across the country.
The year culminates in a summit where the cohort’s experiences will be juxtaposed in a forum with program training facilitators, evaluators and pastors.
The cohort expects to strengthen their project staff, reinvigorate their current programs, increase educational experiences for Hispanic pastors and explore a collaborative affinity network.
“We are excited to work side by side with other experienced and trusted organizations with the hope that together we can do much more than we could apart, resulting in connecting Hispanic pastors with each other and with resources to help them thrive,” said Jesse Rincones, executive director of Convención.
Alaina Kleinbeck, associate executive director for coordination at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, said: “The Cohort Formation Grant Program at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity is an important opportunity for organizations in the Thriving in Ministry Initiative to engage one another in focused conversations that strengthen the capacities and networks that support pastoral leaders.
“These affinity-based cohorts have brought together unique and diverse conversation partners that we hope will catalyze new imagination and collaborations for the good of Christ’s church.”
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Leadership Education at Duke Divinity aims to create lasting change in U.S. congregations by supporting Christian leaders and the institutions they serve. The program seeks to “design educational services, develop intellectual resources, and facilitate networks of institutions that cultivate a coherent vision of Christian institutional leadership and form Christian leaders.”
Leadership Education is a non-degree-granting initiative of Duke Divinity School, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and based in Durham, N.C.
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