GCV Blog

Grace Church of the Valley blog.

Update from the Graumans

The cover article of Time Magazine for April 15th, together with the article entitled “The rise of the evangelicos” detail the most rapidly growing religious group of Spanish speakers: not Catholic, not secular, but latin ‘evangelicals’. The two articles describe the trend of latins turning from ritualistic Catholicism and diving into a deep, intimate and charismatic experience with Jesus. I pass by at least five Spanish-speaking charismatic churches on my way to church, so I can attest to the growing numbers. However, calling them all ‘evangelicals’ and calling this a ‘reformation’ might be a stretch.

First, according to statistics, millions of these Pentecostals are “Oneness Pentecostals”. They deny the trinity, the full humanity of Christ, and are legalistic in nature. I cannot get excited about this, because they are transferring from one religion that cannot save to another. Second, the Protestant Reformation was a return to Scriptural authority, yet even Time Magazine describes Latin Pentecostalism as experience-based. Jesus tells us to worship God in spirit and in truth.

However, this is where I do get very excited. Since there are very few Spanish speaking religious institutions training pastors to preach and shepherd God’s people, many Spanish speakers are coming to IDEX to learn how to minster to this growing group of “evangelicos”. In fact, currently, we are receiving more applicants than we can afford to accept, since we subsidize our training.

This is an exciting place to be, as we have the privilege of grounding their convictions in God’s Word and directing their zeal to God’s glory. We now have nearly 200 students, coming to us from over 100 different churches and nearly 25 denominations. God’s Word is going forth, and through His Spirit, it has power to save and transform no matter what one’s racial or religious background may be.

Please pray with us, that the Lord would continue to give us strength and wisdom, training and preparing Spanish speaking leaders to His glory.

We also thank the Lord for your prayers and support. By God’s grace, we are all doing very well. Abigail just turned 5!, Noah Jay is 3 and Silas will turn 2 later on this month. Crystal is looking forward to start home-schooling Abby this September, Noah is pure kinetic energy, and Silas continues to do therapy weekly, smiling and crying all the way :). They are a constant joy to us. Please let us know if there is any way that we can pray for you, as we would love to hear from you,

Josiah and Crystal