Launching a new Hispanic church at Southeast Baptist Church, Murfreesboro, are, from left, Jorge Arenivas, Kevin Minchey, Arturo Vallejo, and Joe Vinson.
By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
MURFREESBORO — Pastor Jorge Arenivas knocked on the door of an apartment. A young man answered and, happy to hear Spanish spoken by the visitor, let Arenivas in.
Arenivas met two other young men living there.
About 10 minutes later all three of the young men had prayed to receive Christ and had agreed to meet weekly for Bible study in their apartment.
The next week Arenivas arrived at the agreed upon time to teach them. He learned as the weeks went by that he would often have to wait while the men took a shower or finished cooking and eating, said Arenivas, who is Hispanic pastor, Third Baptist Church, Murfreesboro.
But he waited and kept returning. In several months the young men visited the Hispanic Church of Third Baptist and soon became very involved.
It is these kinds of young men whom Arenivas disciples and equips to be church leaders and, ironically, leaders of Bible studies in other homes where they might have to wait on new Christians.
Some of these young men also become pastors of new churches.
Since 1998 Arenivas has helped start four churches in Middle Tennessee and three churches in other countries.
“He’s done a great deal to advance ethnic church planting in Middle Tennessee,” said Kevin Minchey, director of missions, Concord Baptist Association, based in Murfreesboro.
The efforts of Arenivas are representative of many other Hispanic Baptist pastors, said William Burton, Hispanic/ethnic church planting/evangelism specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
During 2014, 83 new Hispanic Baptist churches were started by Tennessee Baptists resulting in an increase among Hispanic churches of 159 percent, he reported, and baptisms of Hispanics as a result were up dramatically. Finally, giving through the Cooperative Program to Baptist causes was up 39 percent, added Burton.
Approach to evangelism is one key
Arenivas knocks on doors of strangers regularly.
“I don’t have a problem doing this,” he stated.
If he is visiting door-to-door and is asked to leave by an official of an apartment complex, he does, but he also might return and visit again, he said with a slight smile.
As he visits with the people he meets, the TV is often on and people are cooking or doing other things. He doesn’t let that bother him, explained Arenivas.
He also has learned that he cannot predict “what God is willing to do” and “who He is working with.”
Arenivas will believe that a person he is talking directly to will say yes to the gospel but instead it will be a person cooking in another room but listening to the offer of eternal life.
One young man, Olivio Vasquez, who is pastor of a church Vasquez started in South Mexico after returning home to help his family, admitted something to Arenivas “after we have enough friendship,” explained Arenivas.
Vasquez said he did not want to attend the Bible study Arenivas was leading for him. In fact, he “hated” Arenivas, said the young man. He would make Arenivas wait a long time for him hoping that he would leave. He even considered escaping somehow, jumping from a window, but he lived on the second floor, added Arenivas with a smile.
Now Vasquez tells Arenivas that he is “so grateful” that Arenivas pursued him. The church Vasquez started in Mexico is currently being assisted by Third Baptist, and teams have helped it buy property and start building a larger building in which to meet.
Church starting
All four of the churches Arenivas has started in Middle Tennessee resulted from someone contacting him. He surrendered to the call to ministry while living in Nashville and attending the Hispanic congregation which met at First Baptist, Nashville. Just a few months after he surrendered to the ministry, First Baptist Church, Smyrna, (now LifePoint Church) asked him to help them start an Hispanic congregation. The church Arenivas started at LifePoint has become autonomous and is now Primera Iglesia Bautista, Smyrna.
A few years later he was called to Third Baptist Church, Murfreesboro, and started a church there.
While at Third, where he has served since 2000, he has helped start Hispanic congregations at CrossPointe Church, Mufreesboro (since relocated to Smyrna); and Southeast Baptist Church, Murfreesboro. Arenivas also worked to start another church which has not developed yet.
At Southeast Baptist, the most recent church Arenivas worked with, he was contacted by Joe Vinson, pastor, after the church saw many Hispanics attend a community-wide event.
A week later, Arenivas brought Arturo Vallejo, a member of Third Baptist Church, or Tercera Iglesia Bautista to the Spanish speakers, to meet Vinson. About three weeks later the congregation was launched last fall.
Vallejo, who is from Argentina, is a former pastor there who is seminary trained, said Arenivas. He also is a landscaper in Murfreesboro.
The Hispanic congregation at Southeast is still small, but has baptized seven people and has several home Bible studies meeting. Also their English as a Second Language classes are drawing about 40 people.
Vinson observed, “For our church, it has been a very positive thing, bringing excitement to our English congregation that we can be a part of reaching the Hispanic community just outside our doors.”
Home Bible studies or 1-5-1 Harvest Plants
Currently Tercera Iglesia Bautista is holding seven home Bible studies or 1-5-1 Harvest Plants groups.
Harvest Plants, a TBC initiative, are off-campus efforts by churches. Churches that embrace the strategy make a commitment to start no less than one plant in an effort, with the Lord’s help, to reach, win, and baptize five people through each plant, with the goal for each plant to start one plant by the end of the first year.
Arenivas has seen some home groups he started grow to include 30 people. All of those reached through the home studies have begun attending Tercera Iglesia, which draws about 140 people to Sunday morning activities, but some left last Fall to help the new congregation at Southeast.
Arenivas has started home Bible studies for years, before he learned about 1-5-1, but is glad for the emphasis by the TBC.
Leading the studies makes for a lot of work in the evenings and for late nights, admitted Arenivas.
However, the offer “is challenging them (the new Christian) to the next step.” They often won’t come to church for various reasons, he added.
As to the new church starts he has been involved in, he said it is a tribute to the churches in this area, especially Third Baptist who called him as a full-time staff minister.
“It is because of the great love they have for the souls. … They care for the folks. It doesn’t matter what nationality or ethnicity they are. That’s why I’m so grateful to be a part of these churches,” stated Arenivas.
