MENU
Victor Martinez (left) with Clemente Bustamante and Marq Toombs

Toward a Diverse 1%: Perspectives from Redeemer Presbyterian in San Antonio

By Jerry Gibson, Jun 25, 2019

MTW South Central hub director Jerry Gibson recently asked Rev. Victor Martinez, associate pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, Texas, and board member of the PCA’s Hispanic Leadership Initiative, about his perspective on diversity and the 1% Challenge.

Q. Why is diversity important to Redeemer?

A. San Antonio is 64% Hispanic. Beyond demographics, San Antonio is thoroughly Hispanic in almost every way. Our city also hosts the largest Martin Luther King, Jr. march in the nation! It boasts 250,000 participants every year. It’d be hard for any church to claim that they have a significant ministry to the city if that church isn’t serious about diversity.

Q. Why is MTW’s desire for diversity important?

A. If we are not putting diversity and missions together we will not reach the world. Our churches, locally and globally, will be more beautiful with diversity. We will be better able to speak and boast in the gospel of God’s grace. Our richness would be evident culturally, theologically, in worship, and in service.

Q. What are some of the things Redeemer is doing to help raise up diverse missionaries?

A. Redeemer is partnering with MTW’s Northern Mexico Team in Monterrey. I’ve gone to Monterrey, Tampico, and Laredo, Texas, to teach church planters. Redeemer has invited leaders of the Church Planting Institute in Monterrey to come and sit down with us to discuss the next step in partnering to plant more churches. We believe this partnership will spill over in fruits of grace across the border to bless God’s Church on the Texas side.

We need to continue building up Latino brothers in our churches so they can develop leaders. Redeemer has 15 men going through Third Millennium Ministries for theological training. If we are praying and we have a vision for it, some of these men will be called to serve overseas.

Q. What would you say to encourage more churches to take up the 1% Challenge? 

A. I would encourage churches and presbyteries to share stories of grace about the power of the call to missions and how God uses missionaries abroad. Enlist elders who will take the lead in praying that God would raise up an additional 1%, of all ethnicities, and make sure that this spills out into their churches. The 1% vision of raising up more missionaries combined with the vision for diversity will help the Church become a true reflection of the image of God, with a heart committed to His global mission.

Help your church encourage diversity in missions. Contact Barbara D. Jones at [email protected] to get started.

Please login to continue
Forgot your password?
Recover it here.
Don't have an account?
Create an Account
Sign Up for Free
Name
Email
Choose Password
Confirm Password

GET INVOLVED

On Mission Leadership Summit | October 31–Nov 1
Youth Ministry Leaders
Longer
Member Care Coordinator: Americas
Longer

A Parish Church Model in Thailand (VIDEO)

Trey was drawn to a ministry style where he could take his kids on walks and more easily get to know people in the community.

SEE MORE

Anxious About Support Raising? Remember These 5 Things

Don’t let the fear of raising support keep you from pursuing a call to missions. It may not be easy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good.

SEE MORE

Reformed and Covenantal: Why Doctrine Matters in Missions

Our mission is to make disciples, not Calvinists. But when poor theology twists the gospel of grace, solid doctrine is fundamental.

SEE MORE

Pray for a new parish-style church in Bangkok, Thailand, where the missionaries and church members are able to live in close proximity to one another and more easily minister to the community around them. 

Pray for God's provision for missionaries raising support, and that they would remember that developing ministry partners is a ministry.

Pray for God to raise up missionaries to plant churches and teach theology in places where the gospel has been distorted.

Pray for the Wolof people in Senegal, identified as an unreached people group, as the gospel spreads through a new church plant.

Give thanks to God for the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who have come to faith over the last two decades. Pray for God to protect believers and draw more to Himself. 

Pray that the global church, including the PCA in the U.S., would make evangelism a priority, and share the truth with those around them. 

Pray that God would draw many PCA church members, pastors, students, and those passionate about global missions to the GMC conference in November.

Give thanks and pray for a couple in Japan who recently came to faith as they faced the last days of the husband's life.

Pray for those in Turkey continuing to rebuild from last year's earthquake, and for continuation of the spiritual growth seen as a result.

Pray for the pastors/national partners ministering in the Ukrainian church amid the ongoing war. Pray too for MTW missionaries who serve the church both in-country and from afar.

SUBSCRIBE TO STORIES & MORE

Good news in your inbox, once per week.