Juan Francisco Martinez – författare

The growth and religious commitment of the Latino community in the U.S. presents a unique set of challenges for pastors in that community. Walk with the People: Latino Ministry in the United States identifies and analyzes the contemporary challenges facing Latino churches in the U.S. and some of the issues they are likely to face in the future. Latino pastors and others working in the community need to understand and grapple with these challenges. As the Latino community continues to grow and diversify, effective church leaders in Latino congregations will need to retool their ministries to address these changes.

Las iglesias en los Estados Unidos no pueden ignorar al grupo minoritario mas grande del pais. A los latinos muchas veces se les ve como un grupo mono-cultural, sin embargo las diferencias dentro de la comunidad son signficativas. Las iglesias que quieren servir a los latinos necesitan entender la diversidad dentro de la categoria "latino" si han de servir eficazmente a esta poblacion. Caminando entre el pueblo describe la diversidad latina y le ofrece a los lectores consejos practicos sobre como compartir las buenas nuevas del evangelio y formar comunidades de fe. El libro repasa como los protestantes se han relacionado con latinos en el pasado, enumera algunos de los recursos claves dentro de la comunidad que fortalecen el ministerio y describe algunas de las maneras en que los latinos ya estan sirviendo a su propia comunidad. Tambien hay una seccion sobre el ministerio a la juventud latina y visiones de los que podria ser el ministerio latino en el futuro. Caminando entre el pueblo describe una manera de hacer ministerio en la comunidad latina que asume que servimos a otros en nombre de Jesus cuando caminamos con ellos en medio de sus vidas y luchas.

What does God’s mission look like? Who is supposed to carry it out—and how?   Juan F. Martínez and Jamie Pitts lead us on an inquiry into God’s mission in the world: what it is, what it is not, and who is invited to be part of it. If Jesus is truly God’s mission incarnate, we need to look at what Jesus did and how he did it. Martínez helps readers understand what mission means, why Christians in the past have made missteps, and how we can learn from Christian communities that are spreading the good news of Jesus today. Doing mission in the way of Jesus may look different from what many assume, but it is a call that the church cannot afford to miss.     The Jesus Way: Small Books of Radical Faith delve into big questions about God’s work in the world. These concise, practical books are deeply rooted in Anabaptist theology. Crafted by a diverse community of internationally renowned scholars, pastors, and practitioners, The Jesus Way series helps readers deepen their faith in Christ and enliven their witness.   Accessible Jesus-centered theology from an Anabaptist perspectiveDesigned for use by individual readers, small groups, and Christian education classesGlossary of terms and discussion and reflection questions in each volume      Books in series:  What Is the Bible and How Do We Understand It? Dennis R. Edwards [Fall 2019]Why Did Jesus Die and What Difference Does It Make? Michele Hershberger [Fall 2019]Why Do We Suffer and Where Is God When We Do? Valerie G. Rempel [Spring 2020]What Is the Trinity and Why Does It Matter? Steve Dancause [Spring 2020]Who Are Our Enemies and How Do We Love Them? Hyung Jin Kim Sun [Summer 2020]What Is God’s Mission in the World and How Do We Join It? Juan F. Martínez [Summer 2020]What Is the Church and Why Does It Exist? David Fitch [Fall 2020]What Does Justice Look Like and Why Does God Care about It? Judith and Colin McCartney [Fall 2020]What Is God’s Kingdom and What Does Citizenship Look Like? César García [Spring 2021]Who Was Jesus and What Does It Mean to Follow Him? Nancy Elizabeth Bedford [Spring 2021]

Religious culture is an important keyword for understanding rapidly changing East Asian society, especially China, Japan, and Korea. Despite the common influence of Confucian culture on these countries, each has shown a very different pattern of social progress in modern and postmodern times. Although surveys report a low ratio of religious identification and membership in this region, people in this area are religious in a different way from Western societies, and religious culture is closely related to political, economic, and social subsystems. A real force of changing East Asian society is not only political powers or economic classes, but also an invisible culture based on religious belief and practice. This book focuses on the dynamic relationship between social progress and religious culture, organization, or movements in each society since 1945.

Los Evangelicos: Portraits of Latino Protestantism in the United States is a small contribution to a much larger project. It is part of CEHILA''s (the Commission for the Study of the History of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean) effort to write church history from the perspective of those who have had no voice, those who have not been allowed to reflect on their own history. It serves as a call to gather more "snapshots" of Latino Protestantism, to organize these portraits according to different interpretive schemes, to analyze the photos with their historical contexts in mind, and to utilize these results to challenge the traditional ways in which the history of Christianity in the United States is generally told. This book is proof that there are women and men in the Protestant Latino church in the United States with the ability to carry out these tasks. Yet an exhaustive history of Latino Protestantism in the United States is still missing. The Latino Protestant community needs people to rise up and interpret within wider contexts the stories told in this volume and elsewhere. Telling our stories is both a testimony that God has been present in our pilgrimage and a confession regarding the future. The same God who accompanied us this far will remain among us. Thus, we will keep collecting portraits and preparing to take new snapshots of whatever God may do in the future. Our "photo album" closes at a dynamic moment for Latino Protestant churches in the United States. From many different perspectives, the authors of this book present a growing, enthusiastic church ready to serve the Lord. The portraits show how much has been done and yet how much remains to do. There are many more stories to tell.