2,000 Latino Evangelists End Congress

More than 2,000 Latinos from around the world wound up a weeklong conference Friday at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove by determining to reach 2 million more Latinos worldwide by 1987.

The Rev. Alberto Mottesi, president of the first Hispanic Congress on Evangelization, said the 2,076 who attended constituted a far greater turnout than organizers had anticipated.

“We don’t know of any other event that has brought (evangelical) Hispanic leaders together,” Mottesi said. “Eighty percent of the people here are pastors. That’s a miracle.”

About 20% of those in attendance had small congregations. The initial goal of the congress was to reach about 1,000 Latinos from North America. However, evangelical leaders from many parts of the world became aware of the congress and registered to attend.

Mobilize United Front

There were participants from Central America, South America, West Germany, Belgium, France and Alaska, among other places.

Leaders said the purpose of the congress was to bring Latino evangelists together and mobilize an effort to reach the Latino community.

Mottesi, who has been a keynote speaker throughout the week, said the United States has the fifth-largest Latino population in the world and vowed that Latino evangelists will continue to drive hard into the mostly Spanish-speaking community, where a large segment of the population has converted to the Protestant faith in the past few years.

“In the next two years we’re going to be able to reach 2 million Hispanics for Jesus Christ, and in three years we’re going to call for the Hispanic World Congress to be based here in the United States,” said Mottesi, a native of Argentina.

According to a spokeswoman for the congress, Latinos account for 2% of the evangelical community, and the figure is rising.

By the year 2000, Mottesi said, Latinos “will be the biggest minority, and we want this big minority to be in the hands of God.”

Sister Armida Deck, director of the Hispanic Ministry of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, said that this week’s turnout “concerns me, but it doesn’t surprise me. The Catholic Church has not reached out to the Hispanic people, and the Catholic Church has taken it for granted that Hispanics would come to the church.”

Deck said she believes that the success of the evangelical surge in the Latino community is the large numbers of Spanish-speaking evangelists. She added that the Catholic clergy has a small number of Spanish-speaking people.

‘Lose a Lot’

“Everyone is being made aware of the fact that if we don’t reach out we’re going to lose a lot of the Hispanic people,” Deck said. “We will probably have to go out and do some personal contact (with the Latino community), which means doing something that we never have done before.”

Guest speakers during the week included Pat Robertson of the 700 Club; Ted Engstrom, president of World Vision; Bill Bright, president of Campus Crusade for Christ International, and Efrain Rios Montt, former president of Guatemala.

The congress held about 40 workshops, including such topics as child evangelism, survival of Protestantism, the ethics of evangelism, the role of the church in Central America and immigration.

On Friday, Mottesi received a telegram from President Reagan congratulating him on the congress and stating: “I know you will do some praying, and I know there are many reasons to pray . . . but I’m hoping you’ll be able to squeeze in a prayer or two that God will guard and guide and enlighten his servant who bears the great responsibility of being president of the United States of America.”