Schuller to Share TV Pulpit With a Latino Evangelist

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller announced Sunday that an Argentine-born minister will host and preach a new Spanish-language version of his global television ministry “Hour of Power,” providing the widest forum ever for a Latino televangelist.

The announcement comes at a time when Catholics and Protestants are battling for the souls of the growing number of Latinos in the United States.

Schuller, who hosts the single largest televised church service in the world, told his congregation at the Crystal Cathedral that Juan Carlos Ortiz of Cupertino will be joining his staff in the summer. Ortiz will conduct his own “Hour of Power” services that will be broadcast in Spanish-speaking markets in the United States and Latin America, Schuller said, and might also conduct Spanish-language Sunday services at the Crystal Cathedral.

“Juan Carlos Ortiz is the single most effective preacher in the Spanish language today,” Schuller said to his congregation. “We want the Crystal Cathedral to have an effective ministry in the Spanish language community in Southern California (and other Spanish-speaking areas).”

Ortiz, in an interview from his home in Northern California, said the arrangement calls for his videotaped sermon to replace Schuller’s in the Spanish-language “Hour of Power.” The rest of the program, he said, will be identical to Schuller’s version--the organists, the choirs, the background scenery of the Crystal Cathedral.

“It’s very unique that Dr. Schuller would do this,” he said. “Very few people would lend their tuxedo for somebody’s else’s party. . . . In one sense he is giving to us all the wealth of his cathedral, all the artistic and architectonic wealth as well. It is a big gift he gives to the Hispanic community.”

The “Hour of Power” has an audience of about 1.7 million in the United States, and is broadcast in English to 31 countries.

“All of this still leaves the vast section of Spanish-speaking people without the ‘Hour of Power,’ ” Schuller said. “The ‘Hour of Power’ Spanish version with Juan Carlos Ortiz is expected to grow from month to month and year to year until it claims the largest Spanish-speaking audience of any ministry.”

The announcement comes at a time when great numbers of traditionally Roman Catholic Latinos, especially immigrants to the United States, are defecting to Protestant churches.

According to the Chicago-based National Opinion Research Center, 23% of Latinos identified themselves as Protestant last year. The figure was 19% in 1986, according to the Gallup Poll, and 16% in 1972.

And religious academics say the fastest-growing local Latino churches are charismatic, where immigrants find emotional, spirit-laden services with lively music and lay leadership.

“It is not a competition with the Catholic Church,” Ortiz said. “The problem is that the Catholic Church does not have enough Spanish-speaking (priests) and they are losing members to the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and to others. We think that there is a vacuum in that community that needs to be filled by us.”

But while Protestant churches are popping up all over Latino communities in the United States, and English-speaking televangelists’ shows are dubbed for Spanish audiences, Latino evangelists have yet to make it big on the airwaves.

“On television, we really don’t have anything for the Hispanic community,” said Josue Ortiz Jr., associate pastor of Templo Calvario in Santa Ana, and no relation to the Cupertino minister. “A lot of it is lack of money.”

Templo Calvario, with 3,000 members, and services in English and in Spanish, is one of the largest Latino evangelical churches in the country.

“We have been trying to do something like that, but it’s always been a lack of money,” he said. “Most of our church members are low-income people, and they just don’t have the money to give to support something like that. If (Juan Carlos Ortiz) can set something up with ‘Hour of Power,’ that is fantastic.

“I know Juan Carlos,” Josue Ortiz said. “He’s ministered here. He’s a very good man, a very good minister, quite capable too. The minute he comes on television he will have no trouble identifying with the Hispanic community. He knows the culture, knows the people.”

Juan Carlos Ortiz is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. He began his ministry in Argentina and founded several churches. His last church, before moving to the United States 11 years ago, was in the heart of Buenos Aires.

A U.S. citizen now, he says, “My ministry is as a teacher and evangelist around the world.” He has preached at churches, universities, seminaries and major Christian gatherings worldwide.

Schuller first heard him preach in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland, at the World Congress on Evangelism, and approached him about joining his church last August, he said.

Ortiz, 55, is the author of four books, including “Living with Jesus Today” and “Disciple,” which have been translated into several languages.

“I believe that the main problem of Latin America is spiritual,” Ortiz said. “We need to help people find and accept themselves as they find God, improve their self-image and start working for their dreams. From the ‘Hour of Power’ we will beam this positive message to all the Hispanic world.”