Hispanic Residency opens in southwest Idaho

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By Karen L. Willoughby 

BOISE, Idaho – An accredited and no-cost church planting residency for Spanish-speakers started this fall in Treasure Valley Baptist Association. 

It follows one started in Salt Lake City five years ago.  

“Hispanics come to the United States where there are many many gospel-preaching churches, but very, very few of them are in Spanish,” Tim Martin told UI Connections. He’s planting Grace and Truth Church – Iglesia Gracia y Verdad – in Boise and is co-director of Send Network Espanol’s Church Planting Residency in Spanish, Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias en español. 

“In areas of the country like Idaho, where Baptist resources are limited and recruitment from outside is very difficult, it seems the only realistic way to reach this community of Spanish speakers is to prepare bivocational native Spanish speaking pastors who are raised up from within and trained to lead these new works,” Martin continued.  

“We’ve got to train them and send them, and not ask them to quit their job, but to embrace the calling to bivocational ministry. Then team them up with another trained bivocational pastor to share the work. 

“You don’t try to get one guy to do that,” Martin said, speaking of starting, nurturing and growing a church. “It’s too much, but two guys working and doing ministry together is sustainable.” 

Turns out Martin wasn’t the first Southern Baptist to have the idea. 

For the last four years, The North American Mission Board’s Send Network Español (SNE) has been working with state conventions, associations and seminaries in 37 locations across the nation to have a church planting residency program for Spanish-speakers. 

Salt Lake City’s began in August 2022, led by Leonardo Lopez, founding pastor of Sola Gracia Iglesia Bautista in West Jordan. It was Send Network Español’s sixth Hispanic church planting residency in the nation. Since starting Utah’s Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias en español, Sola Gracia also has started six other Hispanic churches, including Iglesia Gracia y Verdad in Boise. 

Treasure Valley’s Hispanic church planting residency program anticipates similar results. But to start at the beginning … 

Martin and his homeschooled family were faith missionaries in Panama, where they learned Spanish. When they moved to Idaho, he noticed the dearth of gospel-preaching churches in Spanish. 

There are about 100,000 Hispanics in Treasure Valley and for 75 percent, Spanish is their first and primary language. Metro Boise’s total population spread across its five-county area in southwestern Idaho is about 850,000. 

“We praise God that there are a growing number of gospel-preaching churches in the valley in English,” Martin continued. “The number of gospel-preaching churches in Spanish? Four or five, and they’re all small. In terms of access to the gospel, there’s a need for a lot more churches in Spanish.” 

David Godoy is the West’s regional leader for Send Network Español. He met Martin and Roy Vargas this summer at an associational meeting. 

Martin with co-pastor Ignacio Mireles started a home Bible study in January 2024 that grew into Iglesia Gracia y Verdad. Vargas had connected through a mutual friend in Latin America with Clint Henry, pastor of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho. This summer Vargas started a Bible study that now numbers 16, as the first step toward becoming Central Valley Español. 

“I hope God will give me men to disciple and more than that,” Vargas said. “The vision is for the valley to have bilingual, Hispanic, men preaching the Bible based on sound doctrine, building churches willing to care for those people far from God but close to us. 

“We tend to romanticize missionaries,” Vargas continued. “But the Bible says, ‘When the Holy Spirit comes, He will give you power,’ and that’s right where you are. Maybe you’re not being called to India. What are you doing in your local context? That’s the mindset we need to train for these students to advance God’s kingdom right where they are.” 

Godoy, interested in a Hispanic church planting residency program in Idaho, asked Martin and Vargas if they would be willing to commit to spreading the word about an informational meeting. 

“When David spoke, saying ‘We’ve got all the material,’ it touched my heart,” Martin said. “It was such a precise answer to my prayers. It’s what we need. It was giving us the resources so we could be strategic here in advancing the Kingdom of God especially among Spanish-speakers. 

“I told him, ‘I will invite as many as I can,’ and in the end we had 45,” Martin said. 

“In the United States we have more than 65 million Hispanics,” Godoy told UI Connections. “Even though Latinos are 19.5 percent of the population they do not represent 19.5 percent of the body of Christ in this country. 

“We need to engage cities, make disciples and plant churches to reach the ever-growing Spanish-speaking population,” Godoy continued. “One-third speak Spanish only.” 

Melvin Oliva, who works as a janitor at two places in Boise, is a member of Iglesia Gracia y Verdad in Boise. He decided to enter the residency program because, “It is a brilliant and excellent opportunity for any member of a Christian congregation of sound doctrine who wants to serve the Lord with their heart in different areas of ministry,” Oliver said.  

“It is also our duty as believers to bring the evangelization of salvation to others,” the Guatemalan continued. “It is a huge personal effort to have to make time for my family, work more than 12 hours a day all week, read books, and prepare homework. It sounds stressful, but this sacrifice is truly worth it and Christ allows us to do all of this with His strength,” referring to Philippians 4:13. “Tim Martin and Ignacio Mireles are a great support, especially for my spiritual growth and that of my family.”  

By August 12, Oliva was among seven “very faithful” students registered and doing the work toward a 13-credit hour certificate from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Gateway Seminary. “At least four others are not doing it for credit, but they’re not as regular,” Martin said. 

Classes meet for three hours each week. So far there have been three weeks (9 in-class hours each) spent on spiritual disciplines, church planting and a call to the ministry. In November the session on “Marriage and Family” is to include a six-hour family conference open to all Spanish-speaking churches. 

The year-long Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias en español program consists of 12 subjects, 25 books (half of which require written reports; half, oral presentations) for 36 weeks followed by 15 weeks on expository preaching.  

Send Network Espanol provides all the Power Point presentations and the curriculum. Martin, Mireles and Vargas lead classes. A number of Hispanic pastors and planters from the region also have been invited to lead classes. 

“Leonardo [Lopez of Sola Gracia in West Jordan, Utah] has been a great mentor in all this,” Martin said. “Also [Regional Leader of Send Network Español David] Godoy.” 

Vargas went through the Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias en español in North Carolina; Martin did so in Utah. 

“Ignacio [Mireles] is helping us too,” Martin said. “Reports, grading, accountability. Theres a lot to do. 

“A week ago I started a whole session with, ‘Satan is not happy we’re doing this.’ We broke up into pairs and prayed for each other. They were like, ‘Yeah; I’m feeling it,’ the spiritual oppression.  

“One of the students, who attends a non-Southern Baptist church, said the pastor there for 10 years or more is retiring and church is basically closing, but this man [the student] isn’t ready to be pastor. This is another bit of evidence how needed this program is.”  

SNE’s Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias en español started this Aug. 4 with an orientation for the students and their wives. Since then, the subject’s leader decides where the class is to take place each Tuesday. Coffee and snacks or perhaps something more substantial is provided by students who sign up to be that evening’s host. 

“This isn’t a residency of one church but an area-wide effort serving all the churches affiliated with Treasure Valley Baptist Association,” Martin said. “Every three weeks we’re going to different churches, partly to help these churches feel connected to us, and the guys to them. 

“This week we’re starting to do something with the wives to try to build into them too, because church planting is a family affair.” Martin continued in late September. 

“Utah had seven go through the residency last year, so God is putting together church planting teams from us and these guys going through the program there,” Martin said. “There’s a lot going on.

“Leo [Leonardo Lopez] has got a super great vision for church planting and he’s implementing it. They have 70 people [attending Sola Gracia West Jordan] but they’re going, starting churches.” 

Yocksan Santoyo, a construction worker and a student at SNE’s Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias en español, is a member of Iglesia Bautista Nueva Esperanza  in Ontario, Ore., which affiliates with the Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. 

He became a student, “To help my church because right now it’s needing a new pastor,” Santoyo said. “The one we had, had to go to Mexico three years ago and can’t get back. I’m helping him, opening the service, praying, a little preaching.  

“I like the program because it’s helping me grow as a Christian and to help more people,” the Spanish-speaker said in fluent English. “If I become a pastor after, praise the Lord. Right now we take it slow.” 

A Spanish language version of this article is available here