Influencing the Influencers

BY LARRY ACOSTA

THE HISPANIC MINISTRY CENTER HOSTS THE NATIONAL HISPANIC YOUTH WORKERS SUMMIT
Leadership seems to be the buzz word of the 90’s. Ministries and organizations seem to rise and fall based on leadership. We at the Hispanic Ministry Center believe that one of the most significant investments that we can make is in the lives of emerging and existing leaders. To be specific, our focus is on Hispanic leaders due to the fact that they represent the fastest growing segment of our society.

In an attempt to influence the regional influencers of our country, HMC hosted a National Hispanic Youth Worker’s Summit which brought together 36 key Hispanic Youth Leaders from each region of the country. These leaders were from various denominations and organizations and came together to share their strengths for the purpose of creating Hispanic youth ministry resources.

It was exciting to watch these leaders interact in their areas of expertise through our focus groups and to actually emerge by the end of the summit with outlines, and deadlines for the forthcoming resources. These resources will serve as equipping tools by Latinos for Latinos who desire to provide more effective youth ministry resources. As you know, many youth ministry resources exist in English, but often the ideas and concepts are not culturally transferable or sensitive to the needs of urban Hispanic youth. Our goal is to utilize Latinos to develop relevant curriculum, mentoring manuals, discipleship handbooks and a host of Hispanic youth ministry “how-to” books.

Stay tuned as we together advance Hispanic youth ministry.

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