EP19: Serving the Hispanic Community at Grace Church

Welcome back or to the Grace Church Members Podcast.

I'm your host, Chris Rivers, and I'm thrilled to have you join us

today. In this episode we have a.

Thought provoking discussion with Scott Mazingo and our

special guest Brandon Garcia, we get an update on our Espanol

campus and we also delve deep into the pursuit of the American

Dream and its potential impact on our spiritual and family

lives. Brandon Garcia currently serves

as the Espanol Campus Pastor and we also talk about his role in

leading his entire campus through region, a discipleship

process centered around life change and the practical

application of God's Word. It is a.

A jam packed interview and I'm excited for you to hear this

conversation because it reminds me that God is working among us

in incredible ways. So without further ado, let's

jump right into this conversation I have with Scott

and Brandon. Brandon is great to see you

today well. I'm happy to be here, Chris.

Yeah. And Scott, good to see you.

Hey, Chris. Good afternoon.

Yeah, well, let's just jump right into it.

Brandon would love to hear a little bit more of your story

here, how you got to Grace and what you're even doing now.

Well, it was November 2017 when I came to Greenville, but that

time they were looking, we were looking for a worship leader.

So Robbie was a campus pastor. If you're a regular listener,

you hear about his story a couple of weeks ago and they

were doing some research to bring someone to lead worship at

the Espanol campus. We did some interviews, but we

were not sure that this was going to be a for real

opportunity. But then they got us tickets, so

we came and visit. And we tickets where where were?

You. Well, I was born and raised in

Costa Rica. I was married at that time,

maybe a year for a year. So we came in January 2017 and

it was so cold for us. I mean, we were dying, but we

really liked Greenville and we really liked the church.

So we've been here for almost 6 years now.

Wow. Hey, I heard a rumor on how you

learn to speak English. Yeah, how did you learn to speak

English? Well, at that time I I'm, I

don't know how you know Matt Kelly and Brian Darnell, they

were able to understand what what I was saying.

They asked me to sing. That's what I did.

But but I just learned little by little, you know, with the

songs. Some TV too, but specifically

when I moved here and I had to work with some other worship

leaders, yeah, and they helped me a lot.

I heard Netflix. Netflix is, yeah, for sure.

It's a tool there. Are definitely some songs that

I've heard on the Spotify playlist for the worship album

that you have done. And I love them, especially just

the Espanol versions. Yeah.

So it's good to have you. So you've been you were at

Espanol as a worship leader, so tell us what you're doing now.

Well, September 2022, Robbie transitioned into an outreach

role as an international pastor, and I have the privilege to

serve as a campus pastor at Espanol.

Wow. So.

That's awesome. Hopefully everybody knows that's

listening that we have an Espanol campus, but why don't

you just give us a little bit of background on the campus and

tell us why, Why do we have an Espanol campus?

Yeah. So in case you don't know, one

of our 10 campuses is actually a campus in which we speak

Spanish, and we call it Grace Church in Espanol because we do

same teaching, same series, same church, but just in a different

language. Around 8 years ago our leaders

they they saw an opportunity to disciple the Hispanic community

in the upstate. So we started with with Grace

Church in Espanol. But now the the reality is is

way different. 10% of the Green Book County population is

actually Latino. So one out of 10 people is is

speak Spanish. So we have a huge opportunity

to. To reach out and to those

families and spread the the good news.

Hey, tell us a little bit about what does church life for the

Latino population typically look like in the Upstate?

Well, unfortunately there are not a lot of healthy churches.

And when I say healthy, I mean you know, churches that are

defined by the scriptures. So a lot of our people, they

come with wounds based on manipulation.

A lot of prosperity gospel is around.

So that is most of the reality here in the Upstate.

And that's great. Brandon.

Tell us some challenges that you guys have at the Espanol campus

that are unique to you in your context.

Yeah. So just imagine we have 14

different countries represented, so.

It's a cool thing, but it's a unique situation.

Our accents are different, our traditions are different.

Even though we all speak Spanish, we have to grow and to

be patient and be tolerant with each other.

Give us an example so you don't have to name all 14, but which

countries are we talking about? What are the big?

Five. So for instance, the Caribbean

countries, they are so loud and so energetic.

Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, they have energy all

day long and they if they go to your house, they're going to

stay forever and they're having a good time all the time

laughing. But then we have other countries

like Costa Rica, we're more like laid back, like we have a phrase

that is puta Vida, which is pure life and it means like hakuna

matata, like, hey, take it slow. Yeah, just till.

It's all the surfing that you. Guys do.

So you might think that we all are the same, but actually 14

different countries is it's a it's a unique opportunity, but

at the same time bring some tension.

And another challenge that we can see is, you know when you're

an immigrant in this country, you have a mentality that is

based on work, work and work and whether you like it or not,

you're pursuing the American Dream.

And once you're here, your your rhythm changes.

You're moving into a fast pace and you can easily get

ambitious. You can easily just, you know,

want more and more. And productivity can become an

idol. Wealth is easy, can can become

an idol too. And you're starting to pursue

things that are not actually going to feel your soul.

So it's been cool to see when people realize that what they

need is not actually what they're pursuing.

When they realize that work, work, work and having more money

is not going to satisfy their souls and it's not going to be

good for their families either. So I'm just glad to be part of

this this Apple ship journey for for those families and how they

are embracing serving for instance, instead of just

working or spending time in community as a way to.

You know, focus on things that are important.

Yeah, let's talk about that for a second because each of our

campuses has some unique attributes.

All of our English speaking campuses have unique attributes.

That was part of our We Choose plan in the fall was to identify

some specific initiatives for each of our campus that are all

tied to discipleship. So like what are you guys doing

that is unique to Grace and Espanol?

Around trying to make more disciples of Jesus.

Yeah, that's a great question. A big one for us was next

generation. You know, we have, as I say,

we're the same church, so we do have Fusion, we have 24/7, we

have Forge Grace, church kids and all of that.

However, we have to adapt some of those programs to make it

relevant and effective for our kids.

Why? Why I say that?

Because we have. Kids who were born here and they

grew up here and they are really involved in the American culture

and language and and they are pretty much Americans.

But then we also have some families who move here three or

six months ago who they don't, you know, manage the English

language that well or they don't know the culture.

So how can we disciple a group of people that is that diverse?

It creates a lot of challenges. So you know just just think

about this. When we have to find a leader,

he or she, they they need to be bilingual and they need to be

able to communicate to both cultures.

So I think that with the next generation the identity is is a

big piece because for for this next generation that that is,

that is a big question. Who am I, you know, am I Latina,

am I Hispanic? What culture I belong?

So it's crucial for us to just disciple our kids and for them

to to remember that their identities, space and Jesus and

who he said they they are. Because if you layer the

American dream mentality on top of the next generation, trying

to figure out where they fit culturally, I can imagine it

gets really complicated. It does get really complicated,

so I'm just glad that we have the opportunity to serve our

community. And just bring Jesus to their

mentality. You had mentioned wealth and

pursuit finances. You have some unique situations

that play at play in the Grace and Espanol campus.

Tell us a little bit about one of your initiatives around

generosity, Yeah. Well, we actually had a class

Money Matters last fall. And it was, it was great because

I actually learned a lot from that class.

I learned that here's the thing, we need to grow in generosity.

But our people is really generous.

If you go to their houses, they're going to feed you and

probably enough for next day, you know, and they are actually

sending a lot of money to their countries.

They are helping or even supporting.

Their families in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Central

America. So they are being generous.

However, that's not the same story with the church.

Unfortunately we didn't we didn't see that it translate the

same way and they're giving to to our church.

So that creates an opportunity again for discipleship to just

remind them that an expression of healthy.

Disciple and follower of Christ is also to be part of what God

is doing in their community. You have to really think well

about the idea of family, family of origin, and then also church

family, yeah. What are some initiatives you

guys are up to right now? Well, some things that are

really excited about that. I can tell you a little bit is

we started to have Mosaic. Because we had the.

And maybe for our listeners who don't know what that is, explain

that too. Yeah, so Misiac is a ministry

that we have a church to disciple those individuals with

special needs In our campus. We have families with children's

in the spectrum. So we saw the need to disciple

them and for them to to learn also about.

The word about Jesus and we started this this ministry, but

it's been great because a lot of other families are getting to

grace because they heard they find out that we have an unique

environment for for their kids and that is that is really

exciting. Yeah, it is.

We the last weekend I was at Powdersville campus and someone

came in and they had a Mosaic child and they had been going

from church to church and to see that ministry, it was such a

great ministry. That's awesome.

What are some other initiatives you guys are up to?

Well, a big one for us that happened probably a year ago was

region. We were having community groups

just like any other campus, but we saw the need for our people

to dive deep into the gospel and grow in vulnerability.

So we basically shut down community groups and everybody

had to go to the region. Wow.

That was a big decision, but but let me tell you, it was worth.

How in the world did you rally your entire campus to do that?

Yeah, well you know it creates some unique challenges.

It was not easy at first, but it was worth it.

You know if you have done region, you know that you have

to be intentional, you have to read, you have to spend time

along with the material. But so, so that was one of the

biggest challenges I think for us because you know community

group doesn't have that day-to-day routine in which you

have to spend time and be this discipline.

But I think that over 80 people graduated from from region and

it was the first church that ever done region in Spanish.

So Espanol campus was the first church campus that has ever gone

through region in Spanish. That's right.

So we we work with church in the Dallas Metroplex area called

Watermark and they had the material and it was translated.

But we were one of we were the 1st.

We were the 1st and. And one, and that's a large

group, it's not 880 is a large number of individuals to go

through. Yeah, And the material was being

translated as we were going through the material.

So sometimes it was really, you know, stressful because we

needed to start step four and it was not quite ready, but

everything worked out. Dells A couple other things that

are happening at the campus right now.

Yeah. So it's our conference.

It's also a big. Reason for us to celebrate

because it's not just a tool for us to equip our women but also

women from other churches and even countries or states are

coming to to those conferences. We have the Shame Conference and

last fall and we also have Biblical Femininity Conference.

Another reason why I'm also excited is because for a while

we were having another service in Spartanburg.

And I was, it was it was so cool to to reach out to that

community in this partner. But for now it was so clear that

it was in the right next step to join together again as just one

campus and just reunite and be concentrated to care and

disciple for for our people because we're growing so right

now with with both of our campuses.

Joining in one location, we're talking about 350 adults.

Wow. So we're excited and you know,

we don't know what's in the future.

We may be able to open another campus or open another service,

but for now, that's what we're doing and I'm excited to see

what Guy has for us. Who on staff is helping you care

for this large group? Yeah, we have a great team.

Daniel Pastran is a worship leader, but he also does AV and

help with video and slides and designs.

Just imagine our lyrics are in Spanish, our announcements are

in Spanish, our Facebook page is in Spanish, so we need a lot of

translation, so he helps us with that.

Then we have Maji Mitchell. And you know, her last name is

not Hispanic, but she's from Columbia and she's a great

admin, just keeping things together.

And then we have an MVP volunteer.

Her name is Anna Casalis. She's not on staff, but she

works. With us, with students and

children's, and she's doing a great, a great job.

Well, this has been great to hear about your staff, about the

unique challenges that you have, the initiatives.

Is there anything else you just want to leave us with?

Yeah. I just want to ask you to, to

keep praying for us, for, for our campus, for our leaders, our

community, our groups, ministries, everything that

we're doing. And I also want to encourage you

to invite whoever you might think that will take advantage

of service and a campus church family.

And in Spanish, our doors are open and we will just send them

our way. Tell us a little bit where we

where are we finding you what times of services?

So our services right now are at 11152701 Way, Hampton Blvd.

You know Taylor's campus, they have a service at 9:15 and then

we have a service at 11:15. And what do you do with English

speakers? Show up.

Can we come? Well, actually you're not

invited now. I'm just kidding.

Of course you can come. We actually have our lyrics in

English on the side. So.

So you know, you can sing in English.

That's fine. And sometimes we also have

translation for you available. So yeah, if you're you're more

than welcome to come. That's right.

Yeah, and I would encourage someone listening at it's home

one Sunday and they're like, you know what, I think we need to go

try out Grayson Espanol. They just need to come.

Don't think about it. Just show up.

That's right. Awesome.

Well, thanks for joining us today, Brandon.

We're really grateful for you and your family and your staff.

It's been a great interview. Thank you guys I.

See you, Brandon, here. Well, as we wrap up today's

episode, I hope you were encouraged by what you heard.

Please be. Sure to.

Check out the podcast page located in the Show Notes For

more information and additional resources.

Thanks for joining us today. And we look forward to joining

you. On the next episode.