By Laura McKillip Wood
David Mejia and his wife, Jhuliana, moved with their three children to Little Rock, Arkansas. They didn’t know anyone in their community when they arrived, but they trusted that God was leading them to the place where he wanted them. Before long a local congregation, Little Rock Church, agreed to let them use some of their space, and they began working toward a new church plant. This church would specifically reach out to the Hispanic community of the city. Soon other Hispanic families began helping them. Despite its quiet beginning, this three-year-old church now has an average attendance of 120 people. They are reaching many nationalities of Latinos in the Little Rock area, and they have helped start other Hispanic churches in Arkansas. God has used David and Jhuliana in great ways for the growth of the kingdom, and he continues to do so!
The Mission
David does not work alone; he serves with an organization called Latino Christian Movement. This organization officially began in March 2022 with a goal of planting one Hispanic church per year and 10 churches by 2032. LCM grew much more quickly than anticipated, however, and in the past two years they have helped start 10 Hispanic ministries: four in Arkansas, one in Colorado, one in Nebraska, two in Florida, one in Mississippi, and one in Indiana. Their reach has expanded far beyond their original focus on Little Rock as God has led them to other areas of the United States where Latino communities need the influence of a godly presence.
Another Mission
John Bliffen grew up around Bible colleges. His father, Jack, worked at several Christian colleges, including Kentucky Christian College (now Kentucky Christian University) and Atlanta Christian College (now Point University). John’s family moved quite often when he was young, but finally settled in Memphis, Tennessee when his father became president of Mid-South Christian College. After high school, John graduated from MSCC with a bachelor’s degree in Christian ministry.
Upon completing his degree at MSCC, John served as the minister of Senatobia Christian Church in Mississippi. “I always wanted to be involved in ministry,” Bliffen says. A few years later, he went to Cincinnati Bible Seminary to complete a Master of Arts Degree in Theology. “While at CBS,” John explained, “I felt the call to be involved in missions. “The door to full-time missionary worked opened for John and his wife, Becky, after a 1984 internship in Uruguay with Team Expansion. “Since then,” Bliffen notes, “we have served in mission work with Team Expansion among Spanish speaking populations in Uruguay, Ecuador, Cuba, Miami, and Spain.”
Eventually, the Bliffens returned to Memphis where they currently reside and John became a professor at Mid-South Christian College, teaching classes in Spanish to the college’s Latino students. All the while, he continued to serve within Hispanic ministries. John’s concern for reaching the Hispanic community for Christ eventually grew into a vision for equipping younger people to serve as ministers to the Latino community in America.
A New Focus
In 2019, when John and his wife finished their missionary ministry in Spain, the director of the Arkansas Church Planting Network asked them to help start a Hispanic church in Little Rock. “At that stage in my career,” John states, “I felt it was time to become a mentor of younger Hispanic church planters. So, we called our first Hispanic church planter, David Mejia,” and John began mentoring David in this ministry.
The church David and Jhuliana planted quickly proved viable, and the Mejias seemed made for the job. “Once this church plant was seen as successful,” John says, “we were asked to plant others, and then to expand this idea to other regions as well.” The new vision of Latino Christian Movement, according to Bliffen, is to start 10 networks of Hispanic churches by 2032 instead of the original goal of starting 10 churches by 2032.Latino Christian Movement is currently working in four regions of the United States: the Midsouth, Midwest, Plains, and Southeast. “Our mission is to provide the tools and programs necessary to plant healthy Hispanic churches and ministries that will multiply throughout the United States,” John explains. LCM trains and equips Latino pastors to start new churches in their communities and to maintain them over time. To accomplish this, they partner with church planting agencies like ACPN, Nexus, Florida Church Planters, and Ignite.
Mentoring a New Generation
One of the most important components of LCM’s work, and one of Bliffen’s favorite parts of this ministry, is the mentoring program. John knows the struggle of being young and in ministry, and he hopes to help younger Hispanic pastors by mentoring them in their faith and their work. A network of such pastors meets every month via Zoom to encourage one another, share their lives and ministries with one another, and to receive helpful and necessary training from John, who has been where they are now. They call themselves “La Red,” Spanish for “network,” and they are working together to form a small community of pastors.
Dreams
John appreciates many aspects of his work with LCM, but some things stand out more than others. “My favorite thing about working with LCM is to see the great interest and involvement in Hispanic church planting in the U.S.,” John explains. “In the past two years, I’ve seen much more interest in this effort than in any previous time.” He elaborates by saying, “Our country has seen an enormous influx of Latinos in recent years, and we need to reach out to them with the Word of God through loving communities of faith.” Latino Christian Movement has the goal of doing just that, and they are well on their way to meeting that goal.
To learn more about the work of John, David, and their families, and the ministry of Latino Christian Movement, visit their website at https://www.latinocm.com/about-us.
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