08201
March 13, 2008

A place of belonging

Salvadoran-American pastor puts Christ at the center of  new Houston congregation

by Emily Enders Odom
Associate, Mission Communications
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The Rev. Mauricio Chacon (left), pastor of the Fuente new church development, and his wife, Gladys (right),with the burgeoning congregation. Photo by Courtney Forbes

HOUSTON — Even as a young law student in his native El Salvador, Mauricio Chacon knew that someday he would work for justice.

Little did he imagine, however, that it would be not as a lawyer, but as a community pastor, called to plant churches in new immigrant communities, first in San Francisco and now here.

Chacon, who came to the United States in the late 1970s before civil war broke out in El Salvador, was educated at McCormick Theological Seminary and ordained in 1993 by the San Francisco Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 

In July 2007, he left a 14-year ministry in San Francisco to accept a call to Houston’s  4,500-member Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church. Chacon’s charge was to start a new Hispanic congregation under the auspices of Memorial Drive’s Barnabas Ministry, named for the great “encourager” of the first century church, which seeks to plant new churches in the Houston area.

“I believe with all my heart that the Lord has sent me to work in this place in a new model of church,” Chacon said, “a church that will focus its support on our community and its people.”

The Barnabas Ministry, which was started in 2003 and later strengthened as part of  Memorial Drive’s pledge to the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) campaign, identified a need in late 2006 to start a new congregation in the Spring Branch community, an area populated primarily by Mexican, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan immigrants. 

MIJHH is the five-year campaign of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to raise $40 million for new international mission personnel and for church development in the U.S., particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations.  

“Memorial Drive’s Barnabas Ministry was praying for this new church even before there was any idea where the church would be located and before a pastor search was launched,” said Elder Robert Westheimer, founder of the Barnabas Ministry.  “God has led this effort from inception and will continue leading it.  We have been consistently surprised at His faithfulness and at how He reveals His plans to us.”

Named the Iglesia Fuente de Esperanza (“Fountain of Hope Church”), Chacon first launched the new ministry in space provided by a school in the Spring Branch area.  Fuente, with its strong commitment to contextualize the gospel in and for the community, soon began to attract a steady and growing number of Sunday worshipers, many of whom were new to the faith. 

Working together, Barnabas volunteers partnered with Fuente members to provide worship, Sunday school, Bible studies, and evangelistic ministries to reach out to the unchurched in the Spring Branch area. In November 2007, Fuente held its first confirmation class, after which fourteen young people were confirmed, four of whom were also baptized.

“When we made the commitment a few years ago to plant new churches, we had no idea what we were getting into,” said the Rev. David Peterson, pastor of Memorial Drive and co-chair of the MIJHH national steering committee. “This has been a huge learning experience for us and is introducing us to a new set of questions to drive our congregation’s larger ministry.  This project has pushed us out the door of Memorial Drive and onto the streets of Houston.”

As both the attendance and the community’s hunger for the good news increased, it became evident that Fuente needed its own space.  Members of the Barnabas Ministry team soon located and leased a vacant church building, which became Fuente’s new home on March 1, 2008.  The sanctuary will be dedicated on Palm Sunday, March 16.

“The people at Memorial Drive believe that it is essential that they share the gospel with everybody,” Chacon said, “even if God leads them to ‘the other side of the freeway.’  Because we truly want to be here, the gospel is being embodied and communicated authentically.”

With the move into its new facility, Fuente plans to expand it ministries to include an after-school program, a food pantry, and English classes for parents.  There are also plans underway to host a summer soccer camp, in which the youth from both Fuente and Memorial Drive will conduct a vacation Bible school for first through third graders in the community.

“We understand the needs of the immigrants living away from their families, people who are living and working here, often below the poverty level, to support their families in their countries of origin,” Chacon said. “We understand the needs of the families raising their children in a society different from their own.We understand the needs of our elders who are struggling with a language different than theirs, limiting their opportunities. Church is a place where they can come and feel that they belong.”  

Chacon has further extended that offer of welcome to a domestic violence victims support group, which is now meeting in the church. While in San Francisco, he organized and resourced a similar group, Hombres Latinos against Domestic Violence.

To further develop his gifts to minister to this and other emergent needs among new immigrants, he is currently a candidate for a Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling at San Francisco Theological Seminary.

“Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday is a fitting day on which to dedicate this church’s own journey toward new life,” Peterson said.