AG Office of Hispanic Relations Awarded $1.5 Million for New REACH Center
Lilly Endowment Inc. issued a $1.5 million grant to the Office of Hispanic Relations to establish the Hispanic REACH Center designed to effectively support and train current and future Hispanic leaders.
The Assemblies of God Office of Hispanic Relations has received a $1.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its National Initiative to Strengthen Hispanic Pastoral Leaders and Congregations. The grant will enable the creation of the AG Hispanic REACH Center, which will focus on Research, Education, Adaptability, Cultural Awareness, and Health of Hispanic churches and leaders.According to Dennis Rivera, director of AG Hispanic and Ethnic Relations, the REACH Center will contract experienced researchers to train and equip a team of key leaders from within the 14 AG Hispanic districts. This team will in turn conduct research and assessments that address the unique current and future missional and sustainability needs of Hispanic Assemblies of God ministries, pastors, leaders, and congregations.
“The goal of this project is to improve our Hispanic pastoral ministry training resources, develop new resources, and support the ministry of current as well as future leaders from within the AG Hispanic districts,” Rivera says.
Rivera will be the executive director for the REACH Center, while Andy Smith will be the senior director of the center. Smith, a former pastor of Hispanic churches in Utah and Montana, a former AGWM missionary to Honduras, and who currently is in his seventh year as the secretary-treasurer for the Central District/Distrito Central (Hispanic), has been credentialed with the AG for more than 20 years.
The five-year grant was awarded with the stipulation that two-thirds of the grant monies be used to build capacity and sustainability in the Office of Hispanic Relations’ ability to serve the Hispanic ministries of the AG.
According to a statement from the organization concerning the National Initiative to Strengthen Hispanic Pastoral Leaders and Congregations, “The aim of Lilly Endowment’s initiative is to support and strengthen Hispanic pastoral leaders and congregations and build and expand the capacities of organizations and networks that support their ministries.”
Plans are already moving forward to acquire the services of qualified trainers in various ministry skills, Rivera says. A directors team meeting is already scheduled for later this month, with the goal of launching the year-one agenda so that research can begin by mid-2025.
Rivera states: “Our hope is that through this grant we will help meet the need for pastoral replenishment, pastoral resilience, address the challenge of retiring pastors and healthy transitions, assist with advancements in technology, as well as respond to the stress and wellness issues that our Hispanic AG pastors and churches have faced in the last decade and will continue to face in the coming years.”
The AG Office of Hispanic Relations is one of 23 organizations from across the United States receiving grants through the initiative, including congregations, denominational agencies, church networks, theological schools, colleges and universities, and parachurch organizations, among others.
ABOUT LILLY ENDOWMENT INC.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A primary aim of its grantmaking in religion is to deepen the religious lives of Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance congregational vitality and strengthen the leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment values the broad diversity of Christian traditions and endeavors to support them in a wide variety of contexts. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion by encouraging fair, accurate, and balanced portrayals of the positive and negative effects of religion on the world and lifting up the contributions that people of all faiths make to our greater civic well-being.