| Reinaldo Figueroa From the Academy to the Pulpit: A Pentecostal Testimony

One of the experiences that has profoundly shaped my theological journey is becoming a local pastor of a Latino church. I was at the end of my PhD coursework when I started working at a local church. For more than two years, I was deeply involved in the rigorous life of thinking, writing, and researching, solely in the academic context. Now I was stepping into a new reality: ministry. Being involved in ministry has helped me to rethink my way of doing theology, just as ministry helps me to get my feet on the ground. I am between two worlds: academia and the Church. Today I fnd myself writing my dissertation as a Ph.D. candidate, and at the same time, writing weekly sermons for the local church.

During my dissertation feld research, I stumbled upon an issue that most Latino/a local pastors were struggling with, namely engaging publicly with issues of migration, racism, injustice, and oppression (among others) that afect their local church members. This fnding matches my personal experiences as an adjunct professor for Latino studies at various seminaries, specifcally with Latino Pentecostal local pastors. Every semester, these same issues come to the surface from my conversations and discussions with students.

Through these experiences, I have become more aware of the necessity of doing contextual theology for Latinos/ as in the United States. Being with people and seeing their challenges and struggles in life as Latino/a migrants and as a minority population in the US has shaped my understanding of how necessary it is to engage these issues the pulpit.1 Why the pulpit? The pulpit is from where I share the word of God every Sunday. Without a doubt, God has something to say about the everyday issues surrounding my Latino community.

1 To be clear, I am not arguing that the pulpit is the only place to engage with the public sphere, only that our public engagement as pastor-theologians should start from the pulpit.

This essay aims to discuss how a Latino/a Pentecostal local pastor can engage publicly from the pulpit with issues surrounding the Latinos/as in the US. Because the local pastor is responsible for discipling their local churches concerning public issues and engaging with the broader society, I argue that local pastors must recover their identity as local public theologians and use preaching to engage every dimension of society. For instance, sermons must have a section that directly addresses society.

To accomplish this, in the frst section of the essay, I will defne public theology and its importance for publicly engaging Latino issues. The second section of the essay explores some public realities surrounding Latinos/as in the US. The third section will discuss the role of the local Pentecostal pastor as a public theologian. The fourth section presents how local pastors can engage public issues from the pulpit. And he ffth section will draw some missiological implications of the topic, exploring preaching as a social act.

Within this essay, I am limiting myself to classical Pentecostals, a form of denominationalism.2 Pentecostalism is not a homogenous movement, and because of its highly contextual nature, it takes the form of the context in which it is found. My pastoral experience, research, and teaching

2 Eldin Villafañe highlights fve types of Pentecostalism: 1) classical Pentecostals; 2) neopentecostals; 3) charismatics Catholics; 4) Independent Pentecostals and 5) indigenous Pentecostals. For a more complete explanation, see, Introducción Al Pentecostalismo: Manda Fuego Señor. (Nashville: Abingdon, 2012), 20–21; and Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 1–7.

326 | Reinaldo Figueroa experience have been mainly focused on Latino/a Pentecostals in the southeast region of the US. As I write this chapter, I have in mind my fellow brothers and sisters that are local pastors. Local pastors have many responsibilities in a local church, but I have limited my discussion to the pulpit here, or, in other words, the responsibility of preaching.

This section will frst briefy discuss what public theology is and why it is important. Many Latino Pentecostals circles emphasize the dichotomy of church and society, holy and profane, and the kingdom of God and the forces of evil.4

Darío López argues that many Latin American and Caribbean Pentecostals have taken an apolitical posture, meaning they do not see the need to engage with the public sphere.5 This is not rooted in a posture of hope but in disillusion, for as Amos Yong points out, “An apolitical mentality suggests that things will get worse before they get better, and they will only get better after the return of Jesus Christ.”6 Thus, the tendency of Latino/a Pentecostals to be apolitical and their eschatological postulate about the end of the world has led the majority of them not to want anything to do with the society in which they live.7

Yet the day-to-day lives of Latinos/as are lived in public spaces, and God is just as interested in Monday as Sunday.

3 Public theology.

4 Darío López, La Política del Espíritu: Espiritualidad, Ética y Política (Lima, Perú: Ediciones Puma, 2019), 107–108.

5 Ibid., 107.

6 See, Amos Yong, In the Days of Caesars: Pentecostalism and Political Theology (Grand Rapids: Eardmans, 2010) 4–11.

7 I must clarify that there are Latino/a Pentecostals that engage with society. See, for example, Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).

Public theology, then, can help us to rethink our positions, roles, and responsibilities as citizens of a society. So, what is public theology? According to Jef Fountain, public theology “informs the faith community as it moves beyond personal discipleship and church life into the plaza pública (public square).”8 It is a tool that can equip local Pentecostal Latino/a churches to engage issues that reach beyond the church walls. In other words, “Public theology deals with faith in daily life, from Monday to Saturday.”9 There are many defnitions of public theology, but Fountain’s defnition here provides the fundamentals to start our conversation on the topic.10 Public theology informs and forms Christian believers to think theologically about society and their responsibilities as citizens. Thus, theological work cannot be limited to the four walls of the local church. This type of theology invites us to think theologically about the work of God in society. From this defnition, here are fve essential things that Latino/a Pentecostal pastors could learn from public theology. Public theology helps us to do the following:

1. Engage and think theologically about society and public life.

2. Be citizens of a society where we are responsible for contributing to and shaping society.

3. Make theology accessible to everyone, Christians and non-Christians. Theology moves beyond the four walls of the local church building.

8 Jef Fountain, “¡¿Teología Pública?!,” Protestante Digital, December 13, 2021. https://protestantedigital.com/actualidad/63893/teologia-publica.

9 Ibid.

10 For more defnitions, see Jurgen Moltmann, God for a Secular Society: The Public Relevance of Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999), 5. Charles Mathewes, A Theology of Public Life (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 2–4. And Sebastian Kim, Theology in the Public Sphere: Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate (London: SCM Press, 2011), 3.

4. Understand that God wants the fourishing of society. The works of God are not limited to the local church.

5. Recognize that God is actively working in society. God is responsible for the whole world and is working actively on it.

Public theology is a reminder to Latino/a Pentecostal local churches of our responsibility of being a public and relevant church for society. Our local pastors and churches must engage and participate actively in public life. This is important because many public issues directly afect our Latino/a church members. As local pastors, it is irresponsible for us to ignore, hide or not speak publicly about these issues. The following section will briefy explore two of these issues.

In this section, I will discuss some of the signifcant public issues surrounding Latino/as communities in the US. Latinos/as are spread all over the US, and depending on their context, these issues will vary. Mindful of such variations, I am not trying to put all Latinos/as under one umbrella; instead, I am highlighting here broad issues that may afect a large sector of the Latino community in the US. Before discussing these issues, however, let us examine who, exactly, makes up the ‘Latino’ population.

The Latino population in the US can be described with the word ‘multiple.’ It is a heterogeneous community composed of multiple layers of diversity. It is a multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual, multigenerational, and multireligious group. All of these “multis” create the group ‘Latinos/as’ in the US. Being multicultural, the majority of Latinos/as prefer to be identifed by their country of origin, for example, Peruvians, Mexicans, Cubans, and so on. Moreover, we can fnd Latinos/ as from multiple generations. According to the Pew Research Center, “The US Hispanic population reached more than 62 million in 2020,”11 the largest minority group. The six largest groups within the Latino community are of Mexican origin (61.5%), Puerto Rican (9.7%), Cuban (3.9%), Salvadoran (3.9%), Dominican (3.4%), and Guatemalan (2.7%).12 These numbers do not count undocumented Latino immigrants.

As demonstrated, Latino/a people are part of the cultural makeup of the US, but the reality is that Latino communities have encountered challenges living in this land. There are many pressing issues afecting Latino communities, not least of which is that most of the members of the Latino/a churches in the US are immigrants, or, at least, someone in their family is. So, migration is part of our identity as persons and as churches. Here I point out two of those public issues related to migration.

The frst issue is the situation of undocumented church members. While this issue is obviously more complex than can fully be addressed in this essay, succinctly speaking, the reason for a person being undocumented could vary widely: from coming to the country without documents or because the visa or work permit has expired, or coming as a child whose parents’ visa status lapsed, or because the waiting time for a legal visa is twenty years.13 Because of their legal status, many are invisible in the eyes of society and sufer injustices from being in the margins of US society, such as being underpaid, overworked, or having no legal recourse against unjust treatment and abuse within the workplace. A direct result of these issues is poverty. Justo González points out that the “vast majority of the Latinos/as are poor.”14 González does not limit poverty to only money. For him, the poverty experienced by the Latino is the one that “dispossesses, not only of money but also of dignity, of tradition, of identity.”15 It is in the context of a local church where they feel safe, preserve their traditions, and afrm their identity as Latino/a and as Christian. The Latino local church becomes their new familia (family). This is why the church is responsible for standing, speaking, and advocating for the Latino/a undocumented, for we must advocate for our family members.

11 Jens Manuel Krogstad and Luis Noe-Bustamante. “Key facts about U.S. Latinos for National Hispanic Heritage Month.” Pew Research Center, September 9, 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/09/key-facts-about-u-s-latinosfor-national-hispanic-heritage-month/.

12 Ibid.

13 Khalid Koser, International Migration: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 16.

A second issue related to this that greatly afects the Latino/a community is the politics of fear. I still remember the vast stress and fear that was created among the undocumented Latinos/as with the public political discourse of Donald Trump, his “building a wall” and accusing Mexican immigrants of bringing “drugs, crime, and rapists.”16 Yet Jaqueline M. Hidalgo observes that under the presidency of Barack Obama, over two million migrants were deported. Obama was known as the “deporter–in–chief.”17 So despite public rhetoric, Latinos/as have been afected by politics of fear from both main political parties of the US. Miguel A. de la Torre argues, “The use of fear-mongering by politicians has brought a new dimension to racial profling.”

14 Justo Gonzalez, Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 57.

15 Ibid., 75.

16 Jaqueline M. Hidalgo, “Adelante in Diference Latinxs in the Age of Trump,” in Faith and Resistance in the Age of Trump, edited by Miguel A. De La Torre (New York: Orbis Books, 2017), 200–207.

17 Ibid., 204.

18 De la Torre demonstrates that public political discourse has afected various spheres of societies and translates into injustices toward many Latino/as. This is a public issue that the local pastor must address publicly from the pulpit.

These are some of the issues that many Latinos/as experience as a part of living in the US. Even if they are not migrants, they are Latinos/as and encounter racism, and classism, among other things, as a daily part of life. The thing about these realities is that they are all public; they happen in the workplace, marketplace, on social media, and in the context of the local churches. These all are public matters that afect our Latino communities publicly. How can a local pastor be quiet in the face of these realities? Yet even if pastors think addressing these subjects from the pulpit is appropriate, we often feel theologically ill equipped to speak on such important issues. The next section addresses this by discussing the local pastor as local theologian.

What do pastors do? Since I started pastoring a local church, this has been a question I struggle with theologically. This question looks simple on the surface, but it is much more complicated than it frst appears, and answering it is crucial because it afects the way we do ministry. The local pastor might have a biblical/theological defnition, a job description, or an idea of what a pastor does. The members of that local church may have other ideas that difer from what the pastor does. Additionally, from my pastoral observations, pastors do more things than what I was taught at seminary, what a

18 Miguel A De La Torre, Trails of Hope and Terror: Testimonies on Immigration (New York: Orbis Books, 2006), 112.

332 | Reinaldo Figueroa job description says, and what church members think we do. In Latino Pentecostal churches, local pastors play many roles: church management and leadership, spiritual care and guidance, preaching and teaching, and being a part of the worship team. The Latino/a pastor is a bus driver, a translator, a custodian, or an emergency contact, among other things. Latino/a pastors are deeply involved in the lives of their people.19

Pastors can be so overwhelmed with all the roles that we do for the local church that we might come to neglect our role as theologians of the local church. I am not suggesting stopping doing some of the roles that a pastor does, but we need to think seriously about our role as local theologians. This is important because there is distrust of the academy in some Latino Pentecostal circles. Furthermore, many Latino/a Pentecostal pastors do not see themselves as theologians. For many, theologians are the ones that are at seminary. One of the purposes of this essay is for the Latino/a pastors to take ownership of their role as local theologians of the churches.

Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson argue that everyone is a theologian, in the sense that all Christians have the capacity for thinking and refecting about God.20 However, they also emphasize that not all theologies are equals. There is folk theology, lay theology, ministerial theology, professional theology, and academic theology.21 Simply put, there are informal and formal theologies as well as popular and professional theologians. For this chapter, I am focusing on ministerial theology. Grenz and Olson defne ministerial theology as “a refective faith as a practice by trained ministers and teachers of Christian churches.”22 This type of theology is made for the local church, and the pastor plays a signifcant role in its making.

19 For some examples, see Juan Francisco Martínez, Walking with the People: Latino Ministry in the United States (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2016).

20 Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson, Who Needs Theology: An Invitation to the Study of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 13.

21 Ibid., 26.

Gerald Hiestand and Todd Wilson argue that the pastor is the local theologian of the church who provides theology for the congregation.23 They categorize the pastor-theologian into three types. The frst type is the local theologian, “a pastortheologian who constructs theology for the laity of his [or her] local congregation.”24 The second type they call the popular theologian. This is the “pastor-theologian who provides theological leadership to Christian laity beyond his [or her] congregation.”25 The last type is the ecclesial theologian. This one is described as “a pastor-theologian who constructs theology for other Christian theologians and pastors.”26 These typologies are helpful to see the varieties of pastor theologians that are in the local congregations. In this essay, I refer to the pastor as a local theologian, working to develop theology from within and for his or her local congregation.

However, we cannot simply stop there, for a local pastor is also a public theologian. Kevin Vanhoozer argues, “Pastors are public theologians because they work in and for the public/ people of God, for the sake of the public/people everywhere.”27 The church is not a building but the people of God. These people expend most of their time during the week immersed in the diferent aspects of society, like work, schools, stores, and so on. On the one hand, local pastors shape society through the people under their care. On the other hand, local pastors deal with public issues afecting their church members. There is no escape from society because local pastors and churches are part of the society, and both shape each other. It is a pastoral responsiability to engage theologically with society. As the primary local theologians of our congregations, we cannot stay silent on the important public issues of our day.

22 Ibid., 31.

23 Gerald Hiestand and Todd Wilson, The Pastor Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 17.

24 Ibid., 18.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan, The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015), p. 17.

Yet the question must be asked, how does the local Latino/a Pentecostal pastor theologically engage these public issues? One answer is from the pulpit. Latino/a Pentecostal church members go every Sunday to the culto (church service) to worship God in community and listen to God’s word examined and expounded upon, usually by the pastor.28 The pastor has the responsibility of building the church (Eph. 4:12) through the proclamation of the word of God. Therefore, every week the pastor has the opportunity to preach God’s word, delivering a sermon that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, rooted in Scripture, and speaks to lo cotidiano (daily life experience).

Preaching is central to the Pentecostal movement.29

Peruvian theologian Darío López describes Pentecostal spirituality and how the culto (worship service) is the locus of theological refection and production for the Pentecostal community. López argues that four distinctive traits have shaped the culto of these churches: “fervent and spontaneous prayer, joyful and festive singing, everyday life testimony, and passionate preaching.”30 For Pentecostals, preaching is a central piece of the construction of their theology. López argues that Pentecostal preaching “is seasoned with telling God’s daily activity in the time frame in which the listeners are located.”31 Pentecostal preaching is not oblivious of the realities in which people live. Pentecostal preaching should speak to the lo cotidiano of the people, for this is where they encounter the many issues that press on their lives.

28 Thomas E. Trask, Wayde I. Goodall, and Zenas J. Bricket, eds., The Pentecostal Pastor: A Mandate for the 21st Century (Springfeld, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 2000), 79–104.

29 Lee Roy Martin, ed. Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Preaching, (Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2015), 1.

As Latino/a Pentecostal local pastors, we need to be more intentional in engaging with the public issues that afect our communities. Done every Sunday, preaching is an opportunity for the local Pentecostal pastor to theologize on public issues. It is also an opportunity to disciple church members to think biblically and theologically about public issues. Preaching is a way of engaging publicly with public discourse. Yet how can Latino/a Pentecostal local pastor engage publicly with the local church? We must re-imagine preaching as a public act.

A pulpit is a place of power and is a public place. Preaching is not a private act. However, to re-imagine preaching as performing public theology, we must look at three public aspects of preaching. First, preaching, in its nature, is a public act. The Good News of Jesus is public, for the synagogue (Luke 4:18), for the temple (Luke 20:1), and the cities and villages (Luke 8:1). Jesus did not come to hide the Good News of the Gospel, nor does the Gospel only speak to the private lives of the people Jesus was talking to. In the words of Lesslie Newbigin, “The gospel as a public truth is challenging the whole society.”32

30 Darío López, La Fiesta del Espiritu: Espiritualidad y Celebración Pentecostal, (Perú: Ediciones Puma, 2006), 26.

31 Ibid., 53.

32 Lesslie Newbigin, Truth to Tell: The Gospel as a Public Truth, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans., 1991), 13.

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