16 minute read
TEACHING LAW/GOSPEL DISTINCTION IN NICARAGUA
Horacio Castillo
Then Elijah said to the people, ‘I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men’ (1 Kings 18:22).1
I think it’s safe to say that ministry has its challenges. Not all churches have the same difficulties, but all face complications, nonetheless. And perhaps the biggest challenge for pastors is loneliness. Right behind loneliness is theology, or more specifically, staying faithful to the Lutheran Confessions. And as pastors and theologians this is where we can find ourselves even lonelier. We look around at our congregation or other ministry setting, and we can see all the different theologies that float around in people’s heads. And if we turn to look at our colleagues and their churches, we wonder if they are just LINOs, Lutherans in Name Only.
Then we make our confession, crying up to God as Elijah did: “Am I the only one?” Am I the only one preaching law and gospel and administering the sacraments according to the scriptures? I look around and the only thing I see is heresy and I think, “Is there any hope for the Lutheran church, much less for the church universal?”
This reminds me of the year I took classes from Dr. Steven Paulson at Luther Seminary. One after another, students would come into his office asking the same question, “Am I the only one?” Sensing a common concern, Dr. Paulson chose to address all his students at the same time. He said, and I paraphrase, “you all have come to me wondering and asking if you are the ‘only ones,’ like Elijah. You are not. Get over yourselves. You are not that important!” Dr. Paulson had a way of using humor while at the same time stating the plain truth. His words still ring true today. “Some of you aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed,” he said, “yet God will use you.”
Association of Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua
This is what I have experienced again and again as I have traveled the country and visited Lutheran churches and pastors. Some of these pastors really are unorthodox, yet many embody great conviction to preach, teach, and administer the sacraments according to the scriptures. For these pastors, the distinction between law and gospel is of utmost importance. So, some of these encounters with other ministers create an uneasiness in me about the preaching out there, and yet at the same time there is comfort when one meets so many pastors who are being faithful to their calling to proclaim Christ and him crucified.
As we face these difficulties in the Lutheran Church in the United States, one cannot but help to think about what is going on within the Church, especially the Lutheran Church, around the world. To be honest, there isn’t one single place that’s a whole lot better than the others. The situations are much the same but colored by different contexts and cultures. However, you do get some glimmer of hope once in a while.
I remember over the last decade how St. Paul Lutheran Seminary, seemingly out of nowhere, was contacted by a number of Lutheran churches from various countries. One of these churches was in Nicaragua. This was an eye opener for me because it felt like a sign from God that “we are not alone!”
It is one thing to know about other confessional Lutherans, as we call them, but it is another thing to actually be contacted by them, visit them, and hear their confessions.
The church body I have been working with on behalf of St. Paul Lutheran Seminary is an independent Lutheran church which sought to become part of the LCMC in the early 2000s. Their official name is the Asociación de Iglesias Evangélicas de Nicaragua (IELNIC), which translates to the Association of Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua but is often called the Mission Nicaragua International (MNI). This association of churches started out of necessity due to church politics and other challenges in their previous Lutheran denomination. Like many churches in the United States, they left the “mother ship,” so to speak, trusting that God would provide for their new fellowship.
It is one thing to know about other confessional Lutherans, as we call them, but it is another thing to actually be contacted by them, visit them, and hear their confessions.
At first, the pastors who left the previous church body thought they needed to simply return to “civilian life” by looking for secular jobs and leaving their callings altogether. However, to their surprise, their church members requested, and even demanded, that their pastors not to walk away from them.
In 2002, the pastors decided to continue their calls but at the same time find jobs outside the church to earn income to sustain their families. They started the new denomination without an existing structure or a plan to finance themselves. To make matters worse, the new association no longer had the financial support from other Lutheran churches as did their previous church body, in fact, it lost all support from its partners in Europe and the United States. But even with these financial constraints, they have continued their work in this new fellowship. Today, they have eleven congregations, seven of them have physical church buildings, and two have multipurpose buildings.
And even though they received their pastoral education in the old church body, they knew they needed to refine their education further. This is the main reason they reached out to St. Paul Lutheran Seminary.
Teaching in Nicaragua
Fast forward to 2017 when my wife Amanda and I began working with St. Paul Lutheran Seminary (SPLS) to serve our international Spanish-speaking students. In 2018, I visited the church in Nicaragua for the first time. The objective of my visit was to begin a partnership between IELNIC and SPLS. The financial support to sustain such partnership for theological formation would come from some LCMC churches who had previously partnered with IELNIC, and from SPLS doners. Sadly, that support has now been paused due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and because some of the supporting pastors have moved on to different churches.
When I arrived in Nicaragua to visit the IELNIC, I did not know the level of Lutheran theological education the pastors and leaders would have. But I quickly learned the true meaning of “you are not the only one!” It seems that God works outside of our small egocentric bubbles! The Holy Spirit shows that He is at work in the world without our help. The IELNIC’s churches are located in Managua, the capital city, Chinandega in the department of Leon, and in the department (state) of Carazo, which is southwest of Managua, also near the Pacific Ocean. We gathered in the vicinity of the town of Chinandega (located in the department of Leon) for classes.
One of the pastors in Nicaragua, who at the time of my visit was the president of the association of churches, had earned a couple of theological certifications from a Protestant seminary in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital city. He would ride the bus, leaving his house at 4am to attend classes and return home in the evening. He did this a few days per week for a couple of years. The result was, thankfully, a pretty good theological formation. In these classes, he cut his theological teeth, so to speak. But perhaps more importantly, he kept coming back to his community where he edified other pastors. Nevertheless, this theological training was not quite what the IELNIC needed, and they knew it. They needed Lutheran formation, and this is where SPLS stepped in.
Both my visits with IELNIC were long weekends in 2018 and 2019. We held intensive classes both times. We went through the Lutheran basics with an introduction to the Small Catechism, a discussion of the proper distinction between law and gospel, and preaching instruction. The classes went well. Relationships were formed and information was shared and received. One of my favorite moments during my last visit was when I gathered with all fourteen students at the same time. We were reflecting on the law/gospel distinction in preaching, and they started inquiring about how the absolution could be proclaimed. I explained how to announce the forgiveness of sins and confessions started to pour out of their mouths. They were especially convicted about their inadequate preaching due to their ignorance about the law/gospel distinction in their previous sermons. I naturally started to absolve one after the next. Indeed, when they heard and received the unconditional absolution their shoulders dropped in relief, and hallelujahs sprang from their lips as big smiles appeared on their faces. The comfort they felt as they heard “on account of Christ and by Christ’s authority, I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” was palpable.
The application of their classes began right away with a student-led closing service, including a sermon delivered by one of the pastors. His delivery seemed to be more intentional as he emphasized the proclamation of Christ and his unconditional forgiveness. The pastors’ eagerness to share this message with the rest of the church was a picture to behold. And then, the real work began. I returned home to my work and they to theirs. There is much to be thankful for as we see God at work in this remote corner of the world.
Challenges of Ministry in Nicaragua
But there are also many challenges that accompany the work of the IELNIC. Having to work secular jobs to support their families and their ministries means that pastors often work double shifts, one for their families and one for the church. Transportation and communication can be challenging. The majority of their congregations are in rural Nicaragua with little or no public transportation. Pastors often need to walk to get to their congregations which are located miles away, and if they are fortunate, they can travel by motorcycle from time to time. The communication infrastructure is also lacking. Nicaragua, like many other central American countries, skipped telephone land lines opting for cellphone service, which is expensive and often unreliable. Access to internet service can also be challenging. Internet cafés are still very popular there, even though they have disappeared in developed nations.
We first tried to set up live on-line classes, but they proved impractical since internet connection is usually unreliable. We then switched to class recordings which work much better but still posed challenges because students still needed to go to an internet café in order to download the class or weekly text study. Some of them, to access the recordings, have become very innovative, placing one cellphone on the top of a tree and hardwiring it to another cellphone in their home so they can have access to cellphone data.
Nicaragua’s Economy
To give you a general idea about Nicaragua’s economy and life, here is an excerpt from the World Bank’s website:
Nicaragua's economy relies on light manufacturing, services, and agriculture. The country has a small, open economy that benefits from foreign direct investment and remittances. Nicaragua's long-term growth and per capita incomes are heavily constrained by low human capital, significant infrastructure gaps and a weak institutional and business environment. Coupled with high vulnerability to shocks and natural hazards, this makes Nicaragua one of the poorest countries in the region, despite opportunities. GDP expanded by 3.8 percent in 2022 despite high inflation, global headwinds, and the damage caused by Hurricane Julia. This expansion was driven by robust private consumption fueled by remittances and net exports. Poverty measured at the US$3.65 per capita per day poverty line (2017 PPP) is expected to decline to 12.5 percent in 2023 from 13.1 percent in the previous year. This moderate decline is largely driven by sustained growth in remittances coupled with lower inflation and modest but positive growth in employment that reached 64.8 percent during the first half of 2023.2
So the economic conditions in Nicaragua are challenging to say the least and are expected to get worse in the near future, making ministry that much more challenging.
Liberation Theology, Illegal Immigration, and the Political Climate in Nicaragua
The Latin America Church as a whole has been greatly influenced by liberation theology. The birth of liberation theology can be traced to the late 1960s Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops that was held in Medellin, Colombia. The most influential of the theologians present was the Peruvian theologian and priest Gustavo Gutierrez who wrote the groundbreaking work, A Theology of Liberation. Other leaders in the movement include Brazilian priest Jose Comblin, Archbishop and martyr Oscar Romero of El Salvador, Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, Jesuit scholar Jon Sobrino, and Archbishop Helder Camara of Brazil.3 Liberation theology has also infected the Church in the United States, and unfortunately, the Lutheran church has not been exempted from this Marxist contagion.
The political climate in Nicaragua has been nothing but tumultuous since the beginning of the twentieth century and this instability continues to affect the development of the country. Nicaragua has been plagued by the rise of communist movements, especially under Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista government, compounded by the introduction of liberation theology. As the Protestant population of the nation has grown, many missionaries have also introduced decision theology into its churches. The pastors at IELNIC struggle with these theological problems, sometimes even in their own teaching, as well as within the general theology of their congregations and other Protestant denominations that are more prevalent and influential in their communities. Another more immediate challenge is illegal (and legal) immigration4 to the United States by both church members and leaders, which drains their leadership. At one point, there were fourteen students in our SPLS theological certificate program, but now due to the lack of internet access, the political turmoil, and immigration to the United States, the number of students has dwindled. Nevertheless, the remaining pastors continue to be faithful to their calling to their churches and their studies. Despite these many obstacles, the leadership at IELNIC has continued to emphasize pastoral theological formation with SPLS.
The Future of the IELNIC
The main goal and objective of IELNIC (in the words of two of its pastors) is, “to bring the Word of God into all of Nicaragua, focusing on all age groups, children, youth, families, and adults. It seeks to create a Lutheran center for the formation of pastors at a national level, and to create regional offices to serve the church better. Along with all these goals, they dream of establishing, developing, and nurturing partnerships with other Lutheran churches in Latin America and the United States. It goes without saying that even with all these challenges it is their conviction to faithfully proclaim God’s Word with the Lutheran distinctive of justification by faith alone apart from the works of the law.5
But they still struggle with the question that many of us have had at some point in our ministry - am I the only one? Am I alone in this ministry of preaching God’s Word in a country and with a people who have been oppressed by the preaching and teaching of liberation and decision theology? Even with the glimmmer of hope they see in their partnership with SPLS, they cannot help but feel abandoned since they have been isolated for so long now from other Lutheran partners outside Nicaragua.
With all of these challenges it has been an honor for me to be part of the theological preparation of pastors and nonordained leaders in Nicaragua. It has struck me that there is not much difference between the needs of churches in the places I have been privileged to visit in the last few years, including Tanzania, Guatemala, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the United States, where I now live. We all have the same needs, the same dreams and hopes, and the same original sin, which is not very original after all. The differences are in the context, language, cultural undertones, and the challenges that developing nations face.
We all have the same needs, the same dreams and hopes, and the same original sin, which is not very original after all.
God is Faithful to His Promises
We know that God is faithful in his promises to his people. He provides us with everything we need from day to day. As we read in Isaiah 55:10-11, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
The church in Nicaragua is bearing fruit, and I just get to be a small part of all the wonderful things that are happening to Lutherans there. I look forward to seeing how God continues to work in their lives, their ministry, and their country. There are only seven pastors now serving eleven churches and an approximate total of five hundred members in the different regions where the churches are located. The need for more pastors will always be there as churches continue to grow and the gospel is clearly proclaimed, which will not come back empty but does and accomplishes what it has been sent to do. I look forward to visiting Nicaragua in the near future and having you come along.
Horacio Castillo teaches international students at St. Paul Lutheran Seminary
Footnotes:
1 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Bibles, 2016). The ESV version is used throughout this article.
2 “The World Bank in Nicaragua,” World Bank, Oct. 04, 2023, accessed March 24, 2024, https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nicaragua/overview
3 Melissa Petruzzello, “Liberation Theology,” accessed March 23, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/liberation-theology
4 “Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Nicaragua,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, accessed 3/24/24, https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status/temporaryprotected-status-designated-country-nicaragua
5 Martin Luther, "The Smalcald Articles" in The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed. by Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert, Part 2, Article 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 301.
