BOISE, Idaho — Melvin Oliva, an active Christian for many years, started studying the Bible with purpose this August.

His pastor, Tim Martin, had asked him if he wanted to join Idaho’s first class of the yearlong Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias en español (Church-planting residency in Spanish.)

Oliva, originally from Guatemala, is a member of Iglesia Gracia y Verdad (Grace and Truth Church) in Boise, which Martin coplanted in January 2024. The church-planting residency program began this August.

The program consists of 12 subjects, 25 books (half of which require written reports; half, oral presentations) and generally meets three hours a week for 36 weeks, followed by 15 weeks of training on expository preaching.

“It is a brilliant and excellent opportunity for any member of a Christian congregation of sound doctrine who wants to serve the Lord with their heart in different areas of ministry,” Oliva said.

With graduation from the 13-credit-hour accredited program comes a certificate from one of the six Southern Baptist seminaries, in this case, Gateway.

“Hispanics come to the United States where there are many, many gospel-preaching churches, but very, very few of them are in Spanish,” Martin said.

“In areas of the country like Idaho where Baptist resources are limited and recruitment from outside is very difficult, it seems the only realistic way to reach this community of Spanish speakers is to prepare bivocational native Spanish-speaking pastors who are raised up from within and trained to lead these new works.

“We’ve got to train them and send them and not ask them to quit their job, but to embrace the calling to bivocational ministry. Then team them up with another trained bivocational pastor to share the work.

“You don’t try to get one guy to do that,” Martin said, speaking of starting, nurturing and growing a church. “It’s too much, but two guys working and doing ministry together is sustainable.”

Martin wasn’t the first Southern Baptist to have the idea.

For the last eight years, the North American Mission Board’s Send Network Español has been working with state conventions, associations and seminaries in 37 locations across the nation to foster church-planting residency programs for Spanish speakers.

Martin’s co-director Roy Vargas was a financial adviser in Costa Rica who moved his family to attend Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina. Through a friend, he connected with Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, near Boise, and went for a visit.

“We saw the real need here in Treasure Valley,” Vargas said. “The North Carolina Baptist convention has 2,960 churches. That’s what I’m used to.

“Between Utah and Idaho, there’s maybe 180 Baptist churches. What’s going on here? What’s the difference? There are 100,000 Latinos in Treasure Valley (southwest Idaho) and only four Hispanic Baptist churches. That’s a big deal.”

David Godoy, western regional director for Send Network Español, came to Boise in May, met Martin and Vargas, and asked them if they’d be interested in a church-planting residency for Spanish speakers. They said yes. He asked them how many people they could invite to an informational meeting.

“Maybe 20,” Martin said. Instead, 45 attended, and as a result, this year’s class consists of seven “very faithful men” like Oliva.

The subjects covered in Send Network Español’s church-planting residency program include nine classroom hours each in calling to ministry, church planting, spiritual disciplines, marriage and family, theology, Baptist identity, evangelism and discipleship, missions, expository preaching, ecclesiology, practical leadership and leadership development, followed by a 15-week course in expository preaching.

Send Network Español developed the curriculum, which is taught by the co-directors and other leaders with expertise in that week’s subject.

“Right now, 28 Spanish speakers in the West at six sites are being trained,” Send Network Español Director Godoy told Baptist Press. Two residencies are in Colorado, two in California, one in Utah and the newest in Idaho.

“All will be better trained leaders after their one-year training,” Godoy continued. “They are receiving pastoral training and expository preaching tools.

“There are over 60 million Hispanics in the United States. Even though Latinos are 19% of the total population, they do not represent 19% of the body of Christ in this country,” Godoy continued. “We need to engage cities, make disciples and plant churches to reach the ever-growing Spanish-speaking population.”

And raise up the next generations of leaders. More Spanish-speaking churches are needed because one-third of the Latinos in America speak only Spanish, Godoy said.

Martin, formerly a missionary in Central America, said he’d been thinking for years about the need to train Spanish-speaking church members to become pastors.

“I have been thinking about that and praying about it for years. When David (Godoy) spoke and said, ‘We’ve got all the material,’ it touched my heart because it was a very precise answer to my prayer,” Martin said. “It’s what we need. It’s giving us the resources so we can be strategic here in advancing the kingdom of God, especially among the Spanish speakers. I’m telling you, I think the Anglo guys need it too.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Karen L. Willoughby is a national correspondent for Baptist Press.)