Our Multicultural Story
The vision for Latino Ministries at the Westerville Church of the Nazarene began in a very simple yet powerful way. Pastor Mark Ledford noticed a Latino doing janitorial work at a gym where he exercised. He had a strong burden for this Latino’s salvation and asked the question, “How will this person come to know Jesus Christ?”
This burden became stronger and stronger in Pastor Mark’s life as he recognized more and more Hispanics coming to the United States. Along with this overwhelming burden, he also was sensing God’s direction concerning the integration of Latinos into meaningful times of worship. Pastor Mark sensed that in our services and our churches we have missed out on the great richness that is celebrated in diversity.
Pastor Mark’s vision and passion led him to the eventual goal of a fully bi lingual ministry. In February 2000, Pastor Mark took a four-week sabbatical at which time he searched for a model of bi lingual ministry. Despite travels to California and Chicago and many inquiries concerning where a ministry like this was taking place, he returned with the understanding that this “dream” might not be a possibility. It was at this time that Pastor Mark sensed God saying, “You and your church are the model!”
During this same time, God was working in the life of two young men, Mike Durst and Ezekiel De La Cruz. Mike was in Ecuador as an exchange student learning to speak Spanish fluently in response to God’s call to full time ministry to Spanish speaking people. Ezekiel De La Cruz was in the Dominican Republic dealing with God’s call to full time ministry. Ezekiel had become good friends with Pastor Mark, Mike and many other members of the Westerville Church of the Nazarene through several years of Work and Witness trips to the Dominican Republic.
Much prayer, seeking the Lord, and discussion took place during the next two years resulting in the birth of the Westerville Church of the Nazarene Latino Ministries. Mike Durst would continue his education at Mount Vernon Nazarene University while becoming the Pastor of the Latino congregation. Ezekiel De La Cruz would come to the United States and attend Columbus State Community College while becoming the Worship Pastor of the Latino Congregation. At this time, there was only one problem…there were no Latinos attending the church! Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” was becoming a reality in the life of the church. Despite advertising and much prayer, the first bilingual service was scheduled without the knowledge of any Latinos that would participate. In blind faith and obedience, Pastor Mark, Mike, Ezekiel and the Westerville congregation continued to have faith and trust in God. Finally, in the summer of 2002, Pastor Mark met a Latino lady named Luz and invited her to the church. Luz was miraculously saved at a home Bible Study and before long ten members of her family began attending the church including her father-in-law who was also saved. This man had not stepped foot in a church for any reason (including weddings and funerals) for thirty-eight years! God began to honor the faith of the leaders and congregation at the Westerville Church of the Nazarene.
On November 17, 2002, the Westerville Church of the Nazarene had a “sample” bilingual service. Ezekiel De La Cruz led the worship, Pastor Mark preached and Mike Durst interpreted. All aspects of the service were in both Spanish and English. This “sample” service was in preparation for the new Westerville Church of the Nazarene Latino Ministry, which would be launched less than two months later in January 2003. In the beginning, the first Sunday of every month at the Westerville Church would be a bilingual service. The other Sundays of the month, the Latino congregation would meet in the church’s Youth Center for a service in Spanish only. At the same time, a weeknight bilingual home Bible Study was started in the home of Luz and her husband Louis. The church continued to have a bilingual service the first Sunday of every month, services in Spanish the other weeks of the month and a weeknight bilingual home Bible Study. Signage, bulletins, Bibles and manuals are available in both languages. Christian Education classes teaching the Spanish language and culture to English speaking individuals are offered on a regular basis.
June 2006, the church began to have bi lingual services the first and last Sunday of the month. This continued for three years until June 2009. Pastor Mark preached a series of messages entitled “Divine Moments of God in the Westerville Church of the Nazarene.” Because of the importance of this sermon series, all of the summer services were bi lingual. In August 2009 after much prayer, the Westerville Nazarene church board voted unanimously to begin bi lingual services in every Sunday morning worship service.
In 2014 the Lord brought a great gift to the Westerville Church of the Nazarene. A young Mount Vernon Nazarene University intern from Honduras, Edward Solano, came to help in Westerville. Seeing a need in the community of Mount Vernon, Edward and some other students began praying and dreaming about planting an Hispanic Nazarene Church. Westerville Nazarene came along side of these dreamers and began to support the church plant financially with plans to hire Edward Solano full time upon his graduation from Mount Vernon Nazarene University. The small and new congregation, Dios Es Suficiente (God Is Sufficient) began meeting formally at the Mount Vernon First Church of the Nazarene in October, 2015 . In May 2017 Edward graduated from MVNU and Westerville Nazarene hired him full time. Despite the distance between Westerville and Mount Vernon, Edward continued to pastor the Dios Es Suficiente congregation until February 2020 at which time the leadership of Dios Es Suficiente transitioned to Todd and Christine Risser who were on staff at Mount Vernon First Church of the Nazarene. At the present time, Pastor Edward and Pastor Mark are praying and searching for a new site (closer to Westerville) for an Hispanic or bilingual church plant. In addition, In August 2020, Pastor Edward started a bi lingual home church at his residence in Columbus.
In the summer of 2019, Westerville Naz also took a step in becoming a more multi-cultural church. A small Korean congregation was struggling to maintain their church building. Westerville began sharing their facility space with the Soh Mang Church of the Nazarene. The congregations have joined together in several ministry and fellowship events with a goal of continuing to increase these opportunities in the future.
Along with local bi lingual ministry, Westerville Nazarene has always strived to share this vision with other churches and denominations. At the beginning of his vision, Pastor Mark Ledford and his leadership team joined with Pastors Greg Rosser and Chuck Russ from Columbus Shepherd Church of the Nazarene to offer Hispanic Ministry seminars and conferences. This continued for several years. Pastor Mark has also spoken about his vision for bi lingual ministry at many Nazarene District training sessions, workshops and conferences. Included in these speaking engagement opportunities was the Bayside Church Thrive Conference in California. Most recently, in October 2021, Westerville Nazarene sponsored a bi lingual “Unity Night of Worship” which combined the leadership and congregations of several churches on the South Central Ohio District Church of the Nazarene.
At the present time, Westerville Nazarene has a bi lingual service every Sunday morning at 11:00. The church offers ESOL classes with Biblical Curriculum every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM. The church has a Monday and Wednesday evening “Read and Grow” tutoring program. Many of the students are Hispanic and stay on Wednesday evenings to join the Children and Youth Ministry activities.