Blending Cultures

Jaime Zamarron's prayers have been answered, but the hard work is just beginning.

Zamarron is lead pastor of the Spanish service at the Olive Street campus of First Baptist Church, Rogers. He and Oliver Martinez, his associate pastor, moved to Rogers 11 years ago with one goal in mind: to plant a multicultural church. In the decade since the two have been in Northwest Arkansas, they also have discovered a need to create a church home for second- and third-generation Hispanics.

Since Zamarron's and Martinez's arrival, First Baptist has offered a Spanish-language ministry, but it always operated separately, said Wade Tomlinson, campus pastor at Olive Street.

"For a lot of churches -- and ours, too -- the Hispanic congregation was really separate. They were kind of a part of the church, but they did their own thing and we did our own thing."

First Baptist leaders decided to change that, but getting where they want to be is taking some time.

Four years ago, First Baptist moved out of its building on Olive Street and into its new building on Pleasant Grove Road. Zamarron, however, chose to keep the Spanish-language ministry based at Olive Street.

"They asked us if we could be part of the move," Zamarron said. "We prayed about it and decided to stay here because there are more Hispanic people in this area. ... We believe this area is in the middle of the ministry that God brought us to be here."

The building sits at the corner of Olive and Eighth streets in downtown Rogers.

For the last four years, the congregation has been separated by miles as well as language. The English-speaking members of the congregation worshipped at the Pleasant Grove Road campus on one side of town, and the Spanish-speaking members worshipped at the Olive Street campus on the other side of town.

Even though the Hispanic congregation met at the Olive Street property, it was put up for sale. But it never sold.

"We just figured that it was God's divine sovereignty giving us time to figure out what to do," Tomlinson said.

Church leaders decided to take the property off the market and to use it as a second campus for the church. It would be a multiethnic, multigenerational and economically diverse church, offering services in both English and Spanish, as well as classes for all ages groups.

"We want to look like the kingdom of God, and we want to look like our community," Tomlinson said. "The kingdom of God is not just one ethnicity, one age group. It's very diverse. That's the way our community looks, too. We want to look like that."

Going into this venture, Tomlinson said, the leaders and the congregation are making a concerted effort to bring the two cultures -- Hispanic and non-Hispanic -- together as one church. It's slow-going, though.

The relaunch of the Olive Street campus service took place Aug. 17.

The English service begins at 9 a.m. The Spanish service is at 11:30 a.m. Zamarron said each service has a mix of English speakers and Spanish speakers, but the makeup of each service is still mostly non-Hispanic in the early service and Hispanic in the late service.

Small groups, with English speakers and Spanish speakers combined, meet at 10:15 a.m.

Blending the two cultures comes with challenges other than the language, both pastors said.

"We are learning from each other," Tomlinson said. "It's a process."

The non-Hispanics are programmed to be more time- and task-oriented, while the Hispanics are more people-oriented, the pastors said.

"As soon as they finish the (English) service, they go into small groups and then they disappear," Zamarron said of the nonHispanics. "After the Spanish-speaking service, you will see people here after 30, 40 minutes still talking. That's part of our culture.

"That's why it's much better for us to have the service after small groups," he added, with a laugh.

The church leaders are trying to be respectful of each group, while trying to merge the groups as a whole, he said.

"We don't want there to be big changes for one group and not the other," Zamarron said.

While the sermons for each service are on the same topic, the way each group worships differs. The Hispanics are more animated during worship -- clapping along or raising hands in praise, he said. The music at the Spanish service also follows more of a Latin rhythm.

The difference between the two cultures also can cause the second- and third-generation Hispanics to feel left out. They are part of both cultures, but don't fully fit into either way of worship, Zamarron said.

"They are Hispanic, but they are Americans. Their first language is English. Their culture is not from our country. Their culture is here," he said. "They don't feel that they can fit in an English-speaking church, but they don't fit in a Hispanic church."

Creating a church that gives a place to these Hispanics is a big part of this ministry, Tomlinson said.

"There is always going to be a need to reach the first-generation Hispanics," Zamarron said. "We want to have a church where we can minister to all people, but also we want to create this environment for the English-speaking service that is multicultural. We have diversity in the leadership and the language and the generations. That's our goal."

Brian Powell leads one of the Life Groups at Olive Street. He is one of about 150 people who moved from the Pleasant Grove campus back to the Olive Street campus.

Powell -- originally from Magnolia, another Arkansas city with a diverse population -- said he chose to move back to Olive Street, so his children "can see what heaven is going to look like" before they get there.

"When we sit back and look at what Scripture tells us what heaven is going to be like, we see that it will be people from every nation," he said.

Powell also plays guitar in the worship band. He said seeing the crowd worshipping together brings a smile to his face.

"It's completely natural. ... Just to see the unity among the people, despite the color of skin or economic status, really gives you hope for the future -- not only for the church, but for the country in general."

Powell said the location of the Olive Street campus is great for reaching the Hispanic population in downtown Rogers as well as people who live east of the city -- Pea Ridge, Avoca, Beaver Lake area.

Tomlinson and Zamarron said they know getting the new church where it needs to be -- goal-wise -- will take time, and they are happy to take it slow to ensure success.

"What we want to measure in a year is not just how many people we've reached, but the diversity of that group that we've reached," Tomlinson said.