Amigos de Cristo Lutheran Church in Sedalia has a long history of serving the Hispanic population in their area, but lately they are coming together as a congregation for even more outreach into their community. There are many Hispanic families that are relocating to the Sedalia area right now because of the job availability. And the members of Amigos de Cristo are working to provide these families with information abo

ut their church and inviting them to attend their worship services. Two of their faithful members, Norma and Milton, help fill a community need by providing rides on Sunday morning to people who need transportation to the church.

Their efforts have not been in vain. Four new families visited Amigos de Cristo in the past six months, and two of these new families have continued to attend worship there regularly. Amigos de Cristo also has a growing children and youth music group that leads music in the church

each week. New members to this group include a 6-year-old who is a beginning guitar player, a 7-year-old who plays the thumb drum, and an 8-year-old percussionist. Their marimba player can sight read and plays the melody to the majority of their songs now. Elvera Satterwhite mentioned, “Since some of [the new families] speak very little English, we pray that they will continue to come until we can offer more services in Spanish.”

Amigos de Cristo is taking steps to keep their congregation growing. One of Amigos de Cristo’s future plans include hoping to find a bilingual pastor who can serve their congregation. And they are taking steps now to help develop more leaders from their congregation. Plus this fall, Amigos de Cristo is once again collaborating with Webster Gardens Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Volunteers from Webster Gardens will be hosting a family weekend Vacation Bible School and helping with maintenance projects and painting.

Amigos de Cristo is a great example of how a church can continue to grow in ministry using the resources at hand, collaborations in ministry, and long term growth planning!