These immigrant church leaders are reshaping the way Americans do church. And you can learn from them.

Marco Barrientos
Centro Internacional Aliento
Web Site
E-mail
Phone: 214-302-6580
3404 Conway St.
Dallas, TX 75224

Marco Barrientos

Marco Barrientos left a large, multinational concert and conference ministry in Latin America to minister full time in the U.S. “Every time I came to the U.S., I would end up in tears looking at the condition of immigrant people,” he says. “I felt they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

In 2004 he founded Centro Internacional Aliento church in Dallas (aliento.org), which now draws 350 on Sundays.

“One of the most important trends I see is immigrants coming to the U.S. already saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and wanting to make a difference,” Barrientos says. “In many cases they have been part of churches in Latin America where they are soul winners, so when they come they bring their revival with them.”

Valson Abraham
United Methodist Church
Web Site
Email
Phone: 909-463-1428
13000 San Antonio Drive
Norwalk, CA 90650

Valson Abraham

Valson Abraham founded Indian Christian Assembly of Los Angeles (icalos angeles.com) in his home in 1982. Today he oversees cell churches for Indians throughout Southern California.

“My vision has always been to reach non- Christians,” says Abraham, who is the general secretary of the India Pentecostal Church, the largest Pentecostal movement in India, which now has 70 churches in the U.S.

There are 1.5 million Indians in the U.S., concentrated mainly in California, New England and Seattle. Many in Abraham’s church come from Hindu backgrounds, and they often attend church for months before accepting Christ.

“There is a very good sense of community,” Abraham says. “I emphasize expository teaching, yet we are seeker-sensitive.”

Sunday services include a time of prayer and the laying on of hands, and a question and answer time about the Bible. About a quarter of the people in the church have come to the Lord within the last 15 months.

“We have had a great response in the last seven years by people who have never heard the gospel,” Abraham says.

George Rafidi
Arab Outreach Ministries
Phone: 904-874-7984

George Rafidi

George Rafidi, a Jerusalemborn Arab, and his wife, Jessica, started Arab Outreach Ministries (the-tabernacle. com/Missions/rafidi.htm) in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1996. “It’s long-term ministry,” George says. “It’s loving people and letting them see Jesus in you.”

They visit homes and businesses daily to build relationships with refugees from Iraq, Sudan and elsewhere. The couple often helps them get attorneys, jobs and driver’s licenses, as well as filling out applications and translating for them at the immigration office. On Sunday night they hold an Arabic church service.

The 2000 census estimated there were 1.2 million Arabs in the U.S., though Rafidi believes the number is at least 5 million today. Most Arab immigrants live in California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey and New York.

Rafidi encourages people not to “look at the Arabs through the eyes of the media but through the eyes of Jesus, as people who need the Lord.” He is president of the Arabic Assembly of God Fellowship USA, which has 13 ministries in the U.S.

Gennadiy Zavaliy
House of Prayer
Church Ministry
Web Site

Gennadiy Zavaliy

Russian pastor Gennadiy Zavaliy and his wife, Helen, came to New York City after a wave of persecution forced them from Latvia in 1997. Their House of Prayer Church Ministry (prayerny.org) has blossomed into six churches with more than 1,000 Russian immigrants, most of them new converts, including Russian Jews and Muslims.

“When many Russians came to America they thought everyone was waiting for them,” Zavaliy says. “They believed that houses, new cars were waiting. Many have more problems here than in Russia.”

Most of the people the Zavaliys are reaching are university educated. Many struggle with depression, loneliness, even suicide. There were 2.6 million Russians in America in 2000, according to the U.S. census.

“We are amazed at what God is doing,” Zavaliy says. “I believe that God can do even more. The purpose of our church is to be a blessing for the country which God moved us to.”

Hanfere Aligaz
Ethiopian Evangelical Church
Web Site
Phone: 202-726-8529
Fax: 202-726-8549
7930 Eastern Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20012

Hanfere Aligaz

Hanfere Aligaz was an airline pilot in communist Ethiopia when he met Christ through American missionaries, and he came to Washington, D.C., to start a church.

“I had no money, no green card, no place to meet,” he says. But his Ethiopian Evangelical Church (eechurch.org) has grown from five people to nearly 3,000, making it the largest Ethiopian church outside Ethiopia, he says. All services are in Amharic, but the church is beginning to reach out deliberately to non-Ethiopians.

“We believe that revival is the only way to get people saved,” Aligaz says. “People need to see the hand of God, the healing power of God. ... When they do, their hearts open to the gospel.”

Aligaz’s church offers “holistic ministry” such as job training and help with immigration status. “We have to be a blessing to America because America has been a blessing to us,” Aligaz says.

Guillermo Maldonado
Ministerio International El Rey Jesús
Web Site
Phone: 305-382-3171
14100 S.W. 144 Ave.
Miami, FL 33186

Guillermo Maldonado

Gui l lermo Maldonado started Ministerio International El Rey Jesús in Miami (elreyjesus.org) 11 years ago with a dozen people in his living room. Today the church counts 8,000 members, most of them new converts and first-generation immigrants.

“I didn’t know we would reach this many nationalities,” Maldonado says. “I thought it would be mainly Latin American people. After I started I got people from Europe, Africa and Asia coming.”

A strong reliance on prayer, personal discipleship and demonstration of the supernatural have contributed to growth, he says.

“Every time we do a miracle service we see thousands of people come. They are hungry to see the supernatural,” he says. “I think there’s something in the Hispanic community which America needs. ... Latin American people are bringing revival to America.”

Bayo Adewole
The Redeemed Christian Church of God
Web Site
E-mail
Phone: 773-866-9461
Fax: 773-866-9483
4332 N. Kedzie Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618

Bayo Adewole

The Redeemed Christian Church of God in North America (RCCG) has grown from a living room fellowship 14 years ago to 275 churches in the U.S. and Canada. Bayo Adewole oversees eight RCCG churches with a combined membership of more than 1,000 in the Chicago area (see jesushouse.org). They have a strong “social reformation” ethic that drives them to serve the homeless and encourage people to get a higher education.

“It’s a joy to be in this great city in America and to see what God has done in the last 10 years,” Adewole says. “From a few friends gathered together we now have eight strong churches, and we are building strong families.”

The RCCG, based in Nigeria, is known for its emphasis on holiness, its high degree of organization and its expectation that every person be trained into ministry. Services are in English and the churches aggressively court non-Africans.

Tong Liu
River of Life Christian Church
Web Site
E-mail
Phone: 408-260-0257, ext. 100
Fax: 408-748-8877
1177 Laurelwood Road
Santa Clara, CA 95054

Tong Liu

Meteorologist-turned-minister Tong Liu founded River of Life Christian Church (rolcc.net) in Santa Clara, California, in 1995. It is now the largest charismatic Chinese church in North America with around 2,000 people, many of them young families and Silicon Valley professionals.

“God has done much more than I expected,” Liu says. “I didn’t realize a church [like ours] could grow that big or do cross-cultural ministry.”

River of Life has planted 58 churches in the U.S., Africa and Mongolia. Though the church is still mostly Chinese, they increasingly partner with and reach out to non-Chinese.

“If ethnic churches don’t just focus on reaching out to our own people ... we can truly bring a great impact to the whole American church,” Liu says.

Joel Costa
Assembly of God Bethlehem Ministry
Web Site
E-mail
Phone: 800-ADBELEM
Phone: 954-782-0430
Fax: 954-782-4027
4000 North Federal Highway
Lighthouse Point, FL 33064

Joel Costa

Assembly of God Bethlehem Ministry (adbelem.org), a Brazilian church of 400 in Lighthouse Point, Florida, pastored by Joel Costa, was planted as a missionary work by a church in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1995. Since then, the church has planted 40 churches of its own and is reaching Portuguese, Spanish and English speakers throughout Florida.

The church recently began holding largescale community outreach events a dozen times a year throughout central Florida, giving away free hot dogs, haircuts and car washes and hosting a garage sale. People are invited to return that night for a service at the church.

The church also has launched a ministry to help new immigrants take their first steps toward getting settled, such as obtaining a driver’s license and renting a place to live.