Paradise Lutheran Church

Paradise Lutheran Church: In our October Newsletter we mentioned that Pastor Waldemar Cifuentes of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Caracas had accepted a call to a new Lutheran congregation in the state of Lara. A number of our correspondents have written us requesting more information about this development and the coming into being of this congregation. In what follows we will try to give a short account of what is really a very complicated story.

A number of years ago a person that could be described as a maverick psychologist who once belonged to a Lutheran congregation affiliated with the Lutheran World Federation began holding a series of conferences entitled “The Art of Living”. The people who participated in this course were mainly middle and upper middle class professionals living in or near the town of Cabudare which is really a large suburb of the city of Barquisimeto. While teaching the course the psychologist identified himself as a doctor of Lutheran Theology (which of course he was not) and offered to help them start a Lutheran congregation geared to their spiritual and social needs. The congregation grew to include about 80 members, some of them quite well to do. One family decided to set aside apart a large property they held for the use of the congregation. At their own expense they built a very nice chapel, a two-story parsonage, a guest house for retreats and theological conferences plus a huge grassy area the Sunday School children to play.

The new congregation took the name “Iglesia Luterana la Esperanza” which in English means Hope Lutheran Church; Although the members actually received very little instruction in Lutheran doctrine they very proudly identified themselves as Lutherans and invited friends, neighbors and relatives to worship with them. The unity of the new group would prove to be short-lived. The psychologist turned pastor decided to bring his newly formed congregation into the new Lutheran Synod formed by a small group of pastors who resigned from the Lutheran Church of Venezuela in 2004. As this new Synod is Episcopal in nature with all authority and power residing in the bishop, the members of Hope Lutheran Church were asked to turn over all of the assets of the group to the bishop and to submit to his authority. This, the majority of the members was unwilling to do. The owners of the properties that had been set aside for the use of the congregation were asked to sign all of the land and buildings over to the bishop. After conducting an investigation of their own, the members of the congregation discovered that the founding pastor had deposited the funds of the congregation, over 100,000 US dollars, in his own personal bank account. To make things worse, the pastor left his wife and began living together with a married woman who was also a member of the group.

This turn of events was too much for the majority of the members. They decided to break off from the founder of the group and those still faithful to him and form a new independent congregation. The name chosen by the members of this new congregation was “Iglesia Luterana el Paraíso” which in English reads Paradise Lutheran Church. Wishing to affiliate with other Lutherans in Venezuela, the leaders of the group began searching the WEB and came up with the address and phone number of El Salvador Lutheran Congregation in Caracas, the oldest congregation in the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. After establishing contact with the pastor of El Salvador, a delegation came from Cabudare to meet with pastor Waldemar Cifuentes and other members of his staff. This led to monthly visits on the part of pastor Cifuentes and his deacons to Paradise Lutheran Church. Pastor Cifuentes decided to spend two weeks of his vacation time in Cabudare instructing the members of the congregation more thoroughly in Lutheran doctrine and helping the groups to write a constitution and elect its own leaders. In October Ramona and I together with pastor Adrian Ventura, the president of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela and his wife visited Paradise Lutheran Church. Pastor Ventura and pastor Cifuentes conducted the liturgy while I was invited to preach. For this special occasion there were about 150 people present for the service. We have appended several photos to this newsletter to share the occasion with our readers.

One thing that helped pastor Cifuentes establish good relations with the members of the new congregation was the fact that a number of families belonging to the new group originally came from Temuco, the same city in the Republic of Chile in which pastor Cifuentes and his wife Elsa were born and raised. Meeting together, the members of Paradise Lutheran Church decided to extend a call to pastor Cifuentes that he accepted. He plans to move to Cabudare in January to take up his new pastoral responsibilities there. Since pastor Cifuentes and his wife are in the upper sixties, his main responsibility will be and helping to train the local leaders of the group to take over the pastoral leadership of the congregation.

The new congregation has applied for membership in our Lutheran Church of Venezuela and we pray that this application will be well received and that the enthusiasm and the evangelistic drive of the members of Paradise Lutheran Church will constitute a positive contribution to our national church. Some of the members of our national church are still rather wary, having been stung in the past, by other groups and individuals who wanted to become part of the national church organization and then caused serious headaches. But that is another story and the subject for other newsletters. For now we would like you keep pastor Waldemar, his wife and Paradise Lutheran Church in your prayers. We would also ask you to pray for ordained deacon, Alfonso Prada, as he takes over most of the pastoral responsibilities in El Salvador Lutheran Church in Caracas together with is parochial school and high school.

Change of Pace

Change of Pace: The coming of Christmas and New Year means that our teaching activities have been put on hold for a number of weeks and that we have a little bit for time for other projects such as catching up on our correspondence and spending more time on writing new course material. Actually with our accelerated program for six theological students in Maracay and Caracas plus the teaching of regular courses in Caracas, Maturin, Puerto Ordaz, San Felix and Sierra Caroní this current semester is the one that has had us involved in more travel around the country and in more class time spent with students in our Theological Education by Extension that I can remember. At the end of the semester the 31st of January we will be evaluating the accelerated program that has had our six students taking and average of five courses each. We ask to remember our students in your prayers. They are Gregori Mirelis, Alexis Herrera, Jhonatán Franco, Kleiver Luzardo, Raimundo Brito and Miguelángel Pérez.