Late on a summer Sunday afternoon, a banner bearing the word “Cosecha” blew in the wind at Antelope Park in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Cosecha is the Spanish-speaking congregation at Southview Baptist Church in Lincoln. Pastor Angel Viveros and his congregation are trying to reach the growing harvest field of Hispanics in Nebraska. In fact, Cosecha means “harvest” in Spanish.
During the summer, the church stages outdoor services and outreach soccer camps to help reach more people.
Cosecha holds its regular services at 5:30 p.m. Saturdays at Southview Baptist.
The coronavirus pandemic presented many challenges, but Viveros and his congregation remained undaunted. Cosecha continued to reach out and partnered with nonprofits in Lincoln to help them serve the local Hispanic community.
In October 2020, Cosecha started a Bible study for Hispanics on Thursday nights at Sower Church. Plans call for starting a worship service in Spanish at Sower Church in September on Sunday afternoons.
‘Big vision’
“The big vision is having three locations,” Viveros said. Cosecha eventually wants to start a third location in north Lincoln.
Not only does Cosecha want to reach Spanish-speaking people, the congregation also has a vision of reaching people from other cultures.
In April, the church helped launch Familia Together, a monthly bilingual worship service bringing together people from Cosecha, Southview, Sower Church and Citylight Mosaic Church.
“The main objective in these services is to help believers grow spiritually and learn to be part of a multicultural service. We hope that by learning to be part of multicultural worship, people will be better equipped to serve in our multicultural world and be more effective disciples,” Viveros said.
“The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:37–38).
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was originally published by the Baptist Digest, news source of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists.
