Amaro named church planting catalyst

Fernando Amaro, Arizona Southern Baptist Convention Hispanic ministries facilitator, became the North American Mission Board statewide church planting catalyst for Hispanic work in Arizona Jan. 16.

For Amaro, the church planting focus is not new. When Josue Castro joined the AZSBC staff as associate Hispanic ministries facilitator in June 2014, Castro’s focus was Hispanic church ministries, allowing Amaro to concentrate on Hispanic church planting.

Amaro “will still be a part of the AZSBC team and will work closely with our staff,” said AZSBC Executive Director David Johnson. “We are grateful for his flexibility in transitioning to this role, which allows Josue Castro to take up the work of Hispanic ministries facilitator. We now have two staff members giving direct effort to Hispanic ministry and church planting in our state.”

The staffing change will help us reach the Centennial Vision goal of having 50% of Arizona Southern Baptist churches be Hispanic or non-Anglo by 2028, Johnson said. Currently, there are 55 Hispanic churches among the 447 Arizona Southern Baptist churches.

“The Centennial Vision calls for us to have 1,000 churches by 2028,” Johnson said. “Fernando is an important part of the team to help Arizona Southern Baptists reach this goal, and we are thankful for his leadership.”

goal and we are thankful for his leadership!”