Saturday evening Spanish service draws
record crowd to First UMC, San Benito

By Danny Longoria
Associate Pastor, First UMC, San Benito
Eighty people attended the Saturday Spanish language worship service May 12 at First UMC,
San Benito—the highest attendance yet.
First UMC is excited about what God is doing, not just in the Saturday service, Casa de Dios, but in all the ministries of the church.
The first Spanish worship service at First UMC was March 20, 2002, in the chapel. Five years later the church launched its new Spanish worship service Saturday night, March 17.
Although the church has been very active in reaching out to its community, which is predominantly Hispanic, the church felt that more changes were needed to serve neighbors better.
The original Spanish worship service had moved to the sanctuary at 12:30 p.m. every Sunday,
with a Spanish Sunday school at 10:45 a.m.
After much prayer and thought, the church felt the call to change that service to Saturday evening.
The church named the new ministry Casa de Dios, wanting to create the perception that Casa de Dios is a church within a church.
Now the Casa de Dios community worships every Saturday at 6 p.m. Each Sunday First UMC offers a bilingual
Sunday school class at 9:40 a.m.
Those who have worshiped Saturday are returning Sunday morning for Christian education. Our Sunday school program has seen an increase in number.
The intent is to get people through the door. Then they could see what a culturally relevant, Spanish-speaking service First UMC, San Benito, has to offer to its surrounding community.