Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas received a $1.25 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.
The $1,249,884 grant will enable Convención to help establish “CANTA: Congregaciones Ayudando a Niños a ser Transformados en Adoradores.”
The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative, a national initiative designed to help Christian congregations engage children more fully and intentionally in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices.
The CANTA project will equip churches to develop congregational worship expressions that nurture Latino immigrant children and their families.
CANTA will create resources to revitalize children’s worship first in congregations along the Texas-Mexico border and then to others across the United States that minister to children of Latin American immigrant parents.
“The CANTA Project is another example of Convención’s commitment to being a beacon of help for Hispanic churches and communities,” said Robert Rueda, director of the CANTA project. “I am excited for the children, families and congregations of the Rio Grande Valley and beyond, who will have access to resources, coaching and encouragement to nurture children in worship and prayer.”
“We are excited that children that have endured such devastating circumstance will have these new resources that will help churches nourish their hearts as they minister to their Father in worship,” said Jesse Rincones, executive director of Convención.
Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas is one of 91 organizations funding through the latest round of the initiative. They represent and serve congregations in a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox, Anabaptist and Pentecostal faith communities. Several organizations are rooted in Black church and Hispanic and Asian American Christian traditions.
“Congregational worship and prayer play a critical role in the spiritual growth of children and offer settings for children to acquire the language of faith, learn their faith traditions and experience the love of God as part of a supportive community,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion.
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“These programs will help congregations give greater attention to children and how they can more intentionally nurture the faith of children, as well as adults, through worship and prayer.”
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