S2E14 - BONUS Introducing La Ventanita Podcast

What would it look like if a church was planted with the expressed purpose of reaching bi-cultural, 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos? What would some of the initial challenges be? How would a pastoral team tackle them?

On this bonus episode, we introduce you to World Outspoken’s newest podcast, La Ventanita. Pull up a seat with Jeremy Barahona and Joshua Suh to hear about the process of church planting on the south end of West Palm Beach… as it’s happening. La Ventanita Podcast gives you a behind the scenes look as Jeremy and his team launch The Light WPB, a church deeply committed to the neighborhood.

Expect talk about everything from the Bible, hip-hop, and Latinidad. The episode you are about to hear gets into the honest struggle of church plant fundraising. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to La Ventanita on your favorite podcast app. And don’t forget the Mestizo Podcast returns this March 2022 with lo Bueno como siempre.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Purchase Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity

Don’t forget that as a listener of The Mestizo Podcast, you can get 30% off + free US shipping when you use the promo code: MESTIZO. Don’t wait. Get a great deal on a great book, today.

S2E13 - BONUS Interview w/ Cardec Drums

On this episode, we switch things up, sitting down with 2x Dove Award Winner, Tu Premios Música Urbana winner, and co-owner of No Apologies Music, Jacob Cardec, known as Cardec Drums.  We sit down with Cardec to discuss his vision of bridging the English speaking hip hop world con la musica Cristiana Urbana. He shares his earliest experiences with the church, how he manages the tension of being between world, and the future of No Apologies Music.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Follow Cardec Drums on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cardecdrums/

Follow No Apologies Music: https://www.instagram.com/noapologiesmusic/

Purchase Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity

Don’t forget that as a listener of The Mestizo Podcast, you can get 30% off + free US shipping when you use the promo code: MESTIZO. Don’t wait. Get a great deal on a great book, today.

You can also register here to join Dr. Robert Chao Romero on THURSDAY, FEB 3 (2PM ET / 1 PM CT / 11 AM PT) for a webinar titled Developing Christian Leaders with Seminary Now.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

S2E12 - BONUS Mixed Take Crossover

Today we introduce you to one of World Outspoken’s other amazing podcasts, Mixed Take. On this podcast Robert Rivera and Donielle Alicea discuss how the mixing of cultures and heritages in the US - influence film, television, and other forms of media and entertainment.

On this episode, Doni and Robert interview actor and singer Jennifer Hudson and director Liesl Tommy on their film RESPECT. Doni and Robert also have interviews with actor, singer, and fellow Boricua, Robin De Jesus, actor Jimmy Gonzalez, and other episodes dealing with the ways the media landscape is changing.

Check out Mixed Take on your favorite podcast app for more episodes like the one you’re about to hear. Oh and…

If you haven’t heard of the book Brown Church, you’ll want to get yourself a copy today. Robert Chao Romero, the son of a Mexican father and a Chinese immigrant mother, explores the history and theology the “Brown Church.”

Romero considers how for five hundred years, Latina/o culture and identity have been shaped by their challenges to religious, socioeconomic, and political status quo, and takes readers through this history of activism and faith in the Latina/o church. Brown Church appeals to the vision for redemption, which includes not only heavenly promises but also the transformation of our lives and the world.

Get your copy today at ivpress.com. And as a listener of The Mestizo Podcast, you can get 30% off + free US shipping when you use the promo code: MESTIZO. Don’t wait. Get a great deal on a great book, today.

---

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

S2E11 - BONUS Atando Cabos

On this bonus episode, we hear from our sister and madrina, Elizabeth Conde-Frazier about her newest book, Atando Cabos: Latinx Contributions to Theological Education. We discuss the loose ends she explores, the importance of respect, and what we can all learn about how education is changing from the margins.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Learn more about the The 2021 Justo and Catherine Gonzalez Lecture Series here.

Purchase Atando Cabos en Español here.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

S2E10 - Mixed Mailbag

A special season ending episode of el Mestizo Podcast, the show for the mixed people of the mixed church. On this episode, your hosts answer your questions about the Mestizo church, themes of the season, and tell you what is coming next for the Mestizo Podcast.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

Curious about Emanuel’s rapper days? Listen to Legacia today.

S2 - Special Announcement

Today we were set to release our last episode of the second season, our mail bag episode, where we answer your preguntas and wrap the discussions & themes of the season. Elizabeth and I are both at a conference over the next two weeks, so we are putting a pause on that episode. But not to worry, todavia tenemos algo bueno para ti.

This Monday, June 21st at 6:30 CST we are hosting the final webinar of the season. In this webinar, we’ll hear from the pastoral staff of Church of the City, New London. They’ll share the story of how their church transitioned from a Spanish-language-only, traditional migrant church to a multi-ethnic church that embraced the generations of Latinos born in the US. This webinar will give you a real life case study of a church that went through many of the challenges and changes we’ve discussed in the first season of the podcast.

Listeners of the Mestizo Podcast can now register for the webinar for only $15.00. Go to www.worldoutspoken.com/webinars and clicking register today. You won’t want to miss the opportunity to gather with other listeners, hear a testimony from this church, AND ask questions in real time.

We’ll be back with the final episode of season 2 on July 7th, after the break for the holiday. Before I go, I have two other announcements. First, I want to ask you to help us defeat the algorithm. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast and leave us a review. It really does help. Second, you can also now give to support the Mestizo Podcast. World Outspoken is a non-profit ministry that puts together these excellent resources for the church. You can help us continue the Mestizo podcast by going to www.worldoutspoken.com/give-now and clicking on the give now button on the top right. There are several ways to give, and some will get you access to bonus material from our team. Esto se hace en conjunto. Gracias por tu apoyo.

Talk to you again soon. Bendiciones.

S2E8 - Being Latino in Christ

On this episode, we are joined by Rev. Orlando Crespo, National Director of LaFe at InterVarsity. We revisit his groundbreaking book Being Latino in Christ: Finding Wholeness in your Ethnic Identity nearly twenty years later. We ask him how the last twenty years have expanded his insights, what he would change, and how to bring reconciliation between white and afro-latinos, Latino immigrants and their diaspora children.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

About Rev. Orlando Crespo

Orlando Crespo is national director of InterVarsity Latino Fellowship (LAFE). He has worked with InterVarsity since 1987, first as a campus staff member at Hunter College and City College in New York City, New York, and then as an area director for a group of colleges in New York City. He was one of the founders of New Life in the Bronx Church, and he still serves there as an associate pastor.

S2E7 - A More Complicated Mix

On this episode we are joined by friends and family who are of "mixed" heritage. Their mestizaje is not coming from the historical mix but a more recent inter-mixed family.  Our panel of modern mestizos speak about how they navigate this for themselves and what it is that they find along their journey as they live with people who may not understand their mixedness. So, sientase en casa, make yourself at home, and let’s get started.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

Meet Our Guests

Learn more about Dr. Cartagena here.

Dr. Nathan Cartagena

Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where he teach courses on race, justice, and political philosophy.  He also serves as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristiana, a student group working to enhance Christian unity and celebrate Latina/o cultures. A committed churchman, he seeks to answer a vexing question: What should discipleship and sanctification look like in a racialized world?

Natalia Kohn Rivera

Special projects coordinator for InterVarsity's LaFe ministry and campus staff in southern California and also serves on staff at the Pasadena International House of Prayer, where she trains people in prayer and worship and leads teams on trips to the Middle East. She was born in Argentina and grew up in the United States as a biracial Latina.

Learn more about Natalia here.

Dr. Robert Chao Romero

Rev. Dr. Robert Chao Romero is "Asian-Latino," and has been a professor of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at UCLA since 2005.  He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in Latin American History and his Juris Doctor from U.C. Berkeley.  Romero is award winning writer, publishing 15 academic books and articles on issues of race, immigration, history, education, and religion.

Check out Dr. Chao Romero’s newest project.

Evangelina Morales

Evangelina Morales holds a Masters of Education from Concordia University. She has published articles on the topic of diversity and working with children. She is currently a Spanish teacher and Diversity coordinator for Prestonwood Christian Academy.

S2E6 - The Church “After Whiteness”

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Willie James Jennings to discuss a vision for the church “After Whiteness.” We ask questions about the assimilation tendencies of the church and theological education, the desire by many black and brown church folk to separate entirely, and a vision for the full communion between God’s people.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

About Dr. Willie James Jennings

Dr. Willie James Jennings is associate professor of systematic theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School. His book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race won both the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

S2E5 - Identidad y Lenguaje

On this episode, we are joined by Dra. Arielle Akines to discuss Afro-Latinidad in Latin America and the US. We ask the question, “How do we elevate blackness without essentializing it? How do we elevate the African heritage of Hispanics?”

Me Gritaron Negra poem by Victoria Santa Cruz (Serie Mistura de Ritmos: Mistura Afro-Peruana, Vol. 3; 2011 Music MGP)

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

About Dra. Arielle Akines

Dra. Arielle Akines first began learning Spanish in the third grade. She has over ten years of experience teaching and tutoring Spanish at the graduate, undergraduate, and elementary school levels. Her background includes working in university language centers, working as an expert linguist researcher for Fortune 500 companies, and as a reading specialist for bilingual elementary students. She has lived in Málaga, Spain and completed her doctoral research on Afro-Latinos in Bogotá, Colombia. She was selected as a 2016 Smithsonian Museum Latino Center Fellow, to research language taxonomies and entity identification.

S2E4 - Protecting What’s Ours/Protegiendo lo Nuestro

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Charlie Dates and Dr. Eric Rivera to discuss their approaches to black and brown church traditions. We ask, “How do we cherish our Black/Latin@ heritage in the midst of the ever-popularizing multi-ethnic church movement? How do we continue to build bridges between the black and brown community?” And, they share stories about their own journey of cultural formation as pastors.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

About Our Guests

About Dr. Eric Rivera

Eric is the Lead Pastor at The Brook, a multiethnic church in Chicago. He has a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is author of “Christ is Yours" (Lexham 2019) and a forthcoming book on how the resurrected Jesus meets us in our mess (Lexham Spring 2022). He married to his best friend Erikah in 2003 and together they are parents to three amazing kids.

About Dr. Charlie Dates

In 2011, at age 30, Dr. Charlie Edward Dates became the youngest Senior Pastor at Chicago's Progressive Baptist Church; a church celebrating a distinctive 100-year history. He earned the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech Communication and Rhetoric at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and both the Master of Divinity and PhD at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

S2E3 - Decolonizing Multi-Ethnic Church models

On this episode, we are joined by Sandra Maria Van Opstal, author of The Next Worship and Co-Founder and Executive Director of Chasing Justice, a movement led by people of color to mobilize a lifestyle of faith and justice. We look at the failure of the multiethnic church movement, and we ask the question, “What does a multiethnic/multiracial church look like when whiteness is decentered?”

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

About Sandra Maria Van Opstal

Sandra holds a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is a Doctoral Candidate at North Park Seminary. Her teaching has also been featured at Wheaton College, North Park University, Liberating Evangelicalism Conference, The Justice Conference, Evangelical Covenant conferences, Willow Creek Association conferences, and various churches. Her most recent books include Rally: Communal Prayers for the Lovers of Jesus and Justice, A Rhythm of Prayer, Still Evangelical, and The Next Worship.

Follow Sandra’s work at https://chasingjustice.com/

S2E2 - El Futuro de la Iglesia Latina

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Daniel Rodriguez, author of a Future for the Latino Church and Divisional Dean of the Religion and Philosophy Division and Professor of Religion and Hispanic Studies at Pepperdine University to discuss the changing dynamics of Iglesias Latinas. We look over the last 10 years and reflect on the healthy and challenging developments en la Iglesia. We also ask Dr. Rodriguez to say more about his vision for the future of ministry. So, sientase en casa, make yourself at home, and let’s get started.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

About Dr. Daniel Rodriguez

Daniel A. Rodriguez, a native of California, is Divisional Dean of the Religion and Philosophy Division and Professor of Religion and Hispanic Studies at Pepperdine University. Since 1979, he has served the Churches of Christ as a minister in Central and Southern California, and as a missionary in Puebla, Mexico. Daniel holds a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. He has published numerous journal articles, and contributed chapters to edited volumes on the subject of Hispanic evangelicalism. Daniel’s book, A Future for the Latino Church, challenges the assumption that Hispanic ministry is synonymous with Spanish-language ministry and challenges the evangelical church in the United States to become all things to all Latinos.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

Book referenced in episode:

Daniel Rodriguez, A Future For the Latino Church: Models for Multilingual, Multigenerational Hispanic Congregations

S2E1 - Not a Monolith

On this episode, we name, challenge, and discuss the realities of assimilation in our community. Too often our communities are treated as a monolith, a single community with a single set of beliefs and practices. We know that’s not true, but today we explore what our diversity really means for the Mestizo Church by telling part of our stories and looking at some of the numbers. So, sientase en casa, make yourself at home, and let’s get started.

Have a question you want answered on the podcast? Leave us a message at 312-725-2995. Leave us a 30 second voicemail with your name, city, y pregunta and we’ll discuss it on the last episode of the season. You can also submit a question using the form on this page.

Support the Mestizo Podcast by giving today.

S2 Trailer - Regresa Lo Bueno

Ahora si que se complica la cosa!

Familia! Welcome back for a second season of the Mestizo Podcast, the show for the mixed people of the mixed church. I’m your host, Emanuel Padilla, and along with la Dra. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, World Outspoken, and the Association for Hispanic Theological Education les invito a explorar the complicated racial and cultural challenges of being part of, serving in, and growing a migrant church en el ciglo 21. As the second and third generation step into leadership in the church, the racial dynamics get complicated. How does a mestizo church reflect the multicultural realities of Latinos en la diaspora? Afro-Latin@s and their rich heritage? The interracial marriages so common en la Iglesia today? These questions and more are what we explore together with your hosts, Emanuel Padilla y la Dra. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier. Your hosts are Puerto Rican, so you are going to hear some Spanglish de ves en cuando on The Mestizo Podcast; it’s part of who we are.

We will have guests like Willie James Jennings, Sandra Maria Van Opstal, Charlie Dates, and so many more join us to discuss issues of language, culture, and identity and how they affect the changing church. Espera el primer episodio el 3 de Marzo. Expect the first episode March 3rd! Follow World Outspoken on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you don’t miss the release of lo Bueno que viene en esta temporada. Ta to dicho. Hablamos pronto.