Mole Poblano and the Future of the Church

On Monday April 13, we sat around a table in Tijuana. No stage, no microphones—just a few pastors, a missionary, and a shared concern for what comes next. And, as often happens in Mexico, the table included Mole Poblano, which made the conversation linger a little longer and the fellowship a little warmer.

At Iglesia Luterana San Pablo, Pastor Ramón Contreras (Lutheran Border Concern Ministries), missionary church planter Abner Pérez, Professor Pastor Walduino Littig Jr. (Seminary El Reformador, Dominican Republic), vicar Gustavo Valderrama and leadership from the Lutheran Mission Society San Diego were joined—across the border and through a screen—by Pastor Les Schaefer from St. James Lutheran Church in Imperial Beach.

Together, we spent time talking through something that doesn’t have quick answers: how to form a pastor in the middle of mission.

Abner is already doing the work—serving, teaching, gathering people, carrying the weight of a young mission. The question isn’t whether he’s involved. The question is how the Church walks with him so that his calling is shaped, tested, and strengthened with solid Lutheran theological formation.

This is slower work than programs and events. It requires relationships across borders, institutions that listen, and a willingness to build something that won’t be finished anytime soon.

But this is how the Church grows—not only by starting new missions, but by raising up shepherds from within them.

We’re grateful for the conversation, for the partnership that spans Tijuana and Imperial Beach, and for the simple gift of sharing a meal together around Mole Poblano.

We ask for your prayers as these next steps take shape.