Men's Breakfast Report, February 2012

The Men’s Breakfast Group met Saturday, February 11 with Frank Moreno, pastor of Iglesia Bautista La Fe.

Frank was born in Freeport and raised in the East End until his mother died when he was five.  He then bounced around between his father and various relatives.  He attended Brazosport High School but dropped out at age 17 to join the Navy.  He got married in the Navy. After his service he went to work for Dow in Freeport.  He was raised as a Catholic but did not attend church regularly while his wife attended a Baptist church.  He emulated his father by drinking heavily on weekends.  He sporadically attended Saint Henry’s in Freeport.  He then got saved and started attending a different Baptist church than his wife without telling her.  He would leave for church after she left for her church and return before she returned.  One day she forgot something and returned before he left for church and caught him.  He confessed that he was going to church.  They then agreed to go to the same church.  Later, he felt called to preach and took early retirement from Dow in 1995 to become a preacher. 

Frank has started several churches.  He partnered with an existing church to start a Hispanic church in one of their rooms.  Once the church became big enough it would break away from the mother church to its own facilities.  It would then call a pastor from its congregation and Frank would move on to restart the process.

His present church, Iglesia Bautista La Fe, was started out of Temple Baptist Church in Clute.  It now has its own building on Avery Street in Clute.  The church has put up a new addition, for which they got a mortgage.  The church has about seventy members.  Almost all the members are under the age of fifty, most in their twenties to forties.  The church is Hispanic with members coming mostly from Mexico but many from Central America and as far away as Argentina.  The services are all in Spanish.  Frank can do bilingual services, where Spanish and English are alternated, but thinks that this slows down the service too much and all of his congregants prefer Spanish.  Although the adults are primarily Spanish speakers, the children are usually bilingual.  This may require changes in the services in the future as the children grow up.   The church recruits its members by a strong visitation program, where members knock on people’s doors and invite them to church.  The church does not have significant community service programs or non-religious services to its members. 

As usual, the men had an interesting discussion and a good breakfast.  The next meeting will be Saturday march 10 with Becka Ryder, director of True to Life Ministries as featured guest.