Hispanic Churches Grow in Idaho and Utah: Idaho Congregations Rise From Two to Nine as Spanish Family Conference Draws 68
Hispanic ministry in southwest Idaho and northern Utah has grown markedly in recent years. On October 15-16, two Spanish-speaking churches in the greater Boise area hosted a family conference in Spanish covering marriage, parenting and financial issues. Fifty people had been anticipated; 68 attended. The hosts were Iglesia Central Valley Español in the Boise suburb of Meridian and Iglesia Gracia y Verdad in Boise.
By the end of the conference, five people had made a profession of faith, eight people had rededicated their lives, and 35 people had engaged in Gospel conversations with members of the two host churches. The invited speaker was David Godoy, Send Network Español's West Region leader for the North American Mission Board. Roy Vargas, pastor of Iglesia Central Valley Español, said the event was originally intended only for men training in the church planting residency, but the organizers decided to open it to all Hispanic families in the Treasure Valley, to strengthen families in the community and to reach families without Christ.
The number of Hispanic congregations reflects the same growth: from two churches in 2020 to nine in 2026 in Idaho, and from four in 1995 to 13 in 2026 in Utah. Behind the growth sits a training pipeline: in 2025 Tim Martin founded the Residencia de Plantación de Iglesias Hispanas, a residency for Hispanic church planters, with Vargas as co-director. The year-long program teaches Spanish-speaking men practical steps in walking closely with God so they can plant or help plant a church. Six men graduated from the first class, two are continuing their studies through Gateway Seminary's online program, and four men are studying in the second class.
Iglesia Gracia y Verdad, started in January 2024, now averages Sunday morning worship attendance of more than 50, with seven people baptized in 2025 and four more this August. Thirteen people have been baptized at Central Valley Español, at least 80 attend Sunday morning services at a second worship center at Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, and a children's ministry has just started. Martin said the growth has been organic and personal, one person inviting a workmate, who invites family in turn, a chain he called a "chain of grace."
The growth in Idaho has its roots in Utah's Hispanic churches. Leonardo Lopez, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Sola Gracia in West Jordan, said that when his family arrived in Utah in 1995 there were only four Hispanic churches in the state and two in Idaho, and that in the last eight years the work has multiplied in both states. He identified two additional sites where Hispanic churches are needed now: Magna, Utah, where nearly 40 percent of residents are Hispanic and not a single Baptist church exists, and Herriman, Utah, where Hispanics make up about 13 percent of the population and there is no Spanish-speaking Baptist church.
NAMB started Send Network Español for Hispanic church planting residencies in 2018. Since then, 35 men have graduated from the Utah and Idaho residencies, eleven men have started churches and the others are supporting new church plants. Godoy said that for Hispanic families, la familia is not just a social unit but the foundation of identity, faith and mutual support across generations, and that investing in strong families directly strengthens the heart of the community.
Source: Baptist Press
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：爱达荷州 Boise 的 Central Christian Church 资料图，非文中西班牙语教会会场。Tamanoeconomico 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Central Christian Church in Boise, Idaho (file photo, not a venue in this story). Photo by Tamanoeconomico, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
