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Emmanuel Faith Community is reaching out and growing

December 3, 2014 / By Beth DiCocco / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The Sunday worship service at Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Rensselaer takes place in the basement. Straight-backed chairs on a linoleum floor. No soaring architecture, no fellowship hall. On this particular Sunday, the room is stacked with furniture, lamps and other household items.

But as she looks out onto the congregation, Pastor Mariana Rodriguez tells them: "This is a picture of what heaven is going to be – every nation, every face, every language. This is what heaven is going to be like.

This small, primarily Latino congregation was welcoming four new members on Oct. 26, 2014 – two Caucasian, one African American and one Latina.

The relationship with three of these women began through an arts and crafts class at the nearby Renwyck Place apartment complex. The weekly class was a way of reaching out, Pastor Rodriguez said, and it developed into a Bible study. Now she holds a regular worship service there.

"This happened just by showing the love of Christ with our neighbors," Pastor Rodriguez said of the new members joining the congregation.

Michele Dambrosi is one of those new members.

"I have been a Christian for many years, way back to when I was about 12, but I never learned what it was to be a Christian; I was at my end of being a Christian," said Dambrosi, who participated in Emmanuel's craft classes. "As soon as Pastor (Rodriguez) walked in the room, her Holy Spirit hit my Holy Spirit."

As for the furniture, those are items members have collected for Marelyn Arzuaga Torres, who recently arrived from Puerto Rico with her two children. She has a bachelor's degree in criminology, but because she does not speak English well, she is not working right now. The family is in a shelter.

But when they are ready to move into an apartment, it will be filled with many of the things they will need for their new life here. In the meantime, Pastor Rodriguez is content to have the church serve as "our warehouse."

The three-hour service at Emmanuel begins with Bible study. Leonardo Rivera is leading the study, which is focused in part on 1 Timothy 2:11-12. He emphasized the danger of reading the Bible literally and outside of its historical context.

In talking about the relationship between men and women, Rivera, who is Puerto Rican, discusses Latino cultural attitudes around machismo.

"We come from a culture that, many times, we have in us that mark of machismo, but in the Lord that can't exist. The man is nothing without the woman, and the woman nothing without the man."

After the hour-long Bible study comes about 20 minutes of fellowship over coffee and cookies. Then Pastor Rodriguez leads the worship service.

Translating on this Sunday is Amneris Velazquez, who is one of the new members being welcomed. She is also Pastor Rodriguez's secretary and will be her daughter-in-law. Velazquez is engaged to David Rodriguez, who plays keyboards during the service.

She and all of the new members are invited to speak to the congregation.

"For me, being part of this church is to feel that I am part of the body of Christ. I am doing something that's needed, something worth doing in the hands of the Lord," said Velazquez. "This church has given me that push and strength in the Lord. I am grateful to be part of this church."

New members Lilly Stroud and Erin Tinger also live at Renwyck Place.

"I am very grateful that I have been invited to come here," Stroud said. "I feel God is looking down on me and my soul and my spirit; I love everyone."

Tinger, who said she was "just starting to be a Christian," said that she was "not afraid that much anymore. I am still learning and I have a lot more to learn."

When they were done, the congregation greeted them and welcomed them with hugs.

Remarking that they had broken down some of society's stereotypes that day, Pastor Rodriguez closed the service by saying: "We love one another; who is Anglo, African American, Latino American, who cares? We're one in Christ. When we look in one another's face, let us see Christ in one another."