International Mission

El Camino de los Luteranos

The Walk of the Lutherans: Bringing the Church to Spain

Story by Pamela J. Nielsen | Photography by Erik M. Lunsford

Church member Jose Antonio (left) walks to the train station in Valladolid, Spain, with the Rev. David Warner (center) and the Rev. Adam Lehman, LCMS missionaries to the country.

“It’s a terribly dramatic story,” says the Rev. Adam Lehman, LCMS missionary to Spain.

“There is a Lutheran history here; it’s 500 years old, and it’s mostly tragic and violent and bloody, and the fact that the Lutheran doctrine has returned to Spain after all that is really kind of cool.”

Lehman and fellow missionary Rev. David Warner are a lonely sight as they walk across the Plaza Mayor in Valladolid, Spain, on a cold, rainy November day, with their wheeled bags rumbling behind them. They are here to visit the only Lutheran family living in this ancient city where 458 years prior, 16 Lutherans, convicted as heretics, were burned at the stake.

Hear directly from the Rev. David Warner about his work as a missionary in Spain.

The missionaries are greeted with hugs and cheek kisses and loud words of welcome as they enter the apartment home of Jose Antonio; his wife, Sandra; and their son, Juan Jose. The two are doctors and native Columbians. The family has eagerly waited for this visit from their pastors. Soon, the dining room table is covered with Spanish olives, salamis, cheeses and bread, and red Spanish wine fills glasses as these parishioners visit with their pastors long into the night.

Church on the Move

But first things first. This is not a social call. The Church has come to these souls hungry for the bread of life. Warner wastes no time as he unpacks his bag and prepares an altar with the communion vessels. On his iPad is the Concordia Organist, which provides musical accompaniment as the little flock sings the liturgy and hymns for the Divine Service.

Jose’s voice cracks as he describes what such visitations mean to him: “It has two faces — the first is that it is a privilege. The other is that there is no Lutheran community here, so it is very good for us that the church is beginning here. It’s not easy to be three Lutherans here alone.”

This is the situation for at least half of the 75 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Spain, who are spread throughout the country in 17 cities.

“If we are blessed, we are together four to five times a year,” Warner says, speaking of his scattered flock. “It’s a big part of the challenge.”

The dispersed Lutherans are a result of online outreach efforts by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina some 16 years ago, when they partnered with two Spanish families to lay the foundation for a Spanish Lutheran church.

For Warner and Lehman, ministry is always on the move — by foot, train, cab or plane. There is even a member family in the Canary Islands. Monthly travel costs exceed $1,200 for the two of them.

*Statistics source

Three Congregations

Small congregations exist in Madrid, Cartagena and Seville, where a group of people live and come together weekly in rented spaces — a hotel meeting room, an Episcopal church and, hopefully soon, a former discotheque.

An alb hangs in a hotel bathroom in their rented space in Seville.

Church members and visitors gather for worship in a rented sanctuary in Madrid.

“In Madrid, it’s completely lay driven,” Warner says. “I’m there once a month. The other weekends they get together on their own in their homes. I give them some liturgies and sermons and Bible studies.”

In Cartagena, there’s a seminarian who leads the devotion the missionaries provide. He studies through the online program Formación Pastoral Hispano, a partnership between Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind., and Seminario Concordia in Argentina.

The men are grateful for the regular extended visits of the Rev. Dr. Arthur Just Jr., a professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, who helps to care for the flock and mentor these new missionaries. Just lived in Spain as a teenager and has been making visits for nearly a decade.

Celebrate the Reformation?

As the Lutheran world celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, that milestone occasion is tempered by the daily realities and challenges faced by the Spanish Lutherans. They are much more concerned about what will happen to their Lutheran church. They want to be Lutherans, but they worry about what will happen if the missionaries leave.

“This is a big topic,” Warner says, as he talks about the three former Argentine missionaries who have come and gone in the span of 10 years.

“It’s not about persons; it’s about Christ and His Gospel, and He is going to do it,” Sandra says with conviction. “But it is about persons because someone has been your pastor, or your mother or grandmother. Someone has read you Bible stories. Someone spoke the Word to you. And those someones are really important on a basic human level.”

She often wonders what will happen. “We’ve had pastors leave before,” she says.

When asked to explain why he is a Lutheran, 14-year-old Juan Jose says, “Because I believe in what’s in the Bible — for me the idea is that Jesus came, He saved us. I am Lutheran because I believe in what God said.”

Hear directly from the Rev. Adam Lehman about what it’s like to be a missionary in Spain.

The Plan for Spain

Warner and Lehman are concentrating their efforts in Seville, while continuing to care for the members who are spread far and wide. They want to establish a permanent location for ministry efforts of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Spain. Doing so will provide legitimacy for Spaniards who are skeptical of yet another non-Catholic religious group entering their country.

The two have set clear priorities, which include focusing on growing congregations and providing regular theological education for the one Spanish pastor, the two seminarians and other emerging lay leaders — an effort aided by visiting pastors and professors from the LCMS and Latin America.

Tourists pose during sunset at the Plaza de España in Seville.

A man sits quietly in a side altar of the Church of the Divine Savior, a Roman Catholic church in Seville.

At the heart of their ministry, Warner and Lehman are focused on providing the Gospel in Word and Sacrament even as they begin to intentionally teach and practice the theology of mercy. Key to their outreach is the use of digital technology to proclaim the Gospel throughout Spain.

This seemingly odd couple — Lehman with his carefully curated attire of aviator glasses, jeans and tweed blazer and Warner in his relaxed wardrobe of cargo pants, jacket and polo shirt — enjoys a wonderful repartee frequented by verbal pokes and jabs. Their personalities clearly complement each other.

The two former Marines are focused, determined and working their plan, all while also being realistic about the challenges they face.

“To a large degree, it’s a big leap [for Spaniards] to leave the church they were born into,” Lehman says. “The Roman Catholic Church affects everything, it’s so ingrained in society — to leave that is to leave a significant part of what the daily life is.”

However, in this country of almost 50 million where 70 percent of the population claims to be Roman Catholic, most are Catholic in name only.

As Warner sips a coffee at an outdoor café in Seville, where steeples and religious symbolism are ever present, he says, “It’s almost otherworldly to have so much appearance of Christianity but so little real Christian life, but that’s normal here.”

The Revs. Adam Lehman and David Warner share a light-hearted moment on a train ride following a long day of travel and worship.

 Deaconess Pamela J. Nielsen | Associate executive director for LCMS Communications.

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