Bible Ministry to Launch to Nicaragua Presidential Cabinet and Congress

A Bible study ministry will be planted to members of the Nicaragua Presidential Cabinet and Congress in the coming months as a result of successful meetings last week between Capitol Ministries leadership and President Daniel Ortega.

A pastor with strong Christian roots in Nicaragua has accepted Capitol Ministries invitation to become Ministry Leader to the national leaders. 

Pastor Arsenio Herrera, senior pastor of the Hosanna Church, the largest Evangelical Christian house of worship in Managua, will lead the discipleship Bible studies to members of the presidential cabinet and congress. 

“Pastor Herrera is a well-known and very well-respected man of God who has been laboring for the kingdom for many years,” said Ralph Drollinger, President and founder of Capitol Ministries. “We are honored that he will represent Capitol Ministries in Nicaragua, and even more so, that he will disciple the nation’s leaders in how to govern according to God’s precepts.” 

Pastor Herrera was discipled by the now-deceased American Missionary David Spencer. The son of U.S. missionaries, Spencer first traveled to Nicaragua as a child with his parents in the 1960s and returned as an adult missionary to establish Hosanna Church in Managua. 

It is reported that in its early years, more than 500 people made decisions for Christ every week in Hosanna Church. 

Just before his death, Spencer was granted Nicaraguan citizenship by President Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo to honor his service to the Nicaraguan people.

Pastor Herrera, who is married to María Betzabé Espinoza Gutierrez, will travel to the United States in December to be trained at the Capitol Ministries Leadership Training Conference in Washington, D.C.  

Among other things, instruction will be given in how to prepare and lead a weekly expository Bible study in which the Bible is taught in-depth, book by book, verse by verse, to political leaders. In Nicaragua, the soon-to-be-released Spanish edition of Drollinger’s latest book, Oaks In Office; Biblical Essays for Political Leaders, will also be used in the discipleship of the nation’s leaders.

Drollinger and Oscar Zamora, CM’s Global Director of Latin America traveled to Nicaragua for July 20 meetings at the invitation of President Ortega. Also attending the various meetings were Nicaraguan Vice President Murillo, cabinet members, and legislators. 
 
During the four-day visit, Drollinger preached about what defines a Christian nation at a massively attended national observance where crowd estimates ranged between 500,000 to one million persons. The event was also televised throughout Central America. 
 
Click here to watch Drollinger’s sermon on YouTube.
 
Before Drollinger’s sermon, Dr. Antonio Bolainez, an evangelist from Nicaragua, presented the Gospel message of how sin separates man from God, and how man is reconciled with God through repentance and by volitionally accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 
 
Drollinger delivered his sermon in English, and it was translated into Spanish immediately for the crowd by Oscar Zamora, Capitol Ministries Global Director for Latin America, who stood with him on the stage. 
 
Drollinger later said that he was trying to explain to the crowd that in the Bible, God doesn’t talk about “Christian nations,” that only individuals can become Christians by being forgiven for sin through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. 
 
A “Christian nation” per se, doesn’t exist. Nations can only be so-called “Christian” to the extent that their laws and people are guided by Christian principles, two of which are righteousness and justice, Drollinger later explained. 
 
Billy Graham often said that he would go anywhere he could freely preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In that spirit, Capitol Ministries will go where we are asked and are given the freedom to establish a Bible study where the Word of God may be taught to political leaders inside the halls of government.

“Where might any country be today — differently, and for its betterment — if there had been a strong Bible teacher in the midst of their leadership for the past several decades?” Drollinger asked.

Capitol Ministries’ mission is to create disciples of Jesus Christ in the political arena of the world, from local city and county commissioners to state legislators and from the U.S. Presidential Cabinet to foreign national political leaders. 

Capitol Ministries has planted ministries in 24 foreign federal capitals and has an objective of establishing 200 ministries in 200 foreign nations in the years to come.