DANNY AND KARINA EGIPCIACO | MIAMI, FLORIDA


CALLING
AN AUDIBLE
Church planter changes everything to reach second-gen Hispanics
By Mickey Noah


At a brawny 6 foot-6 inches and 255 lbs., 36-year-old Danny Egipciaco looks more like a linebacker for the Miami Dolphins than a North American Mission Board (NAMB) national missionary and church planter.


Playing football and tackling 220-pound running backs might be easier than what God has called Egipciaco to do in the Miami area—though not nearly as important. That’s to use his considerable strength and stamina to work long hours as part of his passion to plant new churches and bring his fellow South Floridians to Christ.


But the challenge of spreading the gospel in the Miami metro area is immense because by all accounts, local lostness is vast. According to Egipciaco, Miami—with nearly 8 million people—is one of the most unchurched metro areas in the United States. About 95 percent of Miamians are unchurched, Egipciaco says.


Egipciaco lives in nearby Hialeah, with his wife, Karina, and their three children—Daniel Jr., Elyse and Brianna. A fourth child is on the way.


Egipciaco, who moved to Miami at age 4, grew up in a Christian home, attending a Spanish-speaking Hispanic Southern Baptist church. He accepted Christ as a teen thanks to his mom, a native Cuban, who was led to Christ as a girl by a Home Mission Board (now NAMB) missionary. His parents still live in Hialeah.


Egipciaco was serving as a 28-year-old youth pastor in a “legacy” first-generation, Spanish-speaking SBC church when he realized it just wasn’t working. Ministering in Spanish was not the most effective way to reach Miami youth.


“I had to change everything,” he recalls. “We were doing church in Spanish but instead, we needed to connect with the growing second-generation Hispanics in South Florida who spoke English. Second-gen Hispanics is one of the fastest growing people groups in South Florida and the U.S.”


ON MISSION • Spring 2012 39

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