Series on Mexican Pastors and Seminary Students: Pastor Carlos Rosales

Welcome to the fifth installment of our series on Mexican pastors and seminary students. This week I spoke with Pastor Carlos Rosales, who graduated from the seminary in January 2009 and currently serves in Altar, Sonora.

English Class Start

Pastor Rosales first learned of the Mexican Lutheran church when he was working at a department store called Coppel in Gomez Palacio, Mexico. “My manager told me a nearby church was offering English classes for free,” he remembers. He signed up for English classes and soon started attending Bible studies.

Studying the Bible wasn’t a new phenomenon for Pastor Rosales – in fact, his father served as a Methodist missionary in Paraguay for a few years. While Pastor Rosales grew up in what he calls a conservative Methodist home, his parents let him look for his own religion when he was a young adult. He looked around and eventually got involved with a Baptist church.

But when he heard the Lutheran church’s teaching of “sola gracia” (grace alone), Pastor Rosales was intrigued. “I liked that it didn’t focus on emotions,” he said. “I ended up falling in love with the Lutheran doctrine and never went back to the Baptist church.”



Pastor Rosales entered the Mexican Lutheran Seminary in 2005 and graduated in January of 2010. The picture above shows Mike handing Pastor Rosales his graduation diploma. I love Mike’s expression in this - I can practically hear his thoughts at that moment: “You did it!”

After graduating, Pastor Rosales was called as a home missionary to serve in Sonora. This was a big step for the Mexican Lutheran Church, as Pastor Rosales became one of the first two men called to work in a home mission setting.

Pastor Rosales, his wife Vicki and their son Ezra currently live in Altar, Sonora, where Pastor Rosales serves the congregation El Buen Pastor (Good Shepherd). The congregation recently hosted the Mexican Lutheran Church convention.

Evangelism through Music


“I love evangelizing through music,” says Pastor Rosales. He enjoys singing and playing the guitar and drums. He is always looking for ways to reach more people through Gospel-centered songs.


Last year, Pastor Rosales baptized 28 souls. In the picture above, he is with the seven children in a family that he baptized. He is currently carrying out an evangelism plan to reach the many people that had contact with the church through the Mission to the Children program in Sonora.

Thank you Pastor Rosales, for your evangelism-minded heart and ongoing baptisms. We wish you God’s richest blessings as you continue to carry out the work in Altar, Sonora.

Join us next week as I cover another pastor here in the Mexican Lutheran Church.