The First of Many: Diana Fajardo

Diana Fajardo is a candidate in the inaugural cohort of the Master of Divinity in Spanish program at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. As the first entry in our Perkins First of Many blog series, Fajardo reflects on her time in the program and how it has shaped her vocation and ministry. 

Diana Fajardo
Council Bluffs, Iowa

Q: Where do you serve?

A: I am a local pastor serving as the church planter of The Tent UMC in South Omaha, Nebraska, in the Great Plains Conference—the only bilingual United Methodist congregation serving the diverse and underserved community in our area. I am also the sole paid staff member, which means the pastoral, administrative, grant-writing and community work all land on the same desk, while I also provide training to the leadership team to eventually fully administer to the ministry. We serve the families of South Omaha through a weekly food pantry, bilingual worship, children’s programming and community advocacy. I carry all of that while completing my M.Div. at Perkins, which means every class is immediately put to the test in the field.

Q: How would you describe your first semester at Perkins?

A: Real—in the best and hardest sense of that word. I was already in South Omaha, already running the food pantry, already leading Sunday worship with families who had nothing to spare. There was no easing in. Every class conversation was tested by Thursday afternoon at the food pantry. Every reading was filtered through the faces of the people I serve. The hybrid format made it possible to hold both worlds—the academic and the pastoral—without having to choose between them. It was heavy. And it was exactly right.

Q: Before visiting Perkins, what were your first impressions of the community? How did those impressions change after you arrived?

A: I’ll be honest—I came in with some quiet skepticism. I wondered if a place like SMU would have room for a ministry like mine: a food pantry, folding chairs and a young congregation in South Omaha’s 68107 ZIP code that doesn’t make many “best of” lists. I wasn’t sure the theology would land in my world. What surprised me was discovering that Wesleyan theology already speaks to everything I’ve been doing—I just didn’t always have the language for it. Prevenient grace—the idea that God is already present in a community before the church ever arrives—isn’t just a doctrine I learned. It’s the posture I’ve carried into South Omaha from day one. Perkins gave me words for what I was already living.

Q: During your time in the Master of Divinity in Spanish program, have any of your expectations been challenged or reshaped?

A: I expected the program to make me a better pastor. What I didn’t expect was how much it would ask me to take myself seriously as a theologian. As an Afro-Latina immigrant woman planting a church in a hard place, I had learned—without fully realizing it—to minimize my own theological voice. I knew how to do the work. I wasn’t certain whether I could name it theology. Perkins has been pushing back on that pattern. My intersectionality is not a footnote to my formation—it is the formation. That shift has changed everything about how I preach, how I lead and how I see the community I serve.

Q: What does it mean to you to be part of the first Master of Divinity in Spanish cohort at Perkins?

A: It means we are building something that didn’t exist before—and we are doing it in real time, with all the weight and joy that carries. Every generation of Spanish-speaking pastors who were told—explicitly or by omission—that this level of formation was not for them: this cohort is also for them. But honestly, what I feel most is the gift of the community itself. These are people who understand what it costs to do this in Spanish, in communities that institutions often forget. We challenge each other. We hold each other. We remind each other why we said yes. That community has been one of the greatest gifts of my formation.

Q: How has this program shaped the way you currently serve? How do you hope to carry that impact forward after graduation?

A: The program has given me language for things I was already living. Wesleyan social holiness isn’t a quote I cite—it’s the operating logic of The Tent UMC. Our food pantry isn’t charity—it’s theology made visible. What has changed most is how I preach: with greater theological honesty and a greater willingness to name what God is already doing in South Omaha rather than just prescribing what should happen. After graduation, I hope to be ordained as a United Methodist elder, grow The Tent UMC into a self-sustaining congregation that doesn’t depend on one person, and fully launch a Montessori early childhood program for children in South Omaha who fall through the academic gap before public school. I want to leave something that prevails.

Q: Why is it important to offer theological education fully in Spanish?

A: Because language is not just how we communicate—it’s how we think, how we pray and how we encounter God. When a Spanish-speaking pastor learns to do theology in a second language, they are not just translating words. They are translating their whole way of being in the world. Things get lost. Voices get quieter. And the communities those pastors serve deserve leaders who were formed fully, not partially. Offering this degree in Spanish says something simple and profound: Your language is not a barrier to overcome. It is a home.
 

Q: What advice would you give to students joining the next cohort?

A: Don’t separate the classroom from the street. Let the people you serve shape your theology—not just as illustration material, but as primary sources. The grandmother who walks six blocks to our food pantry and still finds a way to bring tamales on a good week? She is doing theology. Let her teach you. Take your cohort seriously—these are not just your classmates. They are the people who will understand the specific weight of doing this in Spanish, in communities that are often unseen. You will need each other more than you expect. And take your own voice seriously. You are not only here to learn the tradition. You are here to add to it.

Learn more about our Master of Divinity in Spanish program and application process by clicking here.