MinDev ministry developer
Lorenzo was born in Washington, D.C., and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in his teens. He graduated from San Jose State University with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology in 1973. His first career (1974-1981) was that of an adult probation officer with Santa Clara County. He met and married his wife, Rita, in 1977. Shortly thereafter, they both joined a Sabbatarian religious organization.
In 1981, Arroyo was commissioned by that organization to attend their ministerial school in Denver, Colorado. He was ordained in 1982 and became a full-time pastor for the congregation in San Jose. In 1988, Lorenzo and Rita went to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where they did missionary work for two years. Lorenzo taught theology at a ministerial college, and Rita taught English. Afterward, they returned and took on another pastorate in Southern California for a brief period, before returning to Denver in 1993. Lorenzo was commissioned to teach at the same ministerial school where he had attended more than a decade earlier. While serving as an instructor at the school, Lorenzo met Joseph Tkach, GCI president, who visited the school in 1994. Lorenzo also did three years of part-time graduate work at Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary in historical and theological studies.In 1996,
Lorenzo and several colleagues began a new religious organization targeting Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. This was also a time of painful transition from legalism to a grace-based gospel. Lorenzo continued contact with Tkach led him and his pastors to realize the similar journeys of both organizations. This played a significant role in the merger and addition of 11 Spanish-language churches in 2003 to GCI. Lorenzo now works as a GCI regional pastoral leader and ministry developer. His primary emphasis is working with Spanish-language churches scattered across the United States, including a church in the Chicago area that also conducts services in English.
Lorenzo and his wife Rita have a son, Lorenzo Paul. They have lived and ministered in California, Denver, Mexico and Texas and now reside in Northern California. Lorenzo's philosophy of ministry is: “The proclamation of a grace-based gospel must be at the center of all we say and do.”
