GRAPEVINE, Texas — Pastor Tony Suárez is quick to challenge the notion that the American church is dying.
“We’re not going to empty churches,” he told The Christian Post during a sit-down interview at the National Religious Broadcasters convention. “We’re seeing growth everywhere. And what I love is that it’s being demonstrated in every age group and every ethnicity. You can’t box it in.”
Suárez, founder of Revivalmakers Ministries and vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), said he’s seeing hunger for God expanding across denominational and cultural lines, sparking what he believes is a spiritual revival in the United States.
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“These are the days our parents prayed for,” he said. “Our grandparents prophesied that there would be one last great awakening before Christ’s return, and I believe we’re living it out right now.”
While some headlines highlight concerns over dwindling church attendance and cultural disengagement among young people, Suárez said he’s seeing something vastly different.
“Young people are hungry for the real things of God,” Suárez said, stressing that young people are seeing an “authentic” worship experience. “What they don’t want is smoke machines and a concert. My own kids say, ‘If I want a concert, I’ll go to one. But when I go to church, I want it to be church.’”
With five children between the ages of 15 and 21, Suárez sees firsthand what he calls a craving for authentic, Spirit-led worship. His ministry regularly emphasizes a clear message: “Revival is not coming. Revival is here.”
Suárez said while some may contend they haven’t seen it, the spiritual climate in the churches he visits suggests otherwise. “I don’t have concern for the church right now,” he said. “I have a lot of optimism.”
Central to Suárez’s vision for revival is the growing role of the Hispanic church in the United States. According to the NHCLC, Hispanic and Asian Pacific communities represent the fastest-growing segments of nearly every denomination in the country.
“The Hispanic church is pro-life, pro-marriage, and committed to the authority of Scripture,” he said. “There’s a reverence not just for God but for the people of God.”
According to Suárez, this demographic growth is one of the most hopeful signs for the future of American Christianity.
“It’s one of those glimmering moments of hope that we’re seeing again within the Church,” he said.
In 2024, Suárez helped lead a series of revival events along the U.S.-Mexico border, hosting large gatherings in Texas, Arizona and California that drew thousands of attendees, including migrants, law enforcement officials and local residents.
“There is an invasion at the southern border,” Suárez said. “But it’s not a political invasion, it’s a spiritual one.”
During the two-week campaign, his team documented more than 10,000 spiritual encounters, including salvations, baptisms and testimonies of healing.
“One of the beautiful things about Christianity is that it’s a gathering place for anyone who wants to drink from the fountain of God,” he said. “We had migrants, Border Patrol agents and residents all worshiping together. Nobody cared who was who. We just wanted people to be legal for Heaven.”
According to Suárez, the movement will continue in 2025, with plans to bring revival events deeper into Mexico.
In addition to his evangelistic work, Suarez advocates with politicians for immigration reform that prioritizes border enforcement, assimilation and a non-amnesty path to legal status.
The pastor, who served as a member of Donald Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board and My Faith Votes, acknowledged that fear has gripped many in the Hispanic community in recent months, especially around immigration enforcement.
“After President Trump’s inauguration, Hispanic church attendance fell by nearly 30%,” he said. “There was real fear about mass deportations and raids on churches, something that was never actually proposed but was spread in Spanish-language media.”
Suárez urged people to seek accurate information and encourage their Hispanic friends.
“There’s a lot of fear-mongering, and we need to be messengers of truth and hope,” he said.
Born to a Colombian family with deep missionary roots, Suárez has been a longtime advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. He has served on national policy committees and regularly meets with lawmakers through his work with the NHCLC.
“We haven’t had real immigration reform since Ronald Reagan,” Suárez, who was named by Newsmax as one of the 50 most influential Republican Latinos in the United States, said. “That was when I was in kindergarten.”
The pastor stressed he supports border security but believes it must be paired with realistic immigration solutions for the estimated 14 to 20 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.
“You can’t deport that many people,” he said. “They’re part of our economy—milking cows, picking crops, building homes. We need to remove the criminal element, yes, but we also need to offer a path for others to come out of the shadows.”
He advocated for measures such as background checks, fines, pledges of allegiance and English proficiency. While not all may qualify for full citizenship, he said, a form of legal residency is essential, both for the economy and for national security.
“We created this problem,” Suárez said. “We told them, ‘Don’t come,’ but then put up a big ‘Help Wanted’ sign. We hired them, and now we’re complaining.”
He also emphasized that the situation at the southern border is no longer solely a Latino issue: “When we prayed along the border, we found IDs from Haiti, China, Vietnam, this is now a global migration issue,” he said.
In a time marked by division, Suárez said the Church’s role is more important than ever, emphasizing spiritual renewal over political rhetoric.
“There’s more work to do, and I’m not diminishing the seriousness of the border crisis,” he said. “But I believe God is using what the enemy meant for evil, and turning it for good.”
