On the pessimistic side, Christian leaders wonder whether US visitors will destroy Cuban culture with their materialism and lifeless nominalism—or whether Cubans will destroy themselves.

“Our mindset is very Marxist, even though we haven’t had the ability to consume for 50 years,” says Alfredo Forhans Hernández, director of the Holguín campus of New Pines Evangelical Seminary. “Now the United States could make our consumerism a reality. We are not prepared.”

Cuba’s Christians have thrived despite the island’s politics and poverty. Their improbable, decades-long revival is often described as being rivaled only by China’s. “It’s incredible. People just come on their own, looking for God,” says a Western Baptist leader. (Baptists in Cuba have two conventions, Western and Eastern.)

But the opening raises a concern: Will the revival be appreciated once Cubans have resources? One seminary leader worries that “the huge growth of the church, despite our limited resources, will no longer be a distinction.”

Read the article “Will Success Spoil Cuba’s Revival?” on christianitytoday.com.