On October 12, 2010, Leadership Network is co-sponsoring a one-day forum for the senior leaders of America’s largest and fastest growing Hispanic churches. It’s a peer learning event, but we’ll also include interactive Q&A via Skype video with Rick Warren and Sam Chand. If you know of someone who might qualify, or if that person is you, please contact bonnie.randle@leadnet.org for more information.
As a non-Hispanic white guy, I’m working hard to learn all I can about Latino culture and ministry to people with a Spanish-language background. Walk with the People: Latino Ministry in the United States is one of the more helpful books I’ve read. The author is Juan Francisco Martinez, who serves on teaching faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Hispanics have become the largest minority group in America, and so a book like this is both timely and helpful. The first Latino evangelico congregation in the United States was established in the 1850s in New Mexico, and their number has been growing especially in recent years. The book says the majority of Hispanic churches have been “Pentecostalized” but they cover everything from Baptists to Methodists.
According to a 2007 Pew Research Center study, 68% of Latinos are Catholic and 20% are Protestant. Other groups like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are 3% and those who do not identify with any segment of Christianity are 8%. Interestingly, there is a generational tendency toward becoming Protestant –- the percentage of Latino Protestants is higher among those who have been in the U.S. three or four generations than among immigrants. There is also a variation by home country. For example, people with a Mexican background tend to be more Catholic (74%) while less than half of Puerto Ricans identify themselves as Catholics (49%).
The book’s most helpful insight for me is embodied in this quote:
“There is not one Latino community, culturally speak, nor only one Latino experience. . . . Whoever ministers in the Latino community will need to understand this great variety of cultural and social experiences that Latinos represent. . . [Sometimes] these differences exist in the same Latino family.” [page 67]
I translate this quote, with help from other insights I’ve gained elsewhere about Hispanic ministry, into at least three types of Hispanic churches:
o Generation 1.0, reaching Spanish-speaking culture, mostly first generation immigrants.
o Generation 1.5, with a heavy flavor for Hispanic culture, often bilingual.
o Generation 2.0 and beyond, churches with a majority culture identification, but serving a community with Hispanic heritage.
So far, it’s church leaders reaching 1.5, 2.0 and above that have shown the most interest in our upcoming forum, but we’re eager to connect with everyone who has a big vision and is reaching new thresholds in making disciples of Jesus Christ.
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Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation. His recent “Leadership Network” books blogs include He Irritates Christians to Get Busy and Change the World, Becoming a Healthy Fruitful Multi-Ethnic Church, What Is Necessary for Church Planting to Go Viral? Mark Batterson’s Primal, Updated Publishing Updates, Beyond Christendom Says Migration Keeps Transforming the Church, Terrific Biography of Rick Warren, The Soviet Plot to Kill God, The Worst Moment in Most Church Services, Excellent Resources for Church-Based Grants, Multi-Site Church Roadtrip Released Today, Do White Churches Hold Others in Cultural Captivity? and Church Merger Phenomenon Continues to Expand.
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