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13 Steps To Launching a Hispanic Ministry

Some drawn from Chapel Hill in Riddleton, TN, some more general.

By John Purdue

1. Ministry is Ministry:  There are no essential differences between Hispanic ministries and other missions or ministries. Hispanics have the same basic needs that everyone else does: safety, shelter, food, God… Begin with the idea that “they” are “us” and then you can easily pick up a few tools to deal with the cultural differences that do exist.

2. Share Leadership: Church leadership should not be a right, an obligation or a burden. When it becomes concentrated in the hands of too few, it becomes all three. Chapel Hill experienced the revival that included Hispanic ministry only after laity intentionally involved a larger number of persons in leadership. Shared leadership will need to grow into diverse leadership for Hispanic ministry to flourish.

3. A Spirit of Openness: 1999 began a period of openness to new ways of doing things at Chapel Hill ; openness to pastoral guidance, to hosting an African-American congregation, to Hispanic ministry and to many other smaller programs. Churches that are unwilling to try new things are not ready for Hispanic ministry.

4. Engage In Other Multi-Ethnic Ministry Experiences:  (Crawl Before You Walk)Openness can be built through a series of small steps. Hispanic ministry is difficult because its scope can be quite broad. Churches that have had other multi-ethnic ministry experiences, such as holding VBS jointly with a church of another ethnic group, will be better prepared to deal with the challenges of Hispanic ministry.

5. Ministry Takes Many Shapes and Evolves Quickly: No two Hispanic ministries in the Tennessee Conference (TNAC) are alike. All are evolving rapidly. The Hispanic ministry at Chapel Hill began during preliminary training sessions when a few local Hispanics began helping teach the Spanish as a Second Language class (SSL) . A Bible study, English as a Second Language class (ESL), soccer games and dinner were added. Soon a prayer time evolved that morphed into a worship service from which a congregation emerged. Leadership should expect change. There is no pattern. There is no right way that you will be tested on later. You are the expert; pray, find a starting point and God will make something happen.

6. Bundle Programming: Having a group of programs on the same day (Bible Study, English as a Second Language (ESL), Spanish as a Second Language (SSL), play time, worship and dinner, for example) is helpful. It allows time to build relationships and makes specific programming changes easier because the commitment from the laity is to be at church on Sunday rather than to be at this or that event.

7. Cultural and Linguistic Training: Even accepting that ministry is ministry, cultural training that leads to cultural sensitivity is absolutely essential for Hispanic ministry. Without a loving understanding of some of the basics of Hispanic/American culture, churches will eventually fail. Additionally, if a church is not committed enough to have a core group learn some basic Spanish, it is probably ready only for a limited type of Hispanic Ministry.

The following are a few key cultural differences and linguistic essentials that emerged at Chapel Hill.

·        We all have a culture – Both Anglos and Anglo churches have cultures. It is critical to keep in mind that we do not understand everything about everyone’s culture. Continue to learn and recognize that there are differences between our culture, our churches’ culture, and The Gospel.

·        Time – Anglo and Hispanic clocks run differently. At Chapel Hill we solved this problem by distinguishing between “2:00pm Anglo time” and “2:00pm Hispanic time.” Know which “clock” you are using.

·        Family –Hispanic tradition calls for Sundays to be family time. Thus in the USA , with churches serving as surrogate families, church programming is family programming. 

·        Economics and Education- Many persons who have immigrated to the USA without documents do not have many educational or economic opportunities. While being bright, capable and spiritual individuals, the educational background and general economic situation may create barriers.

·         Work, Risk and Immigration – Hispanics are here to work. Those without legal documentation are in constant jeopardy of losing their jobs and being deported. Immigration concerns are “the water many Hispanic persons swim in”.

·        Language Training  – Spanish speakers often find the church a powerful ally in learning English, both through formal English as a Second Language classes (ESL) and by just talking with English speakers. English as a Second Language (ESL) and Spanish as a Second Language (SSL) classes are bedrocks for Hispanic Ministry.

·        Translation Issues – Once a church gets involved with Hispanic ministry, translators come out of the woodwork. Translating for worship, however, is a special skill and is both tiring and difficult. It is worth noting that certified court interpreters in Nashville begin at $70 an hour. 

8. Health Care / Food and Shelter / Social Networking: Helping folks access health care, basic necessities such as food and shelter and become involved in the larger community (especially schools) are three areas of tremendous opportunity. All these were very helpful in starting Hispanic Ministries at Chapel Hill .

9. Eating Together: At the table we can clearly and easily see (and smell and taste) that we are really not that different. At the table we build our families as we share our lives together. At the table, we eat together and become friends. What we do at table makes us who we are.

10. Building / Grounds Usage: Both Hispanic and Anglo leadership must work closely to coordinate, clean, and keep up facilities. Even the most terrible mess will not ruin a relationship, but a pattern of inconsiderate usage, by Anglos or Hispanics, will become quite problematic very quickly.

11. The Hispanic Pastorate: A Hispanic pastor tends to have more authority  within their congregations than an Anglo pastor. A Hispanic pastor’s wife (La Pastora) also has significant authority. Hispanic congregants also place greater demands on their pastor. 

12. Listening to the Whole Church : Every church will contain both supporters and detractors of Hispanic ministry. Both groups need to be heard for the ministry to survive over time: it is everyone’s church. Interestingly, our experience at Chapel Hill was that the less involved Anglos often had clearer insights about specific issues than any other group. Cast the vision of a diverse church and count the “yes votes” to implement that vision.

13. Geography is not everything: Is your church well positioned for Hispanic ministry? Are you close to a burgeoning immigrant population? Chapel Hill is not. It is a rural church in an isolated area and all but one of the Hispanic families involved in the church live farther away than every one of the Anglo families in the church. But it is a church that really has an open heart, open mind and thus has open doors.  

Hispanic Latino Academy for Christian Formation and Church Leadership

Tennessee Conference —The United Methodist Church