Category Archives: culture

What Latinos can learn from Anglos

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One and TwoThis week I’ve been discussing some of what I’ll be sharing at the Summer Celebration at David Lipscomb University in Nashville. I’ll be speaking on the Spanish track on July 1 and 2, talking about “One Body, Two Languages.” Specifically, I’ll be talking about what Latinos and Anglos can learn from one another. (Be sure and read this post to know how I’m using those terms)

In the second class, I’m going to talk about what Latinos can learn from Anglos. There will be some of the obvious things, like punctuality. I’ll also talk about involvement in church and participation in church leadership. Most Latin countries have a strong influence from the Catholic church. Historically, they have not focused on participative church structures. In other words, you mainly go and watch. You aren’t even typically expected to give; these churches receive money from taxes and other sources. The idea of stepping up and being an integral part of a congregation is new to many Hispanics.

The other big point will be about language. It can be a delicate topic, but I’m going to remind them that the future of the church in the States will be written in English. The future of the Hispanic churches in the States will be written in English. Some research suggests that 96% of Hispanics born in the U.S. are functional in English. A large percentage use in English in the home. Many don’t speak Spanish. Some 2nd and 3rd generation Hispanics don’t even understand Spanish.

With continued immigration, there will be a need for churches to provide services in Spanish. But the future of the church in the States will be in English. It’s not the job of the church to preserve a heritage, to help keep a language alive. The job of the church is to reach out, reach up and reach in, in whatever language that needs to be done.

What Anglos can learn from Latinos

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One and TwoThere are lots of things that I think the Latino culture in general has to offer to the mainline “Anglo” church. Things like a relaxed attitude toward time (do we REALLY have to apologize if the service is longer than one hour and fifteen minutes?), how to greet and acknowledge people, the value of family, etc.

Two of the biggest have been thrust on Hispanics here in the States, yet are major traits that the church as a whole needs. One is the ability to separate church and country. The Hispanic community has 14 different countries which have contributed significantly to its makeup, not counting the United States. There is a greater awareness that the church is larger than any one country.

The other major thing is the awareness of being strangers and aliens in this world. Not all Hispanics are aliens, yet there is a greater sensitivity to what that lifestyle really means. Some rebel against that feeling and that reality, just as some Christians seek to blend in rather than seeking to stand out. The church needs to be called back to the fact that we are all aliens, we are all foreigners, no matter what country we’re living in.

Those are the main things I see. Want to add to the list?

Anglos and Latinos

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One and TwoI mentioned on Monday the classes that I’m preparing for the Summer Celebration at David Lipscomb University. (we had a major storm on Monday night which kind of complicated my posting anything yesterday) I mentioned addressing what Anglos and Latinos have to offer one another in a congregation.

I do plan to address the inaccuracies of those terms and the folly it is to try and see those groups as two distinct sets of people. Some thoughts:

  • Anglo is a misnomer. It is used to differentiate from Hispanics, but the term really applies to people of Anglo-Saxon descent. As used, it’s applied to Germans, Italians, etc., even though they are hardly Anglos.
  • Latino is too wide a group to deal with. It includes people of all races and a wide range of cultural backgrounds. It often encompasses indigenous peoples who have nothing Latin about them.
  • These groups are fluid. That is, there are people of Hispanic descent who are completely out of place in a typically Hispanic church and feel quite at home in a predominantly “Anglo” congregation. And there are people like me who often feel more at home in a Hispanic group than one where most people look and sound like me.

Given those limitations, I still think the discussion has merit. Over the next couple of posts, I’ll spell out some of my ideas about what each of these nebulous groups has to offer to the other.

Seminar at Brooks Avenue

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859499_10151318165338191_1846126711_oI was privileged to be with the Brooks Avenue Church of Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina, this past weekend. They invited me to come and present the “Christ and Culture” seminar that I do as part of my work with Herald of Truth. I’ve talked about doing such seminars in the past… but this time I’ve got pictures to prove it. Here’s a few:

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Ok, so I talk with my hands.

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Technology was extremely helpful this time. I used an iPad to control the presentation that was running on my laptop. Allowed me to see the slides as well as some notes.

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Some of the material that I present during the seminar is from Ray Vander Laan’s www.followtherabbi.com.

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I presented the final session during morning worship on Sunday. That meant that I had to take a 45 minute session and present it in 25 minutes. Talking fast is good for the soul!

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I told some friends on Facebook that every preacher secretly dreams of having Michael J. Fox playing guitar behind them as they preach. I used some still photos from “Back To The Future” to make a point about contextualization.

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I hope that everyone took away that main point. As Christians, we are foreigners and aliens in this world, but we’re not mere refugees… we’re on a diplomatic mission!

So how’s your list of widows coming?

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Continuing yesterday’s discussion (thanks for the comments!), I want to give a good example of how our conversations are shaped by our current situation. Churches of Christ are part of the stream of belief that is called the Restoration Movement. The Restoration Movement flourished in the United States in the 19th century, and many of the doctrines that we hold were shaped around what was and wasn’t practiced in churches in general at that time (particularly Presbyterian and Baptist).

I know that idea is distasteful to many, which is why I want to offer an example. My colleague, Steve Ridgell, is doing a series of blog posts on gender roles in churches of Christ. Yesterday he brought something that is rarely discussed: the list of widows, as described in 1 Timothy 5.

“Honor widows who are truly widows.” (1 Timothy 5:3)
“Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.” (1 Timothy 5:9–10)
“If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are really widows.” (1 Timothy 5:16)

So there was to be a list of widows that would be honored and cared for by the church. (Context shows that this care includes financial support) These women were to be active in the church, and there seems to be an implication that they will be expected to continue to serve. Seemingly, according to verse 12, they made some sort of pledge of devotion to the church.

Do you know of any congregation that does this? Do you know of any congregation that has seriously discussed how to fulfill this?

My thought is that we are quick to dismiss this passage because it hasn’t been a part of our practice nor that of churches around us. We may talk about it out of curiosity, but few seek to practice it in any way, despite it meeting all of the standards that command-example-inference hermeneutics would demand.

Some would argue that the lack of clarity on the exact practice is what limits us, but shouldn’t that merely be a call for further study and investigation as to what Paul is talking about?

We don’t practice it because nobody practices it. Which means our beliefs come less from the Word than from the beliefs of those around us.

Or am I missing something?

photo by Ariadna on www.morguefile.com