Pew Research published an article yesterday with the title “Key facts about young Latinos, one of the nation’s fastest-growing populations.” One interesting data point they noted was

About 14% of Americans ages 18 to 35 with Hispanic ancestry do not identify as Hispanic. The share who do not self-identify as Hispanic rises to about 25% among third-generation young adults with Hispanic ancestry. Among the fourth generation or higher – the U.S. born with both parents and all four grandparents born in the U.S. – more than half (56%) of young adults with Hispanic ancestry do not self-identify as Hispanic.

If you think about it, this is pretty logical. My great-grandmother was born in Germany, but I don’t identify as German. Carolina’s grandmother was born in Spain, but Carolina doesn’t call herself Spanish. There are some ethnic groups that seek to hold onto their ethnicity generation after generation, but most don’t.

This has major implications for our Hispanic outreach, namely that some people that we consider to be Hispanic may not consider themselves to be Hispanic. I remember my classmate Conrad Lopez. He was incensed in 7th grade when they put him into the heritage Spanish class “with all those Mexicans.” He in no way identified with the Hispanic ethnic group.

Just because someone “looks Hispanic” or has a surname that sounds Hispanic doesn’t mean that you should direct them to a Spanish-speaking Bible class. We need to be sensitive and let people choose the ministries that best fit their needs.

The other day I presented some thoughts on how uncomfortable growth can be. Then this week I asked some about your thoughts on Hispanic outreach. I want to combine those ideas a bit.

It’s not easy to reach out to others across cultural and linguistic barriers. One problem I see is that we frequently want to do this outreach from our comfort zone. In Hispanic ministry, this often comes in the form of outsourcing the work. Rather than trying to reach out to those unlike us, we hire someone to come in and do it for us. We can sit back and wait for the “hired gun” to bring people in to where we are; that keeps us from having to go out!

In order to avoid change, we often set up “separate but equal” church structures for Hispanics. Let them meet over there, out of sight, out of hearing. Don’t bring Spanish into our assembly, nor include it in our bulletin. And please don’t make us have bilingual services!

If we truly want to reach others, we’re going to have to step into the discomfort zone. (This goes equally for Hispanics and non-Hispanics) If we’re going to be the church that God wants us to be, we’ve got to put the interests of others ahead of our own. We’ve got to be willing to give up what’s comfortable in order to achieve what’s needed.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5–11)

I’m preparing a class for the Harding Lectures on “Reaching My Hispanic Neighbor Next Door.” It was an assigned topic, but one I’m happy to address.

I’ve written about this topic a number of times; sometimes I’ve gotten feedback on why outreach to Hispanics should be different from other types of outreach. Here are some random thoughts:

• Language plays a big part. But not in the way that a lot of people think. According to Pew Hispanic, 69% of Hispanics are proficient in English.* The use of Spanish is more about identity than functionality. Still, it matters.
• Culture also has a huge role. It’s hard for me to speak to other immigrant groups, for I haven’t spent much time around them. But the large number of Latinos in the U.S. makes it easy for them to live in virtual isolation from the mainstream community. (And while we tend to lump Latinos into one basket, they don’t see themselves that way. Salvadorans recognize a commonality with Mexicans, yet also recognize great differences. They identify themselves as being from a certain country, just as most of us would do when living overseas. In Argentina, I knew people from Canada and Great Britain, and I knew that would were all English-speaking expatriates, but I didn’t view as as a single group.)
• There is a major difference between Latinos who have grown up in the States (and are typically part of the mainstream culture) and those who have come as immigrants. We have to be sensitive to differences between the groups. Just because someone is of Hispanic heritage, they don’t necessarily listen to tejano music or want to worship in Spanish.
• Our churches have to be intentional about making inroads into immigrant communities; that’s not something that happens naturally.
• With heritage Hispanics, we need to recognize the strong family and culture ties that may hinder their coming to “an Anglo church.”

Random thoughts for a Tuesday morning. What would you disagree with? What would you add?

*Facts on U.S. Latinos, 2015