Tag Archives: bilingual ministry

Evangelism and nationalism

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There are some things that would seem to be so obviously wrong that I hate to give them any credibility by addressing them. At the same time, there’s always a danger that the uncontested falsehood will be taken for truth.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that someone had commented on a post I wrote a while back on bilingual ministry. This person expressed concern about the existence of a plot to latinize the United States. (Some extremists call it “La Reconquista”—the reconquest). The implication was that by offering worship in Spanish, we are making it easier for those who scheme to transform this nation.

First off, I know that there are such extremists. I’ve seen them on television. I also know there are white supremacists, anarchists, separationists, etc. The person who wrote urged me to search the Internet; I know that the lunatic fringe is well represented on the Internet. That doesn’t keep them from being the fringe.

Secondly, I have yet to meet anyone in the church with such views. I’m not saying that there aren’t any people like that; the body of Christ is made up of human beings, and you can find just about anything you are looking for. But the typical Hispanic in the United States has no more interest in “latinizing” the U.S. than the average person here has in seeing the United States expand its territory. There are nationalists and tribalists among all groups.

Thirdly, if the people we are reaching out to have such nefarious goals, won’t converting them to Christ help? Especially if we can teach them what so many here in the U.S. seem to miss, the fact that our primary allegiance is to the Kingdom of Heaven and not a nation of this earth. Once they get a grasp on what it means to be a citizen of heaven, any dreams of political coercion of others will fall by the wayside.

All of that fails to mention the biggest and most obvious point: the outreach of the Kingdom of God should never be limited by the interests of a kingdom of this world, neither those of the United States nor any other country.

Bilingual church vs. bilingual ministry

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futureWhat’s the difference between a bilingual church and a church with a bilingual ministry? Basically it comes down to integration. Many churches have a bilingual ministry that is one of many ministries that they do; a bilingual church has a bilingual ministry that is part of every ministry they do. Benevolence, missions, youth… every aspect of the church includes the minority culture members (Latinos, in the scenarios that I’ve been discussing).

When a church decides to become bilingual, they plan for the day when every ministry in their church will be bilingual. It’s easy to say, “Hispanics are less than 10% of this church; we’ll wait until we have more Hispanic members.” Problem is, it’s hard to get more Hispanic members when they’re being treated as a small subset within a larger whole. The church needs to think and plan as if the ethnic mix were 50-50. That doesn’t mean that all meetings have to be held in Spanish or that every committee must include a Hispanic. What it means is that every group, committee, ministry within the church has to be thinking about how it will operate when the church is fully bilingual. You can’t wait until you get there to lay the groundwork.

Too often congregations have the Hispanic group meet in the basement “until they get more members.” Or they wait to make announcements available in Spanish or print bulletins in Spanish “when the demand is greater.” As long as Latinos are made to feel a secondary group within the congregation, they will be a secondary group within the congregation.

It’s a lot like the old “act as if” technique I learned in school, where you act the way you want to be, not the way you are. To be happier, you act happier. To come to like someone more, you treat them as if you liked them. Etc. To become a bilingual congregation, churches need to act like bilingual congregations.