Hispanic Work

Recently a study was released by NAMB called “21^st Century Hispanic Realities”. This study was coordinated by Dr. Daniel Sanchez and Rev. Bobby Sena. These are three of the studies most key findings.

• The First Generation (the immigrants) has become the largest segment of the Hispanic population in America today.
  • In mid 20^th century, the 3^rd generation and beyond was dominant and had the deepest roots in U.S. culture. ….By 1990, however, the 1^st generation (least assimilated and Spanish dominant) became the largest segment of Hispanic population.
• Hispanics are showing more receptiveness to the evangelical message than ever before in the history of this country.
  • Never in the history of this nation have Hispanics been more receptive to the evangelical message than they are now. A study done by Priest/Sociologist Andrew Greeley indicates that 23% of the Hispanic population now identifies with non-Catholic denominations, mainly Evangelicals.
• Hispanics are typically very conservative regarding social values.
  • A 2003 survey of U.S. Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center of the Kaiser Family Foundation found that immigrants from Latin America were overwhelmingly committed to strong family ties, religious beliefs, education, and hard workers and were actually worried that the coming to the United States would have a negative impact on the moral values of their children.

What does this mean for the Churches of HOKSBA? The Hispanic presence and influence in our community is a growing reality and every church in Wichita has seen the need to reach out to this segment of our population. Traditionally, when we think about reaching to Hispanics, our first though is about the Spanish language, but the time has come to see also beyond Spanish to hundreds of young Kansans with strong Hispanic roots and English as their first language.

Every church in Kansas needs to open the dialogue about this challenge. We are not talking about a distant future, but a present and urgent need. We need to be intentional about addressing it today.