While Sprint and Verizon have been arguing over who has the largest 3G cellular network, Hispanic Baptists must make serious strides to develop their own “3G network” – one that will minister to third-generation Hispanics and beyond.
The Numbers
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, second and third-generation Hispanics currently make up 60% of the total Hispanic population. By the year 2020, they will comprise 66% of the Hispanic population.
For Texas, this means that of the 9 million Hispanics in the state, about 6 million of them are second or third-generation.
The Language
A 2007 report of the Pew Hispanic Center showed that “fewer than one-in-four (23%) Latino immigrants reports being able to speak English very well.” Among second-generation Hispanics, the number increases to 88%.
A full 71 percent of third-generation Hispanics over age 18 claimed English as their dominant language. Twenty-seven percent claimed to be bilingual. By this third generation, only 2 percent spoke primarily Spanish. This is according to a report from the American Political Science Association.
For Texas Baptists, this means that English can be used to reach out to about 88% of second-generation Hispanics and an astounding 98% of third-generation Hispanics.
The Need
As Hispanic Texas Baptists, we find ourselves facing an amazing paradox. We are linguistically and culturally poised to make a dramatic impact in the communities that are experiencing an increasing Hispanic influence around our state and the nation. At the same time, we face a leadership crisis.
Hispanic Baptist leaders can tell you how states like Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee, among many others, are increasingly coming to Texas to seek out Spanish-speaking Baptist pastors and ministers. This means our 300 or so pastor-less Hispanic churches are competing with higher-paying conventions and associations from other states. In the face of need at home, we are increasingly exporting ministerial talent.
When it comes to third-generation Hispanics, this leadership vacuum is at exponential levels. We are told that 66% of Texas Hispanic churches minister primarily in Spanish and 33% minister bilingually from the pulpit. Only 1% of the approximately 1,400 Hispanic Baptist churches in Texas are ministering in English.
This means that less than 15 Hispanic Baptist churches in the entire state are working to reach the nearly 6 million second and third-generation Hispanics in the state!
The New 3G Network
Thanks to the Convención officers and Rolando Rodriguez at the BGCT’s Office of Hispanic Ministries, Convención 2009 will serve to initiate this much needed network of churches, pastors, leaders and communicators that minister to third-generation Hispanics.
Your input in the form of ideas and recommendations for this time is greatly appreciated. To share about your “3G Ministry,” your interest and ideas, post comments here or email them to us using the contact form here.
It’s time to build the largest 3G Network in the United States!
Rev. Jesse Rincones serves as pastor of Alliance Baptist Church in Lubbock. You can also find this article in the March 2009 edition of La Vision.
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Hispanic Baptist Leaders Having Life Changing Conversations
Jesse,
During my years of work at the national and international level with International Commission (formerly International Crusades), Lifeway (formerly Baptist Sunday School Board), and the North American Mission Work (formerly Home Mission Board) I have had the opportunity to see first hand the impact that graduates of Baptist University of the Americas (formerly Seminario in San Antonio) have had in the missionary expansion of Baptist work. While this school has through the years been primarily supported by Texas Baptist, their graduates have been called of God to serve as missionaries all over the world.
In Tennessee, the pioneer work of Hispanic church planting was done by Eliab and Rosa Saenz two graduates of Seminario. By the time I got to Nashville in 1989, they already had a thriving congregation there, Primera Iglesia Buatista. The Saenz periodically send young people they have won to the Lord and who have surrender to ministry to come to BUA and prepare for ministry. Two of those students, the Suras, pastored for over 4 years the hispanic mission in Comfort, Texas. They are now back in TN doing church planting in Franklin.
When I went to Wyoming in 2000, I found that the Hispanic work there had been started by several of the graduates of Seminario. In a visit to Alaska, I found another graduate couple ministering in Anchorage in the 1990’s.
I am convinced that the tremendous growth we have had in the deep south in new successful church plants in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, etc. would not have taken place without the Lord calling and using all the students who have sensed a call to ministry and who came to San Antonio to prepare for the ministry, then obediently followed His call once they finished their studies.
When the History of this work is written (and I hope it will be soon), the record will show that Texas Baptist (and Hispanic Texas Baptists in particular) have been a major force in the evangelization and work of making disciples of the Hispanic people groups in the U.S. For this I thank the Lord. And I also thank Tejano Baptist, Texas-Mexicano Baptist, Texas-Hispanic Baptists, and all Texas Baptists. Today, we have a unique opportunity to join forces as Texas Baptists and work together to continue this tradition of evangelism and mission and take it to a new level.