Between two worlds.

Abstract

The history of early Christianity reminds us that as the church begins to grow so will the problems it encounters. Recent studies suggest that a modern-day parallel to the episode described in Acts 6:1-7 is being played out in historic barrios across the United States.1 With the rapid growth of the Hispanic evangelical church during the past three decades, problems have arisen. One of the most significant is that US-born2 English-do minant Latinas/os3 are unintentionally being overlooked in the distribution of the church’s attention and resources. To take the metaphor from the book of Acts, US-born English-do minant Latinas/os, the modern-day Greek-speaking Jews, are grumbling against foreign-born4 Spanish-dominant Latinas/os, the modern-day Aramaic-speaking Jews. The complaint of the former is that many Spanish-dominant Latinas/os still equate“Hispanic ministry” with ministry conducted almost exclusively in Spanish. Under this perspective and historic paradigm, generations of US-born English-dominant Latinas/os are subsequently“being overlooked in the daily distribution” of spiritual care. This is most apparent when analyzing approaches to youth ministry in predominantly Hispanic evangelical and pentecostal churches.