By Zuri and Rebekah Zuniga
Introduction
In the 1990s, two Spanish-speaking Free Will Baptist churches (Iglesias Bautistas Libre[1]) were formed that have had tremendous, positive impact on our lives. Our experiences in these churches taught us about service, humility, and Hispanic culture. Our time working with these churches also allowed us to see the shortcomings of a Spanish-language-only[2] model for our Free Will Baptist churches in the United States.
A few of these problems include: (1) transient members due to frequent job change and relocation; (2) difficulty sustaining members to the second generation who primarily speak English; (3) over-emphasizing Hispanic heritage to the detriment of gospel identity; and (4) a struggle to be independent of a sponsoring English-speaking church while remaining an active part of the local and national Free Will Baptist associations. In short, these churches struggled with unity and diversity.
Argument for Unity and Diversity
Throughout the New Testament, God’s church is marked by both unity and diversity. In fact, the account of the very beginning of the church in Acts 2 brings these two characteristics together. The beginning of Acts 2 lists the great diversity of the converts at Pentecost; they were “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia” (Acts 2:9, ESV). The Holy Spirit used willing vessels to reach all these diverse cultures and language groups with the gospel. At the end of Acts 2, after three thousand of these listeners were converted, Luke describes the beautiful unity of the church in Jerusalem: “All who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44).
However, Luke 6 later details a problem in the Jerusalem church involving this diversity: The widows of the Hellenists were being neglected. Although not the primary concern of this passage, the leaders that the apostles chose to help remedy this situation appear to have been Hellenists themselves. These non-Jewish leaders could help represent the needs of the non-Jewish congregants. Even for the church in Jerusalem, this tension of unity and diversity was not easy but maintaining unity was clearly a priority.
Furthermore, unity and diversity reflect the very nature of the Godhead. As Vern Poythress puts it, “the unity and diversity in the world reflect the original unity and diversity in God.”[3] God’s Trinitarian nature is the church’s perfect example of harmony between many and one. The church reflects this aspect of God’s nature when it brings together people who are completely different and makes them brothers under the banner of Christ.
Of course, the final picture of Christ’s bride in the book of Revelation also marries these two characteristics of unity and diversity. The “great multitude” of the church, “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,” will stand before the throne and cry together with one voice, “Salvation belongs to our God!” (Rev. 7:9–10) Any current iteration of Christ’s church should look back to the example of the first gathered church, look forward to the final picture of Christ’s body, and contemplate the nature of God Himself as they strive toward unity and diversity.
Upon inspection, each of the four problems highlighted above directly undermine either a church’s unity or its diversity. A Spanish-language-only congregation’s transient membership affects both the unity and diversity of the church: The church cannot be unified because no stable core comprises a base to continue in faithfulness. The church is also unable to exemplify diversity because only one segment of the Hispanic population in the United States is being ministered to: those who speak only or primarily Spanish. A recent study by Pew Research indicates that Hispanics who speak only Spanish are far more likely to be foreign-born, first-generation immigrants.[4] Often, this population migrates to the U.S. in search of jobs. If jobs are the main priority, where the money goes, the people follow. Narrowing a church ministry to only this population produces a surprising homogeneity in a congregation.
Spanish-language-only churches curb generational diversity as well by tending to exclude second- and third-generation Hispanic immigrants. The same Pew Research study reveals that two-thirds of the Hispanic population in the United States are native-born and that the majority of all Hispanics in the U.S. are now English-speakers or bilingual.[5] Our personal experience has demonstrated that the children and grandchildren of migrants prefer to speak English or have better English-language skills. Limiting a church’s services and ministries to Spanish-speakers may be successful for first generation Hispanics in the U.S., but it will almost certainly mean that the congregation is unable to retain the children and grandchildren of those same families. This divides the church by age and culture, and it divides families between church congregations.
The third issue we encountered is the tendency for a Spanish-language-only church to evolve into a Latin-American church (excluding European Spanish-speakers), or even a primarily Mexican, Cuban, or Salvadorian (etc.) church. And when these congregations are composed of mainly first or second-generation immigrants, it can be tempting to make the church a center for cultural heritage. While the culture of one’s home country is something that its members should cherish and preserve, it cannot take precedent over the church’s calling to be a “holy nation” of God (1 Pet. 2:9).[6] For a believer, the name of Christ surpasses the importance of any other label or identification we may have. Guarding against cultural homogeneity in a congregation can weaken the unfortunate tendency that we have as humans to elevate any other moniker above “Christian.”
Our final concern may appear entirely practical on the surface, but it is a threat to the unity of a given association of churches, whether local or national. That is the fact that a Spanish-language-only congregation in an association of primarily English-speaking congregations can easily lose a point of contact with the association that birthed it. The result is either a congregation that is no longer associated with the denomination or the formation of a separate Spanish-speaking branch of the association. Both of these options would clearly undermine the unity of the associations and denomination and would also present a disadvantage and obstacle for the Spanish-speaking churches involved.
Practical Applications
How can Free Will Baptist churches avoid these pitfalls and threats to unity and diversity, while still reaching the Hispanic population around us? It is our conviction that this can be achieved by working toward unified bilingual (and, as the need and gifting arise, trilingual and polylingual) churches. The Holy Spirit gifted the apostles with the tools they needed to preach the gospel in the many languages present at Pentecost. While He may not choose to use the same method today as He used on that day, He remains unwilling that any should perish and continues to equip Christians today with gifts to build up and to edify the church.
If your church has been burdened with the desire to reach the Hispanic population in your area, consider training “missionaries” for your own congregation—willing and gifted members to learn the language and culture of the people to whom God is calling your church to minister. These in-house missionaries can be points of contact for new Spanish-speaking, bilingual, or English-speaking Hispanic members.
Encourage the whole congregation in this pursuit by making as many aspects of your services as possible bilingual—projecting or providing announcements, Scripture readings, songs, and sermon notes in both languages. As God blesses your ministry, prayerfully consider training new Hispanic members for leadership positions, as we see patterned in the church in Jerusalem in Acts 6. This approach may not be the quickest or easiest way to jump-start a ministry to Hispanics in your area. However, we do believe this long-view approach to be Biblical, and we believe that the Holy Spirit will equip the church to fulfill its calling to make disciples of all nations.
About the Authors: Zuri and Rebekah Zuniga graduated from Welch College in Gallatin, TN, with degrees in Music Education and History, respectively. Zuri has taught English as a Second Language in Metro Nashville Public Schools since 2017 and has been teaching Rebekah Spanish since 2015. They currently reside in Ashland City, Tennessee, with their son, Agustin.
[1]Although the literal translation of “Free Will Baptist Churches” would be Iglesias Bautistas de Libre Albedrio, the Spanish-speaking churches associated with Free Will Baptists are generally called Iglesias Bautistas Libre (Free Baptist Church) with the exception of those in Mexico.
[2]The issues addressed in this essay could easily be applied to churches of other languages as well: Korean, Kurdish, Arabic, etc. We are addressing Spanish-speaking churches because of our personal experience and because of their relative prevalence compared to other-language-only churches.
[3]Vern S. Poythress, Redeeming Mathematics (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015), 31.
[4]Antonio Flores, “Facts on Latinos in America,” Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project, September 18, 2017; https://www.pewhispanic.org/2017/09/18/facts-on-u-s-latinos/#hispanic-pop; accessed June 6, 2019; Internet.
[5]Ibid.
[6]While our concern in this essay is with Spanish-speaking congregations in particular, this concern is equally applicable to many different types of churches: whether the African-American congregation downtown, or the congregation of southern farmers in the valley.
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