Booklet Discusses Values of Latinos

Chicago pastor Pedro Aviles says he wrote the booklet Latinos: The Next Wave to give churches in North America insight into Hispanic culture.

The booklet arises out of his own experience of serving for more than 25 years as a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church. During that time, mainly ministering in the inner city to Hispanics, he has faced many challenges.

“We are Hispanics inside a Dutch denomination,” he said. “The CRC’s mission outreach methodology has not always been the most effective approach.”

The new booklet also focuses on the Hispanic community, offering suggestions on how Hispanics — or Latinos — can better work together for God’s kingdom.

Most especially, Aviles says, he wrote the booklet, published with the support of and available for purchase through the Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Race Relations to provide information and build awareness.

“We need to understand that God is bringing Latino people to our doorstep and it is important that we become more informed about them,” he said.

Aviles says it is crucial for the CRC, if it wants to survive, to reach out to the people who have come and are coming to this country from other cultures, bringing with them certain values and beliefs.

“We need to realize the differences in our mindsets and in what we consider important.”

In the booklet, he sketches some of the differences. For instance, he said, Hispanics bring a collectivist mindset to this country.

“For Hispanics, the family is the beginning of everything, the heart of life itself. Nothing is more important because family shelters and loves and offers the very essence of individual identity.”

In contrast, mainstream American culture, while honoring the family, is highly individualistic.

“America honors its entrepreneurs, men and women whose individual initiatives create brand-new companies or new commodities,” writes Aviles. “Americans not only love to do their own thing, they preach that gospel earnestly.”

There are other differences as well: Latinos view relationships as taking precedence over such things as being on time for an appointment; they embrace a highly emotional way of worship, and Latinos in the workplace are apt to tell a boss what the boss wants to hear, wanting to avoid conflict.

“Hispanics are deeply spiritual and mostly Roman Catholic,” Aviles writes, adding that adherence to Roman Catholicism is changing as many Latinos have been joining evangelical churches.

Regardless of their church affiliation, Latinos see religion as closely tied to their self identity.

“Their faith, their spirituality, is intertwined with their culture so fully that it’s really quite difficult to have one without the other,” Aviles writes.

By understanding all of this, especially in a ministry context, denominations can adapt their approaches to Latinos in their churches.

“The tidal wave of Hispanics in North America is easily visible,” writes Aviles in the booklet. “The church of Jesus Christ must act now and be in the forefront to embrace, equip, and release a rising  Hispanic population along with their children.”

The Office of Race Relations will be coming out with additional booklets focusing on other minority groups in the future.