Four Ways New Hispanic Churches Are Challenging Church Planting in America

We are witnessing the de-Europeanization of American Christianity.

I live in Aurora, IL, located 40 miles west of Chicago, where the population hovers around 200,000 people. SmartAsset recently named it 2019’s Best City for Living the American Dream, where rankings are based on home-buying and the economic mobility of residents.[i]

So then it should come as no shock that Aurora has a high concentration of immigrants, where 42 percent of residents are Hispanic or Latino. In Aurora and other cities all across North America, the “Americanization” of immigrant communities, particularly Hispanic, has created tremendous opportunity not just for personal economic advancement, but also for greater kingdom advancement.

On July 23, 2019, the results from the Hispanic Church Planting Researchwere released at the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship. The project was commissioned by the Send Institute through a partnership of multiple denominations—with LifeWay Research fielding the survey—to better understand the state of new churches started by or started for Hispanic Americans.

The vast majority of those who participated in the survey (offered in both Spanish and English) were Hispanic immigrant pastors and church planters.

Christianity Today covered the preliminary findings in their article, Latino Immigrants Are Evangelizing America. However, the title of LifeWay Research’s press release captures succinctly the primary finding: New Hispanic Churches Often Do More With Less. The major reveal was this:

Hispanic immigrant church plants, compared to the national average, receive less outside financial support yet experience similar church growth.

Scott McConnell, Executive Director of LifeWay Research, says it this way, “Though new Hispanic church works start out …

Continue reading

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.