Leader suggests five ways Baptists can impact Hispanics

Posted: 2/17/06

Leader suggests five ways Baptists can impact Hispanics

By Marv Knox

Editor

WACO—Since Hispanics “represent the future of Texas,” Baptists must reach them spiritually and help them physically if they intend to make a difference in their state, the leader of Hispanic Texas Baptists insisted.

Alcides Guajardo, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, described the status of His-panics in Texas and prescribed how to minister to them during the “Be-coming a Racially Reconciled Church & Community” conference sponsored by Mission Waco.

“Hispanics have been here” in Texas for generations, Guajardo told the mixed-race audience. “We were here even before the Anglos and people of color were.”

Building the case for Texas’ Hispanic legacy, he cited the names of many of the state’s rivers and its oldest communities—all Spanish.

And, although Anglos eclipsed Hispanics as Texas’ majority population group for many years, Hispanics again are in the majority, Guajardo said. He acknowledged that, officially speaking, Texas does not have a majority population group. Census data show slightly less than 50 percent of the population is Anglo, with Hispanics running a strong—and growing—second. Census Bureau trends show Hispanics will comprise more than 50 percent of the population by 2014, he said.

Still, in unofficial-but-real terms, Hispanics already are the majority, he stressed, noting a vast number of Texas residents are unofficial—undocumented workers who are in the United States illegally. These people don’t want to be reported for fear of being deported, he explained. But counted or not, they’re living in Texas.

From a political standpoint, “the Texas Legislature is going Hispanic very rapidly,” he observed. “This fact needs to get our attention” because the changing demographics of the Legislature will change the state’s political dynamics, he added.

Educationally, Hispanics “lag very, very far behind” the rest of the state, he said. “We are the least-educated of all groups in Texas.”

For example, only one in 11 Hispanic adults in Texas has a college degree, he said. This compares to one in two Asians, one in three Anglos and one in five African-Americans. Among the challenges are high dropout rates among Hispanic students and resistance among Hispanic families to allow their children who graduate from high school to leave the family and go off to college, he added.

Since education relates closely with economics, Hispanics’ educational gap represents enormous significance for the entire state, Guajardo said.

“We have a long way to go. And if we do not do something about this, our financial future—our socio-economic future—is very bleak,” he predicted. That’s true, at least in part, because if Texas’ largest segment of the workforce, Hispanics, is under-educated, the state will be unable to attract business and industry, and Texas workers will face unemployment or under-employment in low-wage jobs.

“A lot can be done by individual Christians, churches, associations and other Texas Baptist entities to help alleviate this tragic situation,” Guajardo charged. “Hispanic churches should take the lead.”

The Baptist General Convention of Texas has created the Hispanic Youth Education Task Force, which will begin focusing on this issue in February, he said.

That’s significant, because the futures of the BGCT and Hispanics in Texas are intertwined, he noted.

Already, nearly 1,300 of the 5,700 churches affiliated with the BGCT are Hispanic, he said.

“We are an integral part of the BGCT,” Guajardo reported, noting the BGCT and the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas have been unified as one overall convention more than 40 years.

“Hispanics represent the future of the BGCT,” he stressed. “Hispanic churches are the fastest-growing group of churches in the BGCT. … The vast majority of new churches started by the BGCT are Hispanic.”

And in some areas, Hispanic churches numerically are dominant, he said, citing Rio Grande Baptist Association, whose churches are 85 percent Hispanic and 15 percent Anglo and/or English-speaking. Soon, Hispanics will comprise 50 percent of the Baptist churches in San Antonio and Houston, he added.

Texas Baptists must continue to multiply their efforts to impact the Texas Hispanic community, Guajardo insisted.

But he acknowledged no single method will work, since “Hispanics in Texas are different” from each other. Several factors account for those differences, but the two most prominent are country of origin and the degree to which they have assimilated into Texas society.

For example, while the majority of Texas Hispanics originated in Mexico, they also have come from throughout Latin America, South America and the Caribbean. Also, many are newly arrived immigrants, but other Hispanic families have lived in Texas three and four or more generations.

Despite the differences, Guajardo offered five suggestions for ways Texas Baptists can impact Hispanics:

• Identification.

“Identify the group. Ask, ‘What kind of Hispanics do we have here?’” he said, noting the national origin of the group will determine cultural approaches that work best.

The BGCT Executive Board can provide demographic data to help with the identification process, he said.

• Understanding.

“Get help on how to relate to (your) particular group,” he advised, noting BGCT regional strategy coordinators—who are being assigned to nine geographic zones across the state—will have specific information for assisting in this understanding process.

• Assistance.

“If you are working with recently arrived immigrants, impact them by helping them with the basics for subsistence, including assistance to legalize their status here,” Guajardo said. He cited a study conducted by State Demographer Steve Murdock, which indicates 74 percent of Hispanics believe churches should help immigrants.

“They’re going to be here,” Guajardo said of Hispanic immigrants. “How can they be better residents, more productive? We might as well say, ‘Welcome’ and help them be productive here.”

• Evangelism.

Christians can share the gospel with Texas Hispanics out of natural relationships that flow through helping them, Guajardo said. For example, evangelism can happen effectively with new immigrants when churches help them with their elemental survival needs. Similar evangelism opportunities will flow through other relationships with Hispanics at every level of assimilation into the state.

“I don’t know where we got the idea we can evangelize people cold-turkey,” he declared. “Hispanics are a relational people. Relate to them. Get to know them. Help them. And they will ask you to share (Christ) with them.”

• Education.

The BGCT Hispanic Youth Education Task Force will offer Texas Baptists options for educating Hispanics, helping them to alleviate their “tragic condition,” Guajardo said.

“We can do something,” he said. “We can encourage youth to stay in school. We can help the parents help their children stay in school. If they don’t, they will suffer. This will hurt the children, and it will hurt the state when they have low-wage jobs. … We’re all affected.

“I’m hoping we will do something and participate in both state and church programs to educate Hispanic young people. If we don’t, we all will suffer.”

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