That eventually led him and his wife to Belton and First Baptist Church. Just over a year ago, he began meeting with five others for a Bible study in Spanish. Now, about 35 people attend Dunamis – Greek for power - and its members are renovating a house to hold up to 100 people.
“We hadn’t met anyone before we came here,” said Munoz, the Dunamis pastor. “These are new-born Christians. They weren’t attending another church. The concept of a Christian is a person who accepts Jesus as their savior, changes their life and becomes a better person.”
Munoz said he occasionally may translate something into English, the service is primarily conducted in Spanish.
“We have wonderful preachers in English,” he said. “We don’t need a Mexican preacher translating in English.”
The growth of the Hispanic population throughout the United States has led to the emergence of Latino-oriented churches, according to the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center’s recently released report “Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion.”
That report showed 87 percent of Hispanics attend Spanish-language church services. Among Hispanic churchgoers, 91 percent of Catholics said their churches provide Spanish language services. For Hispanic Evangelicals, 81 percent said their churches have worship services in Spanish. Other Christian denominations weighed in at 86 percent while for those attending mainline Protestant churches only 67 percent offered services in Spanish.
Those numbers will continue to grow as Spanish-speaking migrants continue to come to the United States, according to the Rev. Jeannie Trevino-Teddlie, Mexican American Program director at the Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.
“If local churches are to be faithful to Christ’s mandate to be his witnesses, they will need to be intentional in their ministries to include Latinos in their midst,” she said. That mandate, she said, comes from Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Trevino-Teddlie said that according to the “History of the Rio Grande Conference of the United Methodist Church,” in 1854 a former priest became the first Spanish-speaking Methodist minister in New Mexico and the southwest and perhaps preached the first Protestant sermon in Spanish.
“Prior to this time the Protestant denominations were focused on establishing churches for the new settlers - mostly English speaking - of the southwest with little concern for the larger population of Spanish-speaking natives,” Trevino-Teddlie said. “This piece of history continues to repeat itself. When churches find themselves in a changing community that becomes predominantly Spanish speaking, churches are faced with several decisions - reach out to the Spanish speaking in their community, thus changing ministries to provide for the language needs; don’t reach out, which often leads to death as their membership dwindles; or move away from the changing community, thus missing an opportunity to be faithful to Christ’s mandate to be his witnesses.”
First Baptist of Belton chose to create Dunamis and hired Munoz to reach out to the Hispanic community.
“Their feeling was they were not reaching the Hispanics,” he said. “They decided to bring in a pastor to reach (them). That’s not common, it’s pretty unusual.”
Our Lady of Guadalupe in Temple has offered services in Spanish since its inception in 1952.
“We’ve had Spanish services here ever since it started,” Father Tom Chamberlain said. “It’s always been a bilingual parish. It’s important for many people in the history of the church. Spanish is one of the languages of the people. It’s important to worship in their own language and to hear it in their own language.”
Many of Chamberlain’s parishioners are the first generation of their family to live in the United States, and he said many do not know English. For those that do speak English, he said using their native Spanish is easier for them.
During his past four years at the parish, Chamberlain said he has seen the number of parishioners grow from about 700 to more than 1,000.
“Most of the people are coming in from Mexico. With the economic situation they can’t make a living in Mexico,” he said. “The situation in Mexico really hasn’t improved. I still think they’ll continue to come.”
Munoz said Hispanics comprise about 27 percent of the area’s population, but in 10 years that could grow to 50 percent.
Temple’s Iglesia Cristiana Monte Horeb, led by the Rev. Marta Sanchez, ministers to Spanish speakers but wants reach beyond that demographic.
“A lot of people come because it says it’s a Spanish speaking church,” Sanchez said through a translator.
Yet, it also is a church that has begun ministering to non-Spanish speakers.
“We don’t want to be a church in the corner, we want to make a difference, especially with Spanish youth,” said Yvette Cintron, Monte Horeb’s administrative assistant.
“They’re English-speaking kids - blacks and white - who bring their friends even though they don’t speak Spanish,” said Kiomy Santiago, Monte Horeb secretary.
n Staff Writer Michelle West contributed to this report.
jsicking@temple-telegram.com
