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The first, according to Michael Mata of the Claremont School of Theology, is that researchers often look for "bricks and mortar" projects when they are trying to determine a congregation's level of community engagement. African American churches have been more involved in such visible community and economic development projects—building affordable housing, developing shopping centers—than have Hispanic churches. Mata reports that in his experience, when researchers don't see similar types of activities, "then they make the assumption that we're not doing anything of relevance or importance." Since Hispanic congregations are more involved in less visible "human services" rather than community development, their work can be neglected.
Luis Cortes, president of Nueva Esperanza and perhaps the best-known Latino Protestant leader involved in church-based community development nationwide, offers a second reason for the misperception. African American clergy, he notes, are often politically active in endorsing local candidates for mayor or Congress. "They'll make political pronouncements that are covered by the press," Cortes says. "We don't do that. As a result, our work goes unnoticed." Cortes goes on to argue that the media treats Latino clergy differently than they do faith leaders in the black, Jewish, and Muslim communities.
"When things happen in the black community, the press goes to the black clergyperson," Cortes says. "In the Jewish community, they [the media] will go to Jewish political leadership and Jewish religious leadership. In the Muslim community, they do the same. But in the Hispanic community, they always go to Hispanic politicians." The result, Cortes sums up, is general public ignorance about the contributions of the Hispanic faith community. "When you're not in the media," he laments, "you don't exist."
Good News about the Unengaged
Though most Hispanic churches are active in their neighborhoods, some are not, and the Hudson study tried to learn why. The most common reason given by church leaders for not being more involved in community ministry was lack of "know-how." These pastors indicated that they wanted to do more, but were uncertain about the steps to take to launch an effective ministry. Other pastors reported that their churches were very small and lacked resources for running outreach programs. Only eight percent said that the reason their church was not involved in community service was because they believed it was more important to engage in evangelism than it was to conduct social services.
This last finding was encouraging to leaders like Cortes and Ray Rivera, the head of the Latino Pastoral Action Center in New York City. They recall when they were "theologically suspect" in the Latino community for their emphasis on social activism. "Now we no longer have to defend ourselves theologically," Cortes reports. Rivera says that the survey finding further solidifies the impression he has had in the last few years regarding the mainstreaming of holistic ministry among Hispanic evangelicals. He tells of a major crusade sponsored two years ago by the largest Hispanic congregation in the United States. The conference gathered the premier "Latino Billy Grahams," but organizers also brought Rivera and Cortes to speak on the final day about what Rivera calls "holistic evangelism"—meeting the needs of the body as well as the soul. "That concept that evangelism has to be holistic," says Rivera, "is still not on the top of the list [of priorities for the Church]. But it's making the list now." He predicts that "holistic ministry will be the dominant paradigm of the Latino church in the 21st century."
New Collaborations
Not only are more Hispanic faith leaders seeing holistic ministry as legitimate, they are conducting that work in innovative ways that involve interesting partnerships. The Hudson study showed that a substantial portion of Hispanic churches are working with police departments, public schools, secular nonprofits, and mayor's offices to better their communities. Youth Pastor Max Torres of El Tabernaculo Assembly of God in Houston, for example, has won entry to local public schools and worked there with teachers and guidance counselors to transform the lives of scores of Hispanic youth over the past twenty years. Torres also serves on the mayor's anti-gang task force. Its director, Adrian Garcia, gives much credit to Torres for the enormous drop in gang-related violence in the community that has been achieved in the last several years.
In Riverside, California, local judges give substance abusers the option of jail time or rehab at The Path of Life, a men's residential recovery home sponsored by a 150-member Hispanic congregation of the same name. Members of El Encino Covenant Church in Downey, California, have been invited by the local middle school to teach parenting classes for Spanish-speaking parents. And a few miles away, members from My Friend's House, a Hispanic congregation of 300 led by Rev. Jim Ortiz, partner with HUD in building affordable homes in Los Angeles.
Individual congregations are also achieving impressive results in combating some of the most pressing problems in the Hispanic community: lack of health insurance, poor numbers of Hispanic college entrants, and high rates of school drop-out. Three stories from churches in Atlanta, Boston, and Phoenix are illustrative.
Helping the Uninsured in Atlanta Rev. Manuel Lozano vividly recalls the day his daughter, Diana, was complaining that her stomach hurt. At first, he and his wife hoped the problem would diminish with a little rest. It didn't. Her pain kept increasing. They realized she needed to see a doctor. Lacking health insurance, Rev. Lozano took Diana to one of Atlanta's "walk-in" clinics where he could pay with cash. But the physician there was concerned that the child might be having an appendicitis attack. He encouraged Lozano to take his daughter to the emergency room for a more thorough examination. After three hours of tests and consultations at the Gwinnett County hospital, Lozano and his wife were relieved to hear that Diana did not have to have her appendix removed. Doctors said her problem was a simple infection that could be cured with medicine. Indeed, she was already on the road to healing. The financial trial of the experience, however, was only just beginning. Lozano paid $500 in cash to the hospital that day, then received a whopping $3,500 bill in the mail some days later. He could hardly believe his eyes, and remembers groaning, "Oh God, have mercy."
Lozano's situation is the norm among Atlanta's Hispanic pastors, 70 percent of whom (according to Lozano's own survey) lack health insurance. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, nationwide, among all the major ethnic groups, Hispanics have the lowest rates of health insurance coverage. In 2000, 34 percent of Hispanics under 65 lacked any type of medical insurance. Lozano's own plight and his concern for fellow pastors spurred a vision: creating a health clinic specifically designed to serve uninsured Hispanics.
His dream was realized in November 2002 with the opening of the Emmanuel Health Clinic. Staffed by bilingual medical professionals, the clinic serves some 15 to 20 patients per day. To stay afloat financially while offering care at discounted rates, the clinic divides patients into three different groups. Members of Hispanic congregations throughout Atlanta can purchase affordable, significantly discounted health plans through the "Mi Promesa" program. Under it, $120 annually covers a yearly physical exam, lab work, and an annual dental checkup (complete with X-rays and cleaning), along with discounted office visits throughout the year. Hispanic residents in the community who aren't churchgoers can purchase the "Premio Salud" plan, which costs more than the Mi Promesa plan but about 20 percent less than similar health plans offered by commercial health insurance companies. The income earned through customers purchasing these two plans makes possible the "Mi Pass" (Ministry for Pastoral Health Services) program, in which Hispanic pastors and their families receive free medical and dental care at the clinic.
The benefits of the clinic to Atlanta's Hispanic community are clear. The average visit at Emmanuel costs patients about 30 to 50 percent less than they would pay elsewhere. There are a few free medical clinics in Atlanta, but Hispanics can have difficulty accessing these services for at least two reasons. First, some are illegal aliens and thus ineligible for government-sponsored free care. Second, the free private clinics sometimes require a patient to show his/her paycheck stubs as proof of income (so that the clinics can determine whether the patient is eligible to receive free care). This is a problem for many Hispanics who work in the informal, cash economy.
Moreover, asserts Emmanuel Health Center's chief physician, Dr. Adolfo Molina, walk-in clinics that advertise "Se Habla Espanol," don't. Doctors and nurses have only limited Spanish language skills and the result is that many patients do not fully understand their diagnoses or how to take their prescribed medicines. By contrast, Emmanuel can serve patients with no English language ability and it refers them to two partnering pharmacies staffed by Spanish-speaking personnel.
Church members from Iglesia Cristiana Emmanuel, the predominantly Columbian 135-member congregation Lozano has led since 1998, play important roles in the health ministry. A few church members with professional experience in the marketing field, for example, designed the marketing strategy for selling the Premio Salud health care plans to the local Hispanic population. Church volunteers carry brochures advertising the health plans to shopping centers frequented by Hispanic families. Another professional from the church created the computer databases used at the health clinic to manage customer records and accounts. Jose Flores, an architect from the church, is currently helping Rev. Lozano with the design of the office space layout for a second clinic that Emmanuel Health Services hopes to open in the coming months.
Getting Into College
According to a recent survey by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, 96 percent of Hispanics surveyed expected their children to go to college. But 66 percent failed to answer four out of eight basic questions about what it takes to make college a reality. This, and the high Hispanic drop-out rate from high school, helps explain why fewer Hispanics than other ethnic groups enter college. (And even among those Hispanics who do, only 10 percent graduate from four-year colleges and universities.)
Leon de Judah, a nondenominational, charismatic Hispanic congregation in Boston that now boasts some 800 members, is doing something about this problem. The church's "Higher Education Resource Center" (HERC) offers classes to help prepare 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students to increase their scores on standardized high school tests and college entrance exams. The center also provides assistance to students and their families in completing college admissions applications and navigating financial aid processes. And Leon de Judah is mobilizing mentors for high school students. Most are Christians attending universities in the Boston area; these young adults can relate well to the teenagers, discipling them in Christian character while helping them prepare academically for their own college careers.
Twelve years ago, Leon de Judah left its affluent Cambridge address and moved into the tough Roxbury-Dorchester section of Boston. Church leaders were convinced, says HERC Director Samuel Acevedo, that it was time to engage in "social evangelism"—meeting practical needs in the low-income community while continuing to call people into vibrant worship of Jesus Christ.
Now, Tuesday and Thursday nights find the church packed with young people completing homework, taking sat prep classes, or learning how to write an effective essay for a college enrollment application. In the beginning, the program offered just the classes. Acevedo and others soon saw the need for a mentoring component. Acevedo explains, "The theory behind the mentoring program is to awaken a vision in these young people that college . . . is both possible and desirable; that [it] is something that normal people go to—it's not just [for] astronauts and brain surgeons. That's important," he adds, "because we're working under the premise that most of these kids [are] the first to go to college. So there are no points of reference. The mentor becomes the point of reference." Acevedo also looks for ways to support and educate Hispanic parents about the whole college process. HERC sponsors college fairs, arranges campus visits, and helps parents complete complicated financial aid forms.
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