Back in March my good friend (as you read my blog you’ll come to find EVERYBODY is my good friend!) Jesse Rincones, pastor at Alliance Church in Lubbock wrote an article for La Vision Magazine titled, “Third Generation Hispanics-the New 3G Network”. It was a great piece on what current reality is and I “borrowed” some of the numbers he used (he’s a big time stats guy) and I added my take on the whole 3G Network.

Watch network television for more than five minutes and you are bound to see a commercial for one of the major cell phone providers touting that it has the “biggest,” the “fastest,” or the “best” 3G network. Those of us in ministry may have taken notice of the need to build our own 3G network — ministries that focus on reaching third- and fourth-generation Hispanics.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, third- and fourth-generation Hispanics currently make up 60 percent of the total Hispanic population. By the year 2020, they will comprise 66 percent of the Hispanic population.
For those of us in Texas, this means that of the 9 million Hispanics in the state, about 6 million of them are third or fourth-generation.

According to an American Political Science Association report, a full 71 percent of third-generation Hispanics over age 18 claim English as their dominant language. Twenty-seven percent claim to be bilingual. By this third generation, only 2 percent speak Spanish primarily

In the state of Texas, this means that English can be used to reach out to an astounding 98 percent of third- and fourth-generation Hispanics and beyond.

What does that mean to those of us in ministry?

It means several things. First, it means that even churches that are considered Hispanic works are not doing a very effective job of reaching this group.

When you look at the fact that out of the almost 1,400 Hispanic Baptist churches in Texas, only 1 percent are ministering in English-only. The other 99 percent still operate in Spanish-only, or as a compromise offer a bi-lingual service. This is mind-blowing when you seriously look at the numbers! Just 1 percent of the Hispanic Baptist churches in Texas are trying to reach the 60 percent that prefer English, and 99 percent are trying to reach the other 40 percent that prefer Spanish.

With each generation moving forward, the 60 percent will continue to grow and the 40 percent will continue to dwindle. When you consider that most Anglo churches think that the answer to reaching Hispanics in general is to bring someone on staff that speaks Spanish and has a Latino-sounding surname (Martinez, Gomez, Rodriguez, etc.), most of us aren’t doing a great job in effectively reaching this group.
The two main reasons are that Hispanic churches are still operating on old mental models and Anglo churches think one-size-fits all. What ends up happening is many Hispanic young adults leave the tradition of their parents’ church and end up at an Anglo church that has no clue about who they really are. They become a part of the crowd even though they have their own identity.

Somebody has got to step up and create a true 3G Network, one deigned to effectively minister to third- and fourth-generation Hispanics and beyond.

One thing to keep in mind when trying to reach this group, first and foremost, is that the old way doesn’t work. While this group appreciates and embraces its heritage and history, members consider themselves Americans and are fully assimilated into American culture. They shop at Banana Republic, drink Starbuck’s, own iPhones, and drive Jettas.

At church they prefer blue chairs, Media Shout, Hillsong United and Francis Chan. Another thing to consider is that, although they are American in every sense of the word, they are not Anglo. What this means is that they have a very deep sense of community and fellowship. They will attend church together, eat lunch afterward and hang out all afternoon and evening. A lot of what they do is very community and family oriented. This is who they are.

This is a group that has been saying “Can you hear me now?” for the past few years and that chorus is continuing to grow and get louder. I think it’s time that we stepped up to the plate and answered, “We can hear you loud and clear.” Someone has got to create a real 3G Network. Why can’t it be us?