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Latin Americans now comprise the United States’s largest minority, and their numbers are not only growing but spreading into little towns in states such as Iowa, Georgia, North Carolina, Nebraska and Kentucky.

As these new immigrants enter North American culture and English-speaking churches they’re likely to bring with them their own styles of worship and church life that will influence these congregations.

Latin Americans new to the country tend to form their own churches and keep to themselves, primarily because of their inability to speak English, says Jimmy Garcia, director of Hispanic ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. As they become fluent in English and adapt to US culture, however, they tend to end up in English congregations and have little to do with their fellow countrymen who have not yet assimilated, he said.

Second- and third-generation Latins who have assimilated often butt heads with their elders, leading to what Puerto Rican missionary Al Ortiz calls a “high conflict in the Hispanic church.” Ortiz said that this is due to parents wanting to preserve language and culture while the younger generation embraces American culture. He warns that incoming Latins must be reached quickly or they will fall prey to Americans’ materialistic tendencies.

Intensely relational “Latins are intensely relational and respond to attention, to communication and want to be taken into account,” said Sam Olson, president of the Evangelical Council of Venezuela and pastor of a large Caracas church. “They will not return to a church if they sense that they are being belittled or do not receive care and love.”

That relational tendency means that Latin Americans will be less interested in “project-oriented program strategies” and will focus more on relational-based ones, said Latin America Mission worker Marty Windle, who has served 20 years in Latin America.

Coming from a predominately Roman Catholic region means that Latins in the United States are likely to carry vestiges of Roman Catholicism. “It is ingrained in us from our birth,” said Ortiz, who has served in the Dominican Republic and now works through World Team with Mission Miami. Lively worship In spite of that Roman Catholic influence in family life and cultural understandings, evangelical Latins expect worship to be different-contemporary and not ritualistic. “If the service tends to be ritualistic, the Latin will interpret that he is in a Roman Catholic mass, and would then prefer going to a Roman Catholic Church.” Olson said.

Worship is integral to Latins’ church life, and the style is more lively than that of most North American congregations. “Latins are very musical and bring to worship a fresh energy and spirit,” said Donnie Daniels, an Assemblies of God missionary in Temuco, Chile. “They are event-oriented, not time-oriented. A typical service in southern Chile would be at least one hour of singing followed by a one hour to an hour and 15 minutes sermon followed by an altar ministry-about a three-hour service.”

Concurring with Daniels is Nick Woodbury, director of Christ for Miami. “Lively worship is central and a strong and aggressive evangelistic outreach is important,” said Woodbury, who served in Colombia for 15 years. Some Latin churches are highly prayer-driven, holding all-night prayer meetings, prayer walks and 24-hour watches, he said.

Garcia described Latin worship as using more instrumentation for singing and not always following an order of worship. It’s also more evangelistic and emotive.

Amy Moline, who served for several years in Mexico City with Latin America Mission’s Spearhead program, said that she expects North American churches will use more bilingual worship songs as more Latins assimilate into English-speaking congregations.

The close family life of most Latins affects church programming and traditions. “You will see a more diverse generational population in worship services,” Moline said. “A Latin American’s view of family is to do everything together. They seem to prefer to have all ages in the sanctuary together, even if it may seem disruptive to the American.”

Ecuadorian pastor Jorge Zam-brano believes Latin evangelicals tend to be more biblically rooted than their North American counterparts and appear more theologically conservative. “A great percentage of the Latin population takes true spirituality more seriously than most Anglo-Saxon people,” Zambrano said.

Hands-on evangelism Latins are evangelistic and interested in hands-on ministries, Woodbury said. “Street evangelism and open-air meetings will probably increase in Latin areas, and they will be involved in door-to-door evangelism,” he said.

However, Latins often exhibit a wholistic ministry style. They are not hesitant to combine evangelism and social ministries. “Evangelicals would have a different agenda [in Latin America] because they do not come from-or not nearly so much-the middle class,” said Ralph Kurtenbach, a missionary in Ecuador with HCJB. “Evangelicals come from the poor primarily, so their (social) agenda would be left of center, not right of center.”

Organizationally, Latins differ from their North American counterparts in several ways. “They have a tendency toward less proactive planning or accountability in financial management,” Windle said. “They have a strong sense of authority and respect for pastors, which has been largely lost in our familiar society.”

Garcia said that North American churches can reach out to Spanish-speaking neighbors by helping them with learning English, immigration procedures, and other issues that may be vexing them. “Missionary efforts are probably best done by training persons that can relate to them culturally, not just linguistically,” he said. “It is not enough to have someone who speaks Spanish, but someone who can relate to them culturally.”

Kenneth D. MacHarg is a missionary journalist for the Latin America Mission.