Story number 4 for 26 Mar 2003

(USA)–Elsewhere, linguistic experts believe the Hispanic population’s growth explosion in the United States makes the country the third largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Migrant workers make up a good portion of this community, which presents a unique challenge for church leaders, so says CAM International’s Gene Purvis. “Immigrant-level Hispanics are very shy people; they’re fearful of this culture, especially of our religious perspective. They come from a specific background, and they are told that this country will take away their religion and substitute a different entity in its place.” Purvis says working with the immigrant population proves to be its own challenge because that forces church leadership to be flexible. It is also why CAM networks Hispanic congregations across the U-S. “As those people move around within the country, then we have a place for them to go to, and we have outreach in different cities that can continue to minister to the mobile population. It also is extremely important as people move back into their countries of origin.”