Spiritual Formation of Believers among Latino Protestant Churches in the United States

Latinos have been in the United States for many centuries. Gradually they have made their presence more known, but it has been only in the last five decades that Latinos have experienced a conspicuous growth. As the Latino population grows in the country, the percentage of Latino Protestants grows, too. Latinos are very diverse as they represent a variety of ethnicities, cultural identities, religious identities, age dynamics, social classes, levels of acculturation citizenship or legal status. Latinos express their faith and religious commitment in different ways, including attending church, involvement in religious activities, reading the Bible, praying, evangelizing, and having a sense of mission, among others. Most Latino churches are giving attention to the spiritual formation of their churches’ members and are following strategies that work in their context. Some of them include Sunday worship service, Sunday school, Bible study, prayer, discipleship, cell groups, youth, women and men groups, evangelism and leadership training. Predominantly white American churches need to reevaluate what they have been doing with Latinos, keeping in mind that Latinos are very diverse, that they do not represent just recent immigrants to the US, as well as their religious commitment and sense of mission. The growth of Latino Protestants in the US conveys educational ministry implications for Anglo-American churches and other institutions of theological education.