Hispanic Culture - Family and Community

Parish Ministry in a Hispanic Community – A Community of Teaching Ministries
– Charles W. Dahm
By promoting ideas of family and respect for diversity, Dahm discusses important stresses and ways in which to address Hispanic culture. By placing an emphasis on youth education, topics of social justice, charity, and respect can be taught to communities in the context of cultural values. Understanding these issues is one way Dahm suggests approaching Hispanic cultures.

A Family Culture of Faith – Home Bible Study Material
Focusing on ideas of being pilgrims in a foreign land and making use of “this world is not my home” language, a series of home Bible studies I have from when I was in high school calls my attention to aspects of immigration and community. The material was written by different people from a local congregation and intended to be used in home Bible studies, several families would meet in each other’s houses twice a month for the studies. The general idea was to create a community of people, the church that “lived in the world, but were not a part of the world.”

Comparison and Analysis
What strikes me in thinking back on the home Bible studies is the similarity between what the lessons were intended to do, while using somewhat different language to achieve it. While Dahm discusses ideas of family and unique aspects brought in by each individual and culture, our studies looked at ideas of being the family of God and respecting the gifts each brought to the family. The ideas of being in a new or strange land are not uncommon in religious circles in discussing ‘the world’ and a Christian’s place in it. Where Dahm emphasizes the importance of a cultural family, the studies discussed of a church family.