Why College Ministry? An Interview with Debbie Moreno

As a Christian teen that did not walk away from the church in college, you might say Debbie Moreno beat the odds. In fact, Moreno not only stayed, she led in college student ministry both in her local church and on her campus with CRU. Attending a university in her home city of Miami, Florida allowed Moreno to stay rooted in her home and spiritual family. Unfortunately, Moreno’s story is not a common one.

In 2019, Lifeway Research released a study entitled Church Dropouts: Reasons Young Adults Stay or Go between ages 18-22. This research states that an alarming 66% of American young adults who once regularly attended church, drop out for at least a year between ages 18-22[1] The percentage of students leaving the church increases as they age—69% attending church at age 17, 58% at age 18, and 40% at age 19. Significantly, 47% of these students shared that moving to college played a role in their transition out of church.

While reasons college students struggle to connect to the local church are numerous, active efforts to intentionally reach and disciple this next generation of believers are harder to find. This ministerial issue is compounded by a church/parachurch divide, one commonly found in minority, rural, or small urban churches. Moreno continues in ministry to college students today and is committed to bridging this divide between the local church and parachurch ministries, like CRU, that serve faithfully on college and university campuses globally. With colleges students cautiously returning to school this month, or completing their coursework online from home, I sat down with Moreno to ask why the church should care about ministry to these young adults and how the Hispanic church is uniquely equipped to step in.

Hungry to Belong

Moreno did not hold back when I asked her why college ministry matters:  “It is a crucial time in someone’s life. It’s when they are on their own. Not everyone is on their own, because some stay home and go to a local college or university. But in the sense that your parents are no longer forcing you to go to church or youth group. It is the age when you are deciding ‘what do I believe and what do I want my life to be about.’”[2] Typical college students bridge two stages of development.[3] The first is identity vs. confusion, which prompts the “Who am I?” question. The second stage is intimacy vs. isolation, which causes young adults to ask: “Am I alone or am I loved?” These developmental questions occur in this season as students transition from home to college, from a secure friend group to a new friend group.

Hearing the classic trope, “students lose their faith in college,” ministry leaders may be tempted to focus on correct belief by providing biblical teaching or theological training for students. While this knowledge is important, Moreno points out this is not the primary need. “College students are hungry to belong. Even if they don’t really believe in God or have any beliefs, just the idea of a group of people pursuing them is enough for them to be like, ‘I want to be part of this. I don’t know what is going on, but these people want me, and I am being pursued.’ It is a key moment to love.”  Could we be missing an opportunity to invest in college students lives by jumping to belief before creating the space for belonging?

Culturally Equipped to Create

Minority churches, small urban churches, and rural churches might not realize how well equipped they are already to step into college ministry. If creating space for belonging is key, who better to do that than churches who are culturally constructed around family and hospitality? This is what Moreno found true of her Hispanic church, and the reason her church’s college ministry thrived.  She described ministry meetings in the home of a ministry leader, eating food and talking until 1am: “It’s very family like—come into our home and just do life with us. Be with our family and become a family.”  While this level of investment can occur in any church culture, there is a unique warmth and home centeredness found in Hispanic congregations, which creates a natural sense of family for college students searching for belonging.  “What I have noticed,” Moreno observed, “Is that it not only helps [engage] Hispanics but is refreshing to students of all different cultures. [They think,] ‘You really do open up your house at any time of the day. You really want to feed me.’ It is a warm and inviting culture, that can relate to other cultures as well.” This is true especially for other minority cultures. For international students, living far from their communities of origin, the warmth of Hispanic culture may provide a taste of home.

Hispanic churches also offer a cross generational church family experience that students may not find in larger urban churches. Moreno fondly shared of attending birthday parties as a student and being welcomed into the familia of a church member. These events exposed her to abuelos and abuelas, tios and tias—loving church family of all ages, relationships she might not have had access to otherwise.

A Critical Partnership

We cannot overlook the churches that do step into college student ministry. These ministry leaders see the need to create a student ministry where young adults have a place to land on Sunday morning, when home on break or weekly if they stay local. However, that is often where these ministries stop—at the door of the church or the home of the ministry leader. Outreach and discipleship of students at the local college or university is left to the parachurch organizations, like CRU.

Moreno sensed a divide between these two ministries when she was a student, one that she continues to see today. “A lot of Hispanic churches I know are small, they do not have a lot of people to send out [to campuses],” Moreno explained, pointing to lack of resources as a contributor to the divide. Another dynamic is a cultural and generational one. Many Hispanic church leaders are first generation. Stepping on a college campus to meet students for coffee or lead outreach events could present a variety of barriers, including language, education, age, and cultural differences. For first generation pastors, elders, and deacons, going to campus may be intimidating, and focusing on the students who make it into the church doors is easier, if not safer.

This is exactly why Moreno is so passionate about partnership: “Partner with what is already happening [on your college campus]. Literally join the work! Ask ‘how can we help and what can we provide?’” By working with ministry leaders in already existing campus ministries, local church leaders can slowly work through any felt barriers and fill existing needs, rather than starting from scratch. Local church leaders can provide much needed, long term support to parachurch ministry leaders, helping them know they are not alone in ministry. Most importantly, connecting students to local churches is critical. Parachurch ministries, while strong in outreach and life-on-life discipleship, cannot fill the role of church family or equip students with skills to be a participatory member of the local body. With a time stamp of four years, students will eventually phase out of an on-campus student ministry. Whether returning home or staying in their university town, being welcomed into and loved by a local body of believers provides the foundation of a lifelong relationship to the church.

A Final Word

World Outspoken exists to equip the church for cultural change. So, this last question for Moreno was critical for you, our readers:

“Moreno, if you could sit down with Hispanic ministry leaders in the local church, what would you like to say?”

“They have so much to offer college students!” she stated strongly. “They are naturally gifted in a way that naturally draws in college students. These are future leaders that we are talking about and students who are going to make an impact on the future of this country and the future of other countries. They are at the age where we get to disciple and equip the future.”

As we look at the changing world around us and the divisive cultural climate in which we minister, a fear for the future of the church’s faithfulness to God rises to the surface. Yet Moreno’s exhortation spurs us to action. It is possible the future faithfulness of the church can be further secured through pursuing partnership and creating space for college students to belong. 

Partner with Debbie Moreno

If you want to support the work of ministering to college students, join Debbie in creating spaces of belonging for college students. Learn more, here.

---

About Emily C. Alexander

A first generation college graduate of a rural working class family, Emily C. Alexander recently completed her undergraduate degree in Ministry to Women at the Moody Bible Institute. Emily lives in Chicago where she enjoys long walks admiring architecture and pondering theological and sociological issues. Her hope is to impact the lives of women and the flourishing of the church through thoughtful theological engagement.

---

Footnotes

[1] https://lifewayresearch.com/2019/01/15/most-teenagers-drop-out-of-church-as-young-adults/

[2] Deborah Moreno, interview, August 9, 2020.

[3] To learn more about Erik Erikson’s stages of psycho-social development, read: https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740

Latino, Come Home

“When they leave our churches, they think it’s the language, but it’s [that] white does it better.”[1]

White does it better.

My breath caught at the statement. I glanced out the window of the Panera I sat in. Not even the warm Florida sunshine could touch the sense of burden I felt. I glanced at my skin, white. I thought about the lives and ministries of two of my closest friends. Their skin—brown. That’s when I knew that the work of Mission Talk and the passion in Agustin Quiles’ voice was critical to the Church, and I needed to get behind it.

Founded in 2016, Mission Talk is an annual gathering of Latino/a young adult church and ministry leaders. At its heart, Mission Talk is a network designed to intentionally equip the Hispanic church for community transformation and justice ministry. When you enter the Mission Talk conference, you will see Latino practitioners teaching Latino leaders. Latino founded, Latino hosted, Latino led —culture to culture, this ministry is equipping the Hispanic church to be the Church within its unique cultural context.

Mission Talk founder, Agustin Quiles, is a Latino ministry practitioner who caught a vision for the flourishing of his community. Born in Puerto Rico, Quiles moved to New York City in grade school, where he was one of five children raised by a single mother. Quiles got involved in ministry from a young age, which began shaping the passion he has today for church and ministry leaders within his cultural community. “I am a product of the Latino community and its disadvantages,” he explained as we chatted about the conception of Mission Talk. His awareness of his own culture, its strengths and weaknesses, informs his approach to ministry. Not only has Quiles identified a clear need within the Hispanic church, but with over a decade of boots on the ground ministry experience in Hispanic communities, he is prepared to meet the need he sees.

A Changing Landscape

Latino evangelicalism is receiving increasing attention in church studies, theology, and national religious conversation. Public Radio International reported last summer that evangelicalism in the US is no longer monolithic, of one culture (white), but that Latinos are the “fastest growing group of evangelicals.”[2] Pew Research data from the “Religious Landscape Study” supports this statement. This study compares data of Evangelical Protestant’s ethnic identifications from 2007 and 2014. As the chart outlines, in those years the evangelical Latino population grew by 4%, while the white evangelical population dropped.[3]

Racial and ethnic composition among Evangelical Protestants // Pew Research Center

With growth comes change. Millennials and Generation X Latino/as find themselves in an in-between world. Pew Research suggests that second generation Latinos are less likely to teach their children Spanish[4] and are often more educated than their parents.[5] A generation or two removed from their immigrant parents and grandparents these young adults tend to assimilate to white culture more than the previous generation. Quiles often hears from young adults, “We’re not Latinos and we’re not Americans.” This identity ambiguity leads Latino young adults to worship outside of their cultural communities, a choice which leaves a devastating gap in the Hispanic church. “A lot of Latinos are assimilating too much,” Quiles shared. “When they leave our churches, they think it’s the language, but it’s [that] white does it better.” Since the white church has resources, he points out, Latino young people leave their cultural places of worship: “[There is a] narrative, [that] they don't fit in in the churches they grew up in, so they [must]  fit into white church culture.”

A Changing Ministry

The Hispanic church is not only experiencing generational change, but changes in ministry models. Historically, the Hispanic church has elevated preaching and singing ministry as primary, and when pursuing methods of outreach, she typically focuses on one’s relationship with Christ and compassion work, not community transformation and justice through policy reform or governmental involvement. However, the trend towards community transformation and justice, which Mission Talk emphasizes, is not completely unanticipated.

In the early 2000’s one renowned Latino pastor, spoke of an “emerging generation of Hispanic American Evangelicals.”[6] Contrary from the past, this kind of “new evangelical” would come from the “barrios of L.A. and the housing projects in Chicago more than from rural America.”[7] This evangelical would be a “hybrid” of sorts, a blend of Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr., specifically Hispanic, who would find a middle ground, a space of both righteousness and justice. This pastor envisioned:

“Forging the twin themes of righteousness and justice – not “either/or” – these evangelicals embrace a Kingdom Culture Biblical worldview. It has ramifications for social policy. They stand committed to eradicating al-Qaeda as long as we equally commit ourselves to eradicating AIDS … On cultural issues, the Graham-King hybrid generation stands unequivocally as a vigorous pro-life movement that extends from womb to tomb. This new pro-life movement does not regard health care, education, and poverty-alleviation as secondary issues to sanctity-of-life and marriage but rather as top-tier extensions of a truly pro-life platform.”[8]

The Hispanic church this church leader and others saw emerging is the Hispanic church of today. Evangelicalism is paying attention as the Hispanic church leads the way between the polarity which divides Western Christianity. Community transformation and justice matter to the Hispanic church, as does righteousness and right theology. However, the question of Latino young adults remains unanswered. Will this dynamic part of the Body of Christ lose its cultural bearings and its young people through white church integration? Does Latin identity matter for these believers?  Quiles and the Mission Talk team are fighting fiercely to say yes, identity matters.   

Creating a New Way

The work of Mission Talk is one of space making. Meeting young adult leaders at a variety of stages in their journey of grappling with Hispanic identity, Mission Talk creates a space for these ministry leaders to reconnect with their cultural roots and rediscover the beauty in what it means to be Latino/a. “Reinforcing their identity as Latinos is crucial and key to this conference,” Quiles explained, sharing that at the conference they have salsa and merengue, infusing the experience with Latino culture through music, dance, and retelling of history.

After creating a space, Mission Talk exposes and educates church and ministry leaders to Latino derived resources. The goal is to facilitate the movement from compassion-based outreach to community transformation/justice-based work. This is accomplished primarily through bringing in Latino/a practitioners, men and women of God who are in the trenches of ministry to Hispanic communities throughout the world, bringing about community transformation and justice for the sake of the gospel. “We bring practitioners,” Quiles emphasized, “not celebrities.” These individuals are experienced and respected in all kinds of justice ministries in Hispanic communities, addressing issues such as poverty, hunger, immigration, mass incarceration, human trafficking, social entrepreneurship, ethnic diversity, and racial reconciliation, to name a few. Stepping beyond mere exposure to ideas, these practitioners train and equip conference attendees for the work, teaching biblical theology, ministry models, and ministry skills for Latino/as to return to their native communities and minister well.

As I listened intently to Quiles share his heart for the Hispanic church, I came away challenged. He desires to welcome Latino/as home, for the gap that was created in the Hispanic church to be filled by its own. Rather than relying on Anglo church resources and culture, he champions the Hispanic church for what it is, a dynamic and influential part of the Body of Christ that must be functional for the Church at large to effectively operate.  “What I see,” he concluded, “is raising thousands of young people who are able to shape the church through culture.”

For the Latino/a believer, Quiles extends a call to re-engage. While acknowledging the challenge and pain of assimilation and cultural ambiguity, he calls the Hispanic church home. As an Anglo believer, Quiles gave me a personal challenge: “Help remind us that God made us Latino for a purpose.” Doesn’t this statement itself hold the key to the strength of the historical, global, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, cross socio-economic, two gendered church? The key is the sovereignty of our God over us. With intent, He made each individual and placed them within a time and culture. It is up to us to steward our cultural identities in a way that preaches the gospel—and to help each other do the same.

About Emily C. Alexander

A first generation college graduate of a rural working class family, Emily C. Alexander recently completed her undergraduate degree in Ministry to Women at the Moody Bible Institute. Emily lives in Chicago where she enjoys long walks admiring architecture and pondering theological and sociological issues. Her hope is to impact the lives of women and the flourishing of the church through thoughtful theological engagement.

---

Footnotes

[1] Agustin Quiles, interview, March 7, 2020.

[2] “Megachurches, Home Churches, Podcasts: American Evangelicals Are ‘Not a Monolith,’” Public Radio International, accessed April 1, 2020, https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-08-14/megachurches-home-churches-podcasts-american-evangelicals-are-not-monolith

[3] “Evangelical Protestants - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics,” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project (blog), accessed April 1, 2020, https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/evangelical-protestant/#racial-and-ethnic-composition-trend

[4] “Hispanic Parents’ Spanish Use with Children Falls as Generations Pass,” Pew Research Center (blog), accessed April 1, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/02/most-hispanic-parents-speak-spanish-to-their-children-but-this-is-less-the-case-in-later-immigrant-generations/

[5] “How the U.S. Hispanic Population Is Changing,” Pew Research Center (blog), accessed April 1, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/18/how-the-u-s-hispanic-population-is-changing/

[6] “The Latino Transformation of American Evangelicalism | Reflections,” accessed April 1, 2020, https://reflections.yale.edu/article/who-my-neighbor-facing-immigration/latino-transformation-american-evangelicalism

[7] Rodriguez, 2008.

[8] Rodriguez, 2008.