Pulse of the City: Language

Every now and then, when I catch an interesting article about Miami, I’ll post it up for a chat about how it intersects with our mission at Life Pointe.

In this AP article, we’ll look at Spanish as the primary language of the city.  Here are some other interesting statistics from the article:

• In the 1950’s 80% of the Miami population were non-hispanic whites.
• In 2006, 18.5% of the population are non-hispanic whites.
• By 2015, that number is estimated to be 14%.
• 58.5% of the population speaks Spanish.
• Half of that figure speaks Spanish only.

Another observation from outside of this article is that 1st generation Hispanic-Americans often speak Spanish only, 2nd generation Hispanic-Americans are bilingual, and 3rd generation Hispanic-Americans often speak English only.

Looking outside of the Latino population, we see a large segment of the population speaking Creole.  Beyond that, each of us, even when we speak the same language, speak a different cultural language which raises a number of barriers.

Further, outside of a few neighborhoods like Hialeah and Little Havannah, most neighborhoods in Miami are integrated unlike many other large cities which have significantly segregated communities.  For instance, Life Pointe Church is approaching 40 different nationalities in attendance.  So, here are some questions:

• With this as the backdrop, what opportunities do churches in Miami have?
• What challenges do we face?
• What needs do the people in our communities have that the Church in Miami can be meeting?
• Largely, the Church in Miami has failed to adapt to shifting cultural realities.  What does the Church need to do to best minister to today’s population?
• Looking at generational language challenges, what challenges does a family face as it relates to church?