The Collegedale Spanish-American Seventh-day Adventist church was founded as a mission group in 1985. It all started as a group of Southern Adventist University students, both Hispanics and Americans, decided to have a Sabbath school class together. They moved around campus until the university and some Adventists neighbors decided to help them make their dream come true of having their own temple.
I had a chance to sit down with the church’s current senior pastor, Gamaliel Feliciano, and SuCasa’s former and current youth directors, Martha Calderon and Carolina Bonilla, as they explained how the original congregation developed into the SuCasa church. Join me as we learn the history behind a congregation that has found a way to bridge its generational gap.
There has been a debate about the relationship between Christianity and society throughout most of civilization. It has been carried out publicly as well as privately in our own minds: A quarrel between the church’s responsibility for social order and the desire to cut off Christ’s followers from social issues.
As human beings, we are a complex species. We are defined by different cultures, backgrounds, beliefs and feelings and can’t escape our environment.
The inevitable confrontation that we have with the social issues that envelop our surroundings on a day-to-day basis influences our behaviors, compelling us to believe we must act, take a stance or pick a side.
According to Elder Allan Machado, director of the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and a professor of research at Andrews University, we end up complicating things with modern and post-modern thought by looking at the world and Christianity through our own lenses, relying on our points of views and not those of unity in Christ through love.
“We allow social issues to influence us and not a Christ-centered attitude to influence us about surrounding social issues,” Machado said.
The impact such differences have on the generational divide is much deeper than we think. They develop and divide the Gospel into erroneous theologies that we end up practicing — be it on the pulpit with our testimonies and/or our lifestyles. How can we reconcile our surroundings with an identity in Christ? How do we interpret—with a Christ-centered vision— contemporary movements such as: Liberation Theology to advocate for the weak; Feminist Theology in favor of gender equality; Black Theology and its quest for racial injustice; Ecological Theology in the fight against global warming and the Social-American Gospel defined as the American dream?
According to Carmella Monk Crawford, editor of Message magazine and the podcast What’s the Message, as Christians we should be very involved in social issues. She believes in mobilizing to show people that we can work together and are willing to come alongside the community.
“I believe every time something happens a minister should say that from the pulpit, (such as): ‘We paused to think of the people who were gunned down so mercilessly and so senselessly this year, or this week, or yesterday,’” she said. “I think that it should be part of the conversation on a regular basis.”
Some Christian perspectives place hope in another world and appear to deprive Christians of the opportunity to take an interest in the relentless struggle with social issues around them, while society urges them to pursue human achievement. These contradictions raise the question: How much should the church get involved in social issues?
H. Richard Niebuhr in his book, Christ and Culture, writes, “Christ did not undertake to reform the religious and national culture, eliminating what was archaic in ceremonial and civil law. He might’ve been a boon to his society; but, instead of reforming culture, He ignored it. … Jesus ignored everything concerned with material civilization. In this sense, He does not belong to civilization.”
As I look back in retrospect, one of the happiest days of my childhood—despite the fact that it might seem difficult to believe—was the day I was baptized for the first time. I was baptized with a group of friends. We had been the best of friends for a long time. We were all about 11-years-old at the time and had attended the same church. I haven’t heard from them in over 25 years, apart from occasional messages from mutual friends about their separation from the church, which I was also until three years ago.
I have never been able to find out the reasons why they deviated. With peace of mind and sobriety, I can now attribute my separation from church to my arrival in the United States at the age of 14 and the strong cultural shock that came with it. As I reminisce about my friends and our active involvement with the church as children and early teens, and how now almost all of them have left the church, prompted me to consider and research what the statistics are for the decrease in membership among the Hispanic community.
A study commissioned by the Seventh-day Adventist North American Division Office of Education showed a decrease in the Hispanic population from 2008 to 2018. The research was presented by Monte Sahlin, director of the Center for Creative Ministry, to an Interactive Journalism class at Southern Adventist University in 2019, and later reported on a blog by Southern student Estefania Sanchez-Mayorquin.
Sahlin attributes the 2018 decline to the political environment in the U.S.
“I believe the reason why is that we had great difficulty getting input from immigrants that year,” he said. “And, if you think about the political environment in the United States then, you can understand why lots of Adventists who are immigrants did not want to answer any survey about information about themselves and their families, even though it’s anonymous.”
Sahlin believes that there has been at least a small drop in the number of ethnic minorities.
“It probably is true that there has been a slight decrease in ethnic minority Adventists,” Sahlin said. “One study that I did in the interim period with one local conference, they discovered a significant number of immigrants who, during the recession, actually went back to Latin American countries that they had come from because the economy that they had come from was better there than their circumstances in the United States.”
In another presentation, this time to my Interactive Journalism class on Feb. 17, 2021, Sahlin presented other reasons for the drop in percentage among those who identify more with younger generations.
“Other reasons are not understanding why it is necessary for religion to have structure and procedures, a feeling particularly in the teenage years,” Sahlin said. “They feel that the church is unfriendly to people with different attitudes, different opinions. That you have to fit into a fairly narrowed pattern or you are not welcome.”
After his presentation, I had the opportunity to ask questions and gather additional information that would assist my study. Here are a couple of the questions I asked and the answers that were given.
Q: Are there any reasons why young adults are abandoning the church?
A: In addition to the decline of Hispanics in the SDA Church is the abandonment of the church by young adults. This is attributed to the negative experience with institutions and organizations. This situation is a worldwide issue; organized religion has been abandoned by young adults not just in the U.S, but in Canada, Europe, and Latin America as well. In the United States, some patterns have to do with life experience. They graduate and move to another city, marriage, family, a lot of movement. One other thing that Millennial generation young adults do not understand about the Adventist bureaucracy is this business of transferring membership.
Q: Are there any other reasons to report, perhaps on older generations abandoning the church?
A: Some of the decline also has to do with life transition. We know that in the Gen-Xers group, people dropping out of church has a lot to do with divorce. Almost every case when that happens at least one quits attending church, if not both.”
So, there you have it: Is the decrease among Hispanics in the Adventist church an abandonment of faith? Or, is this a reflection of a lack of accountability, which perhaps influences the statics?
Citation: Sanchez-Mayorquin, Estefania, “Adventist researcher reports drop in black, Hispanic church numbers. He blames national immigration debate.” (2019). Blog. 12.
This podcast was recorded to showcase an SDA congregation’s efforts to bridge the generational gap. The soundbites were recorded at SuCasa Church— the Spanish-American Seventh-day Adventist church in Collegedale, Tennessee. Join me as we learn how SuCasa church bridges its demographic reality and congregation’s generational gap.
Bridging the Generational Gap
As you enter SuCasa church, and you go through the COVID protocols in the lobby, you are greeted by a reverent atmosphere, which reveals an older generation’s congregation. At the same time, a youthful spirit coming from the lower level invites you down. The lobby’s reverent atmosphere leads you on through to their main room where an older generation gathers for Sabbath school. But If you had allowed the youth spirit to navigate you to the lower level you would have found a younger generation’s Sabbath school gathering.
As I enjoyed my Sabbath experience during one of the intermissions, I had a chance to ask Carolina Bonilla—SuCasa’s youth director— what is her take on the generational gap and what they have done and are doing to bridge it?
“Our church is a very diverse church,” Bonilla said. “There are more than ten nationalities here. We have children, teens, young adults and adults. We have been successful, specifically throughout the past six years, at being able to give more participation to the youth. Before it was an adult-dominated church where the youth were mostly visitors. Now, they have more participation and even leadership roles.”
SuCasa church’s goal is to train its youth to lead.
“We are trying to disciple the younger generation so that they can lead our church,” Bonilla said.
She shares the first step she took to assess the younger generation’s needs.
“In my first year as a youth director, one of the first things that I did to know how the youth feels in relation to our church is I developed a survey,” Bonilla said. “And some of the questions that I asked were: ‘How do you feel when you come to our church?’ Fortunately, many of the young people said they felt welcomed and part of the family.”
She explained the church’s adoption ministry and how they try to fill the void students feel by being away from home.
“The previous youth director created this adoption program where students and young adults who don’t have family nearby can be adopted by our church family,” Bonilla said. “They invite them for lunch and just kind of take care of them as if they were their parents here. To make sure that if they need anything that there is a family here who is taking care of them.”
SuCasa’s administrators try to make themselves available to supply every student’s need — be it physical, spiritual, as well as emotional.
“We try to make sure that if there’s any young person struggling with something, they could come to us and to know we are there to help them,” Bonilla said.
They try to tackle the needs stated by the younger generation by assuming a proactive role.
“We have decided to create programs based on the needs they have stated they have,” Bonilla said. “There are young people who are struggling with depression, addictions. We are trying to tackle those topics with the people we invite or the programs we are making. Last month, we had a livestream. One of our youth directors is a psychologist. We were talking about how to take care of ourselves during this time of pandemic. They did such an amazing job. I am very impressed by the youth that attends this church. They are very capable, and they are willing to step up and help.”
As the Sabbath service continued throughout the day both generations gathered in the main room for the worship service where they sang, prayed, and listened to the word of God, as one congregation closing their generational gap.
I arrived in the United States at age 14. And, while I was absorbing, questioning, and subconsciously building my core values, I developed into an Americanized reflection of my native Cuban culture. Yet, while I assimilated, I never felt that I fully belonged to the corresponding American generation for my age group, affectionately (and sometimes not so fondly) called the Millennials.
According to Chuck Underwood, an American generational expert, my experience is not uncommon. During a recent presentation to Interactive Journalism students at Southern Adventist University, Underwood said the more of your formative years spent in America, the less you’ll belong to your native generation. The opposite is also true.
In one of his studies, Underwood states that there are four permanent phases of generational study: The formative years which mold our core values; the generation to which you’re born, whose characteristics defines its members; the generational values that guide our decisions; and, the pre-generational years when we do not belong to a generation–from K-12.
As we go through the building years of our youth – keeping and discarding some values- we ask ourselves these questions: Who are we? What do we believe? Finding the answer to these questions will determine how we’ll grow into adulthood and our set of core values. Inevitably, in the process we’ll become a reaction to the older generation.
As an immigrant who has spent most of my life in the U.S. living in and surrounded by Hispanic culture, I have witnessed the loss of identity among immigrants, especially those who arrived at a young age. The stigma that the immigrant carries when trying to maintain his or her roots while, at the same time, engaging in American culture, is a daunting and complicated endeavor, and the results aren’t always predictable.
Some of the fundamental values of my Cuban generation were lost in translation — a generation without hopes and aspirations where education has no value or meaning because it does not justify an economically stable future. By 1980–which marks my native Cuban generation—the Cubans that had stayed on the island because they sympathized with the government or couldn’t find a way to leave, had realized “The Revolution” failed. The biggest trademark of that failure was economics. Therefore, many in my cohort realized that education, because of the way the system worked, would not provide a prosperous economic future. They turned away from education and ventured into the black market and underground commerce.
It’s not fair to generalize, but a good chunk of that generation chose that route. After immigrating to the United States, my encounter with American culture dissolved the negative values that seemed to define me. Because of the values I’ve adopted from American culture, I now have hopes and aspirations; and, I work towards them. I believe in the outcome of education and the kind of future it promises. I find meaning and purpose in life by nurturing my self-esteem.
At the same time, I’ve managed to rescue some of the positive values of my native generation because they align well with the values of my American cohort. Like so many Millennials, I maintain a close relationship with my parents, remain active in the community and find meaning in contributing to society. At the same time, some values that define the Millennials, such as patriotism, activism and citizenship, clash with the extremes that were forced upon me while growing up under a dictatorship communistic regime. The impact of those negative experiences has prevented me from fully assimilating to American culture.
That’s why it’s not always helpful to define people by their peer groups. The core values defining a particular generation should not be a reason to typecast. Everyone is an individual, and the core values that we develop are defined by various experiences. I am a living example of one who does not fit the stereotype.
I was able to learn and gather information about the origins of Hispanic Adventism in the U.S while conducting research for our Interactive Journalism class at Southern Adventist University. The investigation led me to the first major volume ever written on the history of Hispanic Adventism in the North American Division, titled, “The Untold Story: 100 Years of Hispanic Adventism.”
The book was written by Manuel Vazquez in the year 2000 and published by Pacific Press Publications. I also found a study conducted by Juan Carlos Viera for Adventist.org in 2016.
Vazquez writes about the beginnings of the Hispanic church in the United States, stating:
“The Seventh-day Adventist work among the Hispanics in the U. S began in Sanchez, Arizona, in 1899, only 36 years after the Adventist Church was officially organized (1863). A bilingual Mexican Methodist pastor named Marcial Serna eventually became the first Hispanic Adventist pastor, raising up several Adventist congregations in the southwest region of the United States during his ministry” (15).
He also shares an anecdote about sister White, writing: “In 1913, Ellen White told Abel Sanchez, one of the first Hispanic Adventist members in the North American Division: ”It has been shown to me that the Spanish work will be placed at the vanguard and march at the head of the cause of God in the United States.”
This prophecy is literally being fulfilled today. From the 15 original members in the Spanish Church in Sanchez, Arizona, in 1899, the Hispanic membership in the North American Division has mushroomed to nearly 105,000 in 1999!” (15).
At the same time that the Hispanics were organizing in North America the church was fulfilling its commission to spread the Third Angel’s Message, found in Revelation 14.
Even before the launch of Serna’s ministry and White’s vision, Adventists were already evangelizing in Latin America.
Juan Carlos Viera in his study of Seventh-day Adventist education recounts that “Adventists arrived in South America by 1890. The first missionaries Elwin W. Snyder, Albert B. Stauffer, and Clair A. Nowling initiated a literature distribution program and began advocating for the development of the Adventist Gospel. Among the inhabitants an appeal to the Adventist message surfaced all around the continent.” (Seventh-Day Adventist Education.CIRCLE, 2016, circle.adventist.org/services/info/?topic=adventist_ed.)
As Hispanic Adventist converts continued to grow, the evangelistic work expanded to Florida, now the headquarters of the Inter-American Division, a sub-entity of the denomination’s General Conference that oversees the church’s work in Central America and the Caribbean. The division relocated from Havana, Cuba, to Miami, Florida, in April 1945.
Vazquez states: “While the change was aimed to take advantage of better communications and air transportation to all the Inter-American Division countries, it led to the beginnings of the Hispanic work in Florida” (308).
The Hispanic presence in Florida has become more pronounced in recent history. Vazquez shares that “between 1959 and 1962, over 215,000 Cubans fleeing the Castro regime found shelter in the United States. The second wave of immigration, which arrived in 1980 between April and September, brought more than 125,000 Cubans to the States. By the 1980s, 340,000 Cubans were living in South Florida in the Miami area. There were some Adventists among those leaving Cuba who considered the Spanish-speaking congregations in Miami to be a refuge in the new world.” (307).
The U.S Census.gov website shows that by March 1993 the Hispanic population in the U.S was 22.8 million, 8.9 percent of the total population. By 2018, the number, provided by the Pew Research Center, had grown to 60 million, showing the ten top metropolitan areas above the million in such places as Florida, California, Texas, New York and Illinois.
In their make-up, big Hispanic/Latino families can be very dynamic and diverse. These family members include “old country” elderly grandparents who do not speak English and who have not assimilated into the culture of the United States; bilingual, bicultural, educated, and professional middle-aged parents as well as young children who speak only English and are completely assimilated into the new community.
These dynamics and the diversity among the Hispanic diaspora in the United States contribute to the generational divide within the SDA church in North America.
Hello, My name is Frank Canizares, and throughout the years I have noticed a generational divide among Hispanic Seventh-day Adventists. The gap underscores various perspectives regarding secular issues such as science and politics, as well as spiritual matters such as worship and modesty.
Conservatives vs. Liberals. These two stances have defined and divided church members into different groups.
As a student taking an Interactive Journalism course at Southern Adventist University, I will explore this topic through conversations, research and recollection based on my personal experience as someone who grew up in the Hispanic Seventh-day Adventist community, left the church for a period of time and then returned within recent years.
A religious practitioner of the faith, I was always involved in church activities during my childhood. That involvement provided me with a window through which I observed the range of behaviors among brethren practicing and promulgating their beliefs.
After years of wandering in the world – away from God and the church – I returned to an environment where some people with whom I grew up had, in my opinion, maintained certain positions, which throughout the years had defined them.
By observing their viewpoints, the ways they worshipped, how they dressed and practiced religion, I could detect an unspoken division among church members. Even though none of it played a role in my departure, the differences between young and old are intriguing.
However, it is important to note that the religious divide is not a defined line drawn in the sand. The differences sometimes fluctuate depending on one’s education, upbringing, and the influence parents have had on one’s outlook on life. The type of church a person attended as a child could also impact his or her formative years. That influence could define viewpoints, habits and a person’s overall character, regardless of age and generation.
It is my desire to research the origins and development of this issue. So, let’s embark on this journey together!
