When I first arrived in California, I didn’t know much about this state except that, allegedly, you could strike gold anywhere and that earthquakes were a regular occurrence. It didn’t take long for that knowledge to turn into practical experience, though it was the earthquakes, not the gold, that proved true. After the first earthquake, I learned about the San Andreas Fault, a famous geological feature that cuts through much of California like a jagged scar. Earthquakes along this fault line can create dramatic gaps in the earth’s surface. In the immigrant community, people often joked that one day, half of California would break off and drift into the Pacific Ocean, leaving those of us in the Central Valley with oceanfront property.
In a way, this geological divide serves as a metaphor for the gaps ethnic diaspora churches experience in America. Just as the San Andreas Fault creates a rift in the land, the process of immigrating to a new country causes a major tectonic shift in the lives of immigrants and their communities, often leading to a disconnection from broader American culture while simultaneously creating internal fractures within the church itself. This post will explore how these gaps appear at various levels, and the challenges ethnic churches face in bridging them.
External Gaps
For first-generation immigrants, ethnic diaspora churches serve as vital cultural centers, offering much more than just spiritual nourishment. They function as social hubs and spaces of cultural identification, helping immigrants navigate the challenges of life in their new country. Gordon Allport, American psychologist, captures this dual role in his book The Nature of Prejudice, noting that for many ethnic groups, religion “usually stands for more than faith – it is the pivot of the cultural tradition of a group… the clergy… may, often do, become defenders of a culture.”
These immigrant churches provide essential spaces where shared traditions, customs, and languages can be preserved. However, Alan Anderson and James Frideres, both professors of sociology and ethnic studies, offer a cautionary observation, “Many of the functions of religion are oriented toward the preservation of ethnic identity … it promotes social integration; it attempts to validate people’s customs and values; it inculcates values through socialization; it affirms the dignity of the ethnic group members …; it tends to be a pillar of conservatism; and it often encourages social isolation from outsiders.”1
While such isolation can foster a strong sense of community, it can also lead to an inward focus that limits meaningful engagement with the host culture. The more inwardly focused an ethnic church is, the larger the external gap between it and the broader society becomes. Although ethnic churches’ efforts to preserve customs and affirm group dignity are commendable and important, they risk becoming insular and disconnected from the broader community. Over time, this disconnection may hinder their ability to effectively integrate and impact culture around them with the gospel.
Internal Gaps
Additionally, this gap exists not only between ethnic diaspora churches and the broader society but also within, particularly between older and younger generations. Among immigrant families, the acculturation process often progresses at different rates across generations. As Bochner, Furnham and Ward note in The Psychology of Culture Shock, “Research revealed that adolescents are quicker to absorb the values of the new culture than are their parents, and the differential rate of acculturation has been cited as a significant source of conflict in immigrant families”.2 This generational divide surfaces not only at home but in the church as well, where older members may expect younger generations to fully embrace and participate in traditional cultural and religious practices that now feel unfamiliar to them. As a result, younger members often feel caught between two worlds, striving to honor their heritage while navigating the realities of American culture.
A particularly striking example of this gap is the linguistic divide that often emerges between generations. While many children of immigrants grow up speaking their parents’ language at home, they may lack fluency in specialized settings, such as the religious language used in church. One senior pastor of local Hispanic church in California, highlights this issue within his own congregation. In a survey he conducted, this lead pastor found that most young people reported understanding “only about twenty percent in Spanish,” despite speaking it fluently at home.3 This language gap hinders not only comprehension, but also a sense of belonging and engagement among younger congregants.
These external and internal gaps create challenges that ripple through the life of ethnic diaspora churches, shaping, or sometimes distorting, their identity and mission in profound ways. They highlight not only the struggle of navigating a dual existence between heritage and integration, but also the fragility of community bonds under mounting pressure.
Faced with these tensions, ethnic churches often find themselves at a crossroads, unsure whether to adapt or to hold fast to the familiar. Most often than not, this tension leads to a natural yet complex response: resistance. My next post will explore the roots of this resistance and the profound impact it has on ethnic churches’ communities and mission.
Thank you for reading Part 2 of the series Cultural Crossroads: From Challenges to Impact – Ethnic Diaspora Churches in the American Mosaic, an ongoing journey into how immigrant churches navigate cultural gaps, preserve their heritage, and engage their communities to make a lasting gospel impact in the United States4
1 Alan Anderson and James Frideres, Ethnicity in Canada: Theoretical Perspectives (Toronto: Butterworths, 1981), 41.
2 Bochner, Stephen, Adrian Furnham, and Collen Ward. The Psychology of Culture Shock, Second Edition (East Sussex: Routledge, 2001), 218-219.
3 Interview with pastor conducted on November 26, 2023.
4 Photo by Alessandra Esquivel on Unsplash
