But I Don't Speak Spanish: A Narrative Approach to Ministry with Young People

With the expanding diversity of Hispanic realities today, pastoral leaders face the important challenge of encountering the unique lives of U.S.-born and/or -raised Hispanic young people. By presenting a narrative approach, this work inspires pastoral leaders to recognize God's grace in the totality of their lives and emboldens the capacity of pastoral leaders to facilitate a communion between the lives of young Hispanics and God's life with us. In presenting a narrative approach to ministry with young people, But I Don't Speak Spanish emphasizes the distinct narratives of 1st, 2nd-, and 3rd-generation Hispanic young people, while also providing twelve strategies to uncover and nurture their unique narratives. The distinct narratives presented include those related to identity, culture, the body, language, social media, religiosity, relationality, resilience/transformation, migration, mental illness, and the effects of poverty. The strategies provided in this work illustrate the ways in which pastoral leaders function to see, give voice to, name, accompany, tend to, and transform the lives of today's young people--strategies to be utilized in every ministerial and pastoral setting.