Spiritual needs among the Spanish speaking communities Part 1

So I come to Los Angeles, CA after living most of my life in the Midwest states. When I found that at least half of my new friends were going to be internationals, I put my heart and hands to work in researching the spiritual needs of these communities In this blog post I am going to list the needs I read about from a book by Neil Anderson “The Bondage Breaker The Next Step”. After I list them I will comment and tell of how I have thus far addressed these needs.

1) We need to experience God’s grace & love in our families & churches in order to overcome the legalistic tendencies of  our religious backgrounds.

2) We need to understand God’s sovereign love & our identity in Christ to overcome a sense of fatalism & rejection that plagues our people. Most Latinos struggle with a negative self image.

3) We need to proclaim God’s truth & the authority of the scriptures in order to overcome the many lies & superstitions of our culture.

4) We need to forgive, especially those of us from dysfunctional and broken families.

5) We need freedom from sexual strongholds. Adultery and fornication are ripping the very fabric of the Latino family.

6) We need to be free from fear. Drug lords and cartels have terrorized and paralyzed many of our communities.

7) We need to overcome addictions to drugs and alcohol.

8) We need to discover God’s love & provision so we can be free from the mind set of despair & poverty.

9) We need to learn to take personal responsibility for our lives.

10) We need to discover God as a loving Father who longs for an intimate relationship with His children. This will help us overcome a mind-set dominated by machismo.

11) We need to adopt the lifestyle of a true disciple so all believers are personally connected to Jesus Christ as their only source of life.

12) We need spiritual accountability in local churches.

13)We need to look to Jesus Christ as our only mediator in our relationship with the Father. No one else can take this place of prominence in our lives.

So this ends the list of needs in the Spanish speaking communities(written by a Latino, I might add). What do you think of this list? Do you see and attend to these needs in the community you serve? Are there any additional  needs you see and have met?  I will be holding back additional comments on how these impact the LA communities and how these needs are being addressed in the communities I serve….please take time to comment on this so far ….thanks for your input and discussion! Photo from http://www.treklens.com!