April 22, 2002
BGCT explores ongoing partnership
with Baptists south of the border
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptists Communications
___Leaders of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the National Baptist Convention of Mexico are exploring ways the two conventions might develop an ongoing formal missions relationship.
___Members of the BGCT State Missions Commission learned at their April 9 meeting in Dallas about the proposed "open-ended" missions partnership between Baptists in Texas and Mexico.
___Unlike other missions partnerships that typically have a defined beginning and end, this relationship would be developed with no end in sight, according to Don Sewell, director of the Texas Partnerships Resource Center.
___"What we are talking about is more than a partnership. It is a collaboration from here to eternity," Sewell told the commission.
___Sewell and Joe Bruce, projects director for Texas Partnerships, joined other Texas Baptist missions leaders in meeting with officers of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico in early April.
___Texas Baptists participating in the meeting included Charles Wade, BGCT executive director; Antonio Estrada, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas; Carolyn Porterfield, executive director-treasurer of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas; Amy Norton, program director for Buckner Orphan Care International; and Albert Reyes, president of Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio.
___Wade told the State Missions Commission he sees the emerging missions relationship between Texas and Mexico Baptists as the logical next step beyond the longstanding River Ministry program along the Rio Grande.
___"Why can't we build on that platform for ministry to the whole nation of Mexico? Perhaps we could do missions in a new kind of way," Wade said.
___The keys to the developing relationship are shared vision and a sense that all involved are equal partners, said Estrada, pastor of Iglesia Bautista South Main in Houston. "We have the same vision of Jesus. We are looking through the same glasses."
___He noted there are 56 indigenous groups in Mexico, and nearly two dozen of those people groups remain unreached by the Christian gospel. He also pointed out there are more than 6 million Hispanics in Texas--roughly one-third of the state's total population--and a sizeable number are not evangelical Christians.
___Baptist leaders in Mexico are interested in a relationship with Texas Baptists that will be mutually beneficial, not paternalistic, he said. "They want to work with us as partners and for us to look them in the eyes as brothers in Christ."
___Leadership exchange would be a key component of the partnership. Estrada announced a proposed plan to invite 1,000 Baptist preachers from Mexico to come to Texas for evangelistic crusades in Hispanic Texas Baptist churches.
___He also mentioned the possibility of working closely with Baptist seminaries in Mexico City and Oaxaca to enhance theological training and ministerial training.
___Officials from the National Baptist Convention of Mexico will attend the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas in El Paso June 24-26, and Estrada invited commissioners to participate in the convention as well.
___Last summer, Sewell, Estrada and two other Texas Baptist leaders attended the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico to begin exploring ways Baptists in Mexico and Texas could work together.
___BGCT Executive Board Chairman Rudy Sanchez of Dallas and Jimmy Garcia, director of Hispanic work with the BGCT, joined them at the July 24-27 meeting in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico.
___Then in November, Sewell and Wade met with Gilberto Gutierrez Lucero, president of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico, in Mexico City for initial administrative discussions.
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