reyes_82503

Posted: 8/22/03

Reyes to be nominated for BGCT's
first vice presidency in Lubbock

By Marv Knox

Editor

SAN ANTONIO -- Albert Reyes, president of Hispanic Baptist Theological School, will be nominated for first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas when it meets Nov. 10-11.

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Posted: 8/22/03

Reyes to be nominated for BGCT's
first vice presidency in Lubbock

By Marv Knox

Editor

SAN ANTONIO — Albert Reyes, president of Hispanic Baptist Theological School, will be nominated for first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas when it meets Nov. 10-11.

Charlie Johnson, Reyes' pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, announced he will make the nomination at the BGCT annual session in Lubbock.

“Albert is the best of our breed. He's got the right vision and the right sensibility for Baptists' mission in Texas and beyond,” Johnson said.

“Albert is a guide and a model and a real instructor about how to minister the gospel in a multi-cultural context. He's a gifted administrator with a pastoral heart. He's a gifted preacher. As a Christian strategist, this guy is unparalleled.”

"Albert is the best of our breed. He's got the right vision and the right sensibility for Baptists' mission in Texas and beyond."
Charlie Johnson

Under Reyes' leadership, HBTS received authority to grant bachelor's degrees from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The San Antonio school also is in the final stages of gaining accreditation from the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges.

If messengers to the BGCT annual session approve, the school will change its name to Baptist University of the Americas. Numerous denominational leaders have noted the school's pivotal role in preparing church leaders as Texas' population becomes increasingly Hispanic.

Reyes confirmed his willingness to accept the vice presidency.

“Texas Baptists are in a unique time of history,” he said. “We have tremendous opportunities in our state, and our identity as a missions people is getting stronger and beginning to emerge with a number of things that have come into place.”

Among those opportunities is formation of a missions network, which will enable congregations to more fully participate in missions around the world, he said. Reyes serves as vice chairman of that network.

“I see the changes that are happening in our world and how Texas Baptists have an opportunity to impact their communities and the world through the work of our institutions and churches. I present myself as someone who's willing to serve, because I have a responsibility not only as an institutional leader but also a Texas Baptist to serve the churches in the future of missions that we share.”

HBTS is an integral part of that future, Reyes noted. “Our state is changing, and demographic changes are coming, so we want to be available to serve the churches of our state.”

For example, half of all Texans will be Hispanic by 2015, he said, adding that Hispanics became the largest minority group in the United States early this year.

These changes provide implications for mission work not only in Texas but far beyond, Reyes stressed.

God seems to be telling Hispanic Texas Baptists: “OK, this is your turn. You're up to bat. Now, take a swing,” Reyes said. “I'm willing to sacrifice time to enter into our missionary heritage that we've had all these years.”

With Johnson's announcement, Reyes becomes the second BGCT agency leader who will be a candidate for convention office this fall.

Ken Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences, will be nominated for president by his pastor, Jim Denison of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.

“In Buckner Baptist Benevolences and Hispanic Baptist School, you have two dynamic institutions that incarnate the soul of the Baptist General Convention of Texas,” Johnson said. “We're reaching out to children and the elderly, and we're also crossing cultures, training ministers in a multicultural context to go into the world.”

Before becoming president of HBTS in 1999, Reyes was founding pastor of Pueblo Nuevo Community Church in El Paso. He also has been pastor of Love Field Church/North Temple Baptist Church in Dallas and Iglesia Bautista Alfa/Home Gardens in Dallas.

Reyes received an undergraduate degree from Angelo State University. He earned master's and doctor's degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he is working on another doctorate from Andrews University.

Reyes is chair of the Hispanic Outreach Task Force of the White House Initiative for Hispanic Academic Excellence.

He is a board member of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and Texas Baptists Committed and was a trustee of Valley Baptist Academy.

Reyes and his wife, Belinda, are the parents of three sons, Joshua, David and Thomas.

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