Posted: 11/12/04
| Two-year-old Elizabeth Acosta and her mother, Ivett Acosta, of Templo Getsemani in San Antonio, enjoy the music at the Hispanic Baptist Fellowship. |
Hispanic Fellowship explores family lessons from familiar parable
By Craig Bird
For Texas Baptist Communications
SAN ANTONIO–Families–whether spiritual or biological, can learn lessons from the parable of the Prodigal Son, said the featured preacher at the Hispanic Baptist Fellowship meeting.
About 300 people gathered at Primera Iglesia Bautista in San Antonio for the 2004 meeting of the Hispanic Baptist Fellowship.
Martin Ortega, first vice president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and pastor of Iglesia Bautista Emanuel in Midland, explored the lessons to be learned from the “good family” in the story known as the Prodigal Son.
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| The mother-daughter duo of Enriqueta Ortiz and Rhoda Vance from the praise team at New Beacon Hill Baptist Church in San Antonio lead in worship at the Hispanic Baptist Fellowship. |
Three words figure prominently in the Scripture passage in Luke 15:11-32–God, family and celebration, Ortega said. All three have things to say to the Hispanic biological family, the church family and the Baptist family of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Christians need to honor God with their lives so their children will respond to their example of faith and become faithful members of the church themselves, Ortega said. Christians also need to love those who live around them who don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ so they will come and join the family, he added.
He also urged Hispanics to be true to the New Testament teachings on joy and their own culture and “seek and find” reasons to celebrate the good things God does for and through his people.
“That is one thing perhaps we can model” for some of the non-Hispanics brothers and sisters in the BGCT, he joked.
“Most Anglo churches bring out the cakes and cookies and pies when they celebrate, but we Hispanics are like the father in this Scripture–we kill the cow when we have a party. And we eat it all.”
Another highlight of the evening was the sustained applause that greeted Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, when he was introduced as “the man who is expected to be elected the first Hispanic president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas later this week.”
Reyes urged a continued and increasing involvement of Hispanic churches in the mission and ministries of the BGCT.
BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade also drew laughter and applause when he noted, “We can't refer to the ethnic fellowships of the BGCT as minorities anymore because we all are minorities in Texas now as you well know.”
He thanked the Hispanic Fellowship for providing increasing leadership for all Texas Baptists in the coming years.
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