Hispanic Celebration focuses on fellowship and worship

ANAHEIM, Calif. (BP)—About 500 Hispanic Southern Baptists gathered for a night of fellowship, worship and encouragement in the Anaheim Convention Center preceding the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.

Pastor Juan Carlos Regalado and his wife Lolyta traveled from Tampa, Fla., and were moved by the message delivered by special guest speaker Erick Zaldaña, pastor of Shadow Mountain en Español in El Cajon, Calif.

“It was very encouraging and informative for me to hear pastor Erick’s message on the biblical strategy to move the church forward following the pandemic,” he said.

Reading from Nehemiah 1, Zaldaña preached about the strategy churches can use to navigate a crisis and recover—a timely message as pastors steer their churches to a place of recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zaldaña called for a spiritual evaluation of the church, just as Nehemiah first performed a spiritual evaluation of Jerusalem when he was called to rebuild the wall.

Next, leaders must develop an action plan to improve the ministry of the church where the evaluation finds that it is lacking, Zaldaña said.

Finally, there must be a plan to restore the church. Restoration, he said, involves preaching the Bible, finding joy, confessing, repenting from sin and being committed to the work once again.

Zaldaña encouraged the pastors by telling them that it is not their titles or skills that have made them qualified to lead, but rather the calling God placed on their lives.

“God chose you because of the condition of your heart not for your qualifications,” he said. “This is the only profession that you are chosen for, not that you choose for yourself.”

Praying for victims of sexual abuse

Emanuel Roque, Hispanic church catalyst for the Florida Baptist Convention, led those in attendance to pray, giving praise and thanks to God and acknowledging his greatness.

He led in praying for forgiveness, for the victims of sexual abuse and for guidance in responding to the issue of sexual abuse in the SBC. He also prayed for missionaries and church planters present.

Rodolfo Lagos was honored by Lifeway Christian Resources and Dallas Baptist University for his ministry to California Baptist churches, even as he has struggled with his health during the past two years. Lagos is the president of the Hispanic Baptist Alliance of California. With tears in his eyes and standing after being confined to a wheelchair for months, Lagos said that “all the glory belongs to God.”

Willie McLaurin, interim executive director of the SBC Executive Committee, thanked the Hispanic pastors for their faithful giving to the Cooperative Program. He presented Luis Lopez as the new executive director of Hispanic relations and mobilization for the Executive Committee.

Pete Ramirez, newly elected executive director of the California Southern Baptist Convention, welcomed the gathered Hispanics to Anaheim and asked them to “send your young Hispanic men to us,” adding: “We need them.”

There is much gospel work to be done in California, Ramirez said, and there is a great need for Hispanic pastors to minister to other Hispanics in English and Spanish.