Medina to be nominated for SBC 2nd vice president

  |  Source: Baptist Press

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NASHVILLE (BP)—Grant Gaines of Tennessee will nominate Houston pastor Ramón Medina for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the 2021 SBC annual meeting in Nashville in June.

Ramón Medina

Medina has served since 2006 as lead pastor to the Spanish ministry at Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, a congregation uniquely aligned with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

He began this year leading Champion Forest’s Hispanic church-planting residency program in cooperation with the North American Mission Board. Gaines credits Medina with helping plant eight churches in the United States, Latin America and Asia.

“I’m thrilled to announce my intention to nominate Pastor Ramón Medina for the position of second vice president of the SBC at our annual convention meeting this summer in Nashville,” said Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in the Nashville suburb of Murfreesboro.

“Under Ramón’s leadership, since 2006, he has seen the Spanish congregation grow from 60 members to more than 3,000 each week, directly from the result of his passion for the lost, missions, evangelism, multicultural ministries and developing strong families rooted in the word of God.”

The SBC Annual Church Profile does not list attendance numbers for the Spanish ministry, but Champion Forest, under the leadership of senior pastor Jarrett Stephens, reported an average attendance of about 7,600 for its total congregation in 2019.

Champion Forest gave $587,500 to the Cooperative Program in 2020, amounting to 2.7 percent of its overall budget of $21,774,000, according to figures the church submitted to Baptist Press. The total amount of undesignated giving for 2020 was not available.

Gaines said Medina is active in SBC life, having served on committees at several SBC entities and groups including Lifeway Christian Resources and the Hispanic Pastoral Council. He is president of the SBC Hispanic Council, a group of Hispanic pastors working toward unity and cooperation in serving Hispanic Southern Baptists.

He also has been announced as the keynote speaker for Celebración Hispana, a gathering of Hispanic Southern Baptists to be held in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting.


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Medina earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of ICESI in Cali, Colombia, and worked in the banking industry before beginning in ministry. The Baptist pastor’s son soon switched to theology and, after relocating to the states, studied theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds a Master of Arts in Missiology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Gaines said, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He and Nhora, his wife of 23 years, live in Spring and are parents to two sons.


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