Meeting needs, sharing gospel focus at Hispanic rally

AMARILLO—Hispanic Texas Baptists reported on God's faithfulness and looked ahead to new initiatives in evangelism, missions and ministry during a rally on the eve of the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Teo Cisneros, vice president for development at Baptist University of the Americas, preaches at a rally preceding the BGCT annual meeting in Amarillo.

Jesse Rincones, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, noted the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas approved a new agreement with the BGCT in 2010.

"One of the fruits of that agreement is that now our convention can have its own initiatives for funding and resources for its programs and collaborations that it wants to do," he said.

Rincones announced 2012 would focus on missions with the convention's collaboration with Shoes for Orphan Souls, a ministry of Buckner International. Hispanic Texas Baptists hope to collect 2,012 pairs of new shoes for the ministry at Convención next June in San Antonio.

A new collaboration with Frontera Solutions will provide a telephone medicine program for Hispanic pastors and families around the state, many of whom don't have health insurance, Rincones announced.

The program gives participants unlimited access to doctors via telephone who can make diagnoses and call in prescriptions for families. Through this program, families also receive discounts on prescriptions.

Hispanic Texas Baptists need to look at ways to bless the spiritually lost, not seek blessings for themselves, Teo Cisneros, vice president for development at Baptist University of the Americas, said in the rally sermon from the first chapter of the New Testament book of Acts.

"Statistics show that baptisms are at their lowest point in 20 years," he continued, "And in Texas, the second most populated state with 26 million people, 50 percent are lost. The gospel hasn't changed. It still has power. The blood of Christ hasn't changed. It hasn't lost its power to save. My question to you tonight is, 'What can we do?'"

Too many Christians aren't asking the right questions, he said, comparing churches with the disciples who asked Jesus when he would restore the kingdom of Israel or argued over who would sit on his right hand side.

"What we should be asking is, 'How can we bless the lost? How can we reach the lost?' not 'How can I be blessed?'" he said.

Churches also often don't seek the right power, Cisneros insisted, stressing the importance of seeking the Holy Spirit.

"If you don't look for divine power, the power of the Holy Spirit, you won't be effective in reaching the lost," he said.

Finally, he said, churches aren't looking in the right direction.

"Because of our limited view, sometimes we ignore certain groups of people," he said. "But Jesus says to make disciples of every nation. The Greek word for every nation is 'ethnos,' meaning all people or all ethnicities."