Photo gallery: Scenes from the Georgia Baptist Hispanic Evangelism Conference

WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Speakers urged attendees at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board's Hispanic Evangelism Conference to not let anything stand in the way of sharing the gospel in their communities and around the world. The gathering, featuring messages from evangelists, church planters, and missionaries, took place Saturday at Iglesia Nuevo Horizonte de Woodstock.

JJ Washington, director of evangelism for the North American Mission Board, told the crowd that failure is not when people reject the gospel, rather failure is not sharing the gospel at all.  Addressing the pastors specifically, he stressed that he'd seen an evangelistic church without an evangelistic leader.  Pastor Rafael Valter of Iglesia Bautista Ágape, translated Washington's message into Spanish.

The International Mission Board's Hispanic church mobilization strategist, Annel Robayna, said evangelism begins with prayer. "Pray first for opportunities, and then for the people you will share the gospel with," he said. He added that in light of all Christians having had a personal encounter with God, and being filled with love for Him, the question isn't "How can I go?" but rather "How can I not go?" and tell others.

Eloy Rodriguez, vice president of the Hispanic Baptist National Network, told the story of a man whose son was lost in a collapsed building. After more than 36 hours of digging through the rubble and calling out his son's name, the man heard a voice reply, "I'm here. And I'm not alone." The son had told others trapped with him of his father's love and that his father would come for him. He likened that to Christians telling others, "My Father loves me, and He's coming back for me, and you need to be ready."

The GBMB's Hispanic northern regions consultant, David Santander, told attendees that, "We serve a God that intentionally has a plan to redeem the world for Himself." That plan involves sending others to share the good news. Christians should have a missionary nature because God has a missionary nature.

Josselin Rivas, coordinator for Persectives, led a separate session for women, where she told them that they should be creative in finding ways to share the gospel with others. She told of her own experiences using Biblically-themed birthday parties for her children to reach people.

Worship music during the event was provided by Eliut Iglecias and his team from Iglesia Nuevo Horizonte.