'We serve a God who sends,' Hispanic Baptists are told at evangelism conference

CLAYTON, Ga. – Spreading the gospel requires Christians to go and tell, Hispanic Georgia Baptists were told at a Spanish-language evangelism conference in Clayton on Saturday.

Pastor Gerardo Mendoza, who leads Misión Bautista Cristo Vive, hosted the Georgia Baptist Mission Board event at Clayton Baptist Church.

More than 220 participants heard Pastor Martín Vargas of Iglesia Real in Hollywood, Fla., and Ramón Osorio, director of Ethnic-Linguistic Church Planting at the North American Mission Board, speak on the need to share Jesus with others.

Vargas told listeners that sharing the gospel of Jesus is a reflection of the very heart of God. “We serve a God who sends,” he said.

Just as Jesus in Luke 4:43 tells His followers that He must go to other towns to share the good news, Christians too should look for opportunities to go. “The church doesn’t send missionaries,” Vargas emphasized, “The church is the missionary.”

The state's Southern Baptist churches have seen huge gains in the area of evangelism in the past year, surpassing 20,000 baptisms for the first time since 2017. Steve Foster, a Georgia Baptist Mission Board evangelism consultant, said that represents a more than 30% increase in baptisms in 2023 and a more than 90% increase since 2020.

“God’s desire is to bless the people of the world through His people,” said Osorio. He recounted God's words to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

God’s plan from the beginning, Osorio said, has been for His people (the church) to tell and teach others about Him, and bless them by doing so. The passage focuses on families, indicating God's desire that this sharing be on an individual, personal level. That is our missio dei,  or mission of God.

The Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s theme for this year’s evangelism conferences is Called to Witness. There are two more conferences scheduled, another Spanish conference on March 9 at FBC Moultrie and one in English on March 10-11 at Northside Baptist Church in Tifton.