Texas Baptists en Espanol team connects and encourages local churches

Rolando Rodriguez, Texas Baptists en Español director, and Vidal Muniz, Texas Baptists en Español strategist, have been busy, traveling all around Texas and meeting with Hispanic churches.

“We’re at a different church every Sunday,” Muniz explained. “Meeting them in their town and coming to their local church is so great. The pastors are always so excited to host us.”

At the churches, Rodriguez and Muniz preach a sermon, then sit and talk with the pastors and leadership of the church to get to know how they can best help the church.

“A lot of the conversations have to do with building relationships, seeing the struggles they are facing, encouraging them and learning how we can help them better,” said Muniz. “Then we can connect them with any resources we believe can help them.”

This includes helping these churches connect with offices like Texas Baptists Church Architecture and Texas Baptists Counseling Services. They also invite churches to training sessions and share other resources from which the church could benefit.

In addition to preaching at local churches, Rodriguez and Muniz are also hosting conferences at the churches. The conference topics range from preaching to evangelism to leadership, and they are held in a range of cities so that pastors from all different parts of the state can benefit. In 2021, the conferences will be hybrid, offering virtual and in-person options as the state continues to adjust to COVID-19 limitations.

While the conferences offer training, they also offer a chance for Rodriguez and Muniz to encourage and uplift the pastors who attend. Most are bi-vocational, Muniz explained, and need encouragement as they balance a job and pastorate.

Texas Baptists en Español was launched in 2020. The initiative seeks to connect with Hispanic Baptist churches by encouraging, informing and collaborating to reach the goals the Lord gave them. Texas Baptists en Español can assist congregations in their ministry by contextualizing the wide variety of services and ministries available through Texas Baptists.

“Our office has been a powerful tool to impact God’s kingdom, and we want to keep impacting our communities,” Rodriguez explained. “This is a way to achieve a coordinated effort to reach Hispanic people in Texas.”

An emphasis was placed on eight areas when the initiative launched: discipleship, evangelism, church starting, reaching the next generation, leadership development, missions, education and church health and revitalization.

“We want to make a bigger impact here in Texas,” Rodriguez said, “to collaborate with leaders and pastors to reach more people in Texas for Christ.”

For more information, go to txb.org/espanol.