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CARROLLTON—Fifteen ethnic groups were represented at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Asian Evangelism Conference held Feb. 27 at Semihan Baptist Church.
SBTC Executive Director Dr. Nathan Lorick served as keynote speaker of the conference, which was organized by Dr. Hyoung Min Kim, a longtime SBTC leader and pastor of Saebit Baptist Church in Euless.
The event started with a dinner, and Pastor Jacob Vo of Sachse Vietnamese Baptist Church opened the session with prayer. The Asian pastors introduced themselves one by one and briefly shared what God is doing in their ministries. Some of the pastors were accompanied by their church members who came to celebrate together as followers of Christ.
Lorick preached about “The Power of God and the Prayers of his People.”
“The greatest tool in a Christian toolbox is to get on our knees and pray. We need to go beyond our commonalities and not build fortresses for ourselves but break down fortresses in our community for Christ,” he said. “Let’s go beyond these barriers and pray.”
He encouraged pastors by citing Peter’s narrative found in Acts 12:1-12. “The people of God prayed so fervently for Peter, who was in jail, that when Peter showed up at the door, they could not believe that it was him. Even Peter was surprised,” he said.
Lorick emphasized the fact that the people of God were hopeless and decided to pray. He demonstrated how the church in Acts was praying in unity, earnestly, devoutly, and faithfully. He challenged the pastors by saying, “Pray like you never prayed before, lead your churches to be praying churches because prayer changes everything, and when there is an absence of prayer there is an absence of God.”
Dr. Bruno Molina, SBTC language and interfaith evangelism associate, challenged the attendees regarding the urgency of evangelism in the Asian community. He pointed out that most of the roughly 1.5 million Asians in Texas do not know Jesus and that the Asian population is expected to increase to 6 million by 2050.
“The hour is late and the need is urgent,” Molina said, “so, let’s get after the lost together with Jesus!”
Chris Cooper, president of Bless Every Home, encouraged Asian pastors to “love God, love your neighbors, and grow your faith.” He also asked them to pray for, care for, and share their faith with their lost neighbors by using the Bless Every Home app, which is free to all users.
With the help of pastors from the different people groups, Dr. Kim led the multilingual gathering in a concert of prayer. Everyone prayed aloud using their own native language. Lorick called the multilingual prayers “a glorious time.”
They prayed for Ukraine and Ukrainian Christians; for repentance and revival; for Asian pastors and their wives; the advancement of the gospel; courage and faith to share the gospel; laborers for the harvest; and for Asian churches to live for the glory of God. Each prayer segment was led by an Asian pastor: Darrel Vang, pastor at Unity Point Church; Ed Kho, pastor at CrossCity International; Young Geun Yoo, pastor at Rejoice in the Lord Church; John Henry, pastor at Dallas Tamil Church; and Fortunato Zamora from Great Commission Church.
