English
Korean
Spanish
ARLINGTON—The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention hosted Apoderados, the Spanish session of the Empower Conference, at Fielder Church Feb. 25-26.
The gathering brought together Hispanic pastors and leaders from all over Texas. There were professions of faith, powerful prayer times, and tremendous times of praise and worship led by Los Hermanos González, a praise team composed of the three brothers originally from Mexico now living in Kansas City, Kan.
Dr. Jorge Enrique Diaz, former director of Editorial Mundo Hispano (also known as Casa Bautista), professor, author, and mentor to many Texas pastors and leaders was given an award in honor of the late, great evangelist Rudy Hernández. The award was given in recognition of his evangelistic service in the Hispanic community. Miryam Picott received the award for her father, who was unable to attend due to health issues.
Picott is following in her father’s footsteps, evangelizing and encouraging women to walk with God. She is an author and women’s conference speaker, and also taught a workshop during the conference.
Dr. César Vidal was the keynote speaker on Friday night. Vidal, originally from Spain, is a world-renowned lawyer, historian, and author of more than 200 books. His radio program, La Voz, has millions of daily listeners on both sides of the Atlantic. He encouraged more than 50 pastors and their wives to understand that being a pastor is a worthwhile investment of their lives.
“Being a pastor derives directly from God through the blood of Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit,” Vidal said. “Being a pastor is a gift bestowed by God, is a noble, sublime profession. It comes with the privilege of administrating the house of God with godly pride and dignity, and it also has its rewards in heaven.”
The children at the conference received a gospel challenge from “Chagy the Messenger,” a clown played by evangelist and pastor Eugenio Adorno Espinell. He has been sharing the gospel with people all over the world as Chagy for the last 30 years.
Various evangelistic workshops were also offered at Apoderados, led by SBTC Hispanic leaders and pastors. Those included Christian counselor and pastor Eric Puentes, who taught participants how to disciple and evangelize children; Chuy Avila, SBTC church planting and En Español lead associate, who spoke on ministry lessons learned during the coronavirus pandemic; Over Ochoa, who encouraged all to live a life free in Christ and share the gospel; and Miguel Faúndez, who trained attendees on virtual discipleship. Rafael Rondón, a native of Puerto Rico and Hispanic pastor for two of the three Fielder campuses, hosted the event along with Fielder staff and 11 volunteers. Rondón and his wife, Marilyn, have three children of their own and are very active in adoption/foster parenting ministry. At the moment, they are foster-parenting two toddlers.
Additionally, Dr. Bruno Molina—SBTC language and interfaith evangelism associate who helped coordinate the conference—led a stimulating panel discussion about evangelism in the Hispanic context that included Dr. Vidal and the workshop leaders.
Fielder Church will also host next year’s Apoderados conference, scheduled for February 2023.
