Remembering our Past and Embracing the Future
by Jimmy Garcia III
Coordinator of Ethnic Missions BGCT

Editors note: The following is the speech of Jimmy Garcia delivered at the TBC breakfast in El Paso. It is edited due to length.

On special occasions my family and I have gone to family reunions in San Antonio where members of my family have lived for several generations. The house where I was born still stands on Popular Street.

As usual at such gatherings, we do lots of reminiscing and storytelling. My youngest child can sit spellbound for hours as kinspersons recount tales out of our family heritage, especially about me growing up in that old house on Popular Street.

Carlyle Marney has suggested at least 80,000 generations are behind each of us. That we are incapable of blessing ourselves or others until first we can bless our own origins. "The stuff God had at His disposal in creating us" this is what we need first to learn about and understand, then to accept, and finally to bless. Walter Shurden once said, "Tell me what you remember and I will tell you who you are."

So before we can talk about a future for the BGCT, we must remember the past and the missionary foundation of this enterprise. Evangelizing Hispanics in Texas has been a cooperative effort between Anglos and Hispanics.

As early as 1839 Baptists were preparing to teach and preach to Hispanics. Josue Grijalva states that in 1861, they organized First Baptist Church of San Antonio. Among the 13 charter members was Angela Maria de Jesus Navarro Cook, daughter of the famous hero of the Alamo, Jose Antonio Navarro.

In 1883, Thomas Westrup led in organizing First Mexican Baptist Church in Laredo. In 1910, 24 Hispanic Baptist churches sent 36 messengers to San Antonio to organize the Mexican Baptist Convention of Texas (MBCT). The first president was C.D. Daniel. D. S. Barocio was the first vice-president.

In 1947, the MBCT and the BGCT organized the Valley Baptist Academy in the Rio Grande Valley with the help of Rio Grande Association.

In 1947, the San Antonio Baptist Association with the help of persons like Matias Garcia and Paul Siebenmann, organized the Mexican Baptist Bible Institute (now the Hispanic Baptist Theological School).

In 1964, the MBCT voted to unite with the BGCT by agreeing to support the Unification program adopted by both conventions.

In 1996, the MBCT voted to change its name to Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas to become more inclusive to all Hispanic groups migrating to Texas. Thus we have begun a journey that never has ended.

In reconstructing part of the background out of which our religious identity has emerged, I have been trying to reacquaint us with a few events and persons who make up our spiritual heritage.

The way we choose to deal with the past is a crucial factor of both the present and future.

Today 100,000 members make up 966 diverse Hispanic Baptist congregations. Some use Spanish only, others are bilingual and many more use English only. The HBCT annual meeting draws fifteen hundred persons while twenty-five hundred students flock each Spring to the Hispanic Youth Congress.

Forty-three Hispanic Baptist Fellowships awaken cooperation between churches and the BGCT by encouraging, motivating and helping the growing and maturing of their churches. Cooperative special missions' offerings exceed $1million.

We celebrate all accomplishments. The Lord has been good. However, the challenge remains great. We need hope, courage, vision and analysis to reach what will soon become the 8-million Hispanics in Texas.

Standing at the threshold of a new millennium while living in a hinge era, the future may be coming at us rather than us progressing toward it. We need a vision for the 21st century to reach Texas for Christ, to reach Hispanic Texans for Christ.

As we think of vision for the future of the BGCT and Hispanic Baptists, I dream of the day when the most integrated places in America will be BGCT churches. Where churches will call pastors because of their gifts and talents, regardless of ethnic background. Where deacons and church leaders will reflect the demographic makeup of Texas. Where together, Baptists will learn to appreciate the uniqueness and distinctiveness of each other.

To see the vision fulfilled, I am recommending that Texas Baptists create a vehicle that will more effectively and efficiently focus and direct the reaching, integrating and assimilating of Hispanics into BGCT churches.

This strategy speaks of a new vehicle. It speaks of a preferable change where the usual routine will not be enough. We must focus our future thinking strategically and critically.

To accomplish the vision, we must include these realities: speed of change, high performance, quality of work and globalization. The future and the vision remind us all of the realities of change. Change is the way God does His work. The vision also will require understanding, prayer, leadership development, equal partnerships and giving and sharing of resources.

I dream of the day when our children and grandchildren can bless their origins. For it is when they can bless their own origins that they can bless themselves, and more important, bless others as well. It is then, that the reaching, integrating and assimilating of Hispanics and all people into the Kingdom of God will become a reality.

Shurden said, "Tell me what you remember and I will tell you who you are."

December 1999