(I am inserting this comment on 8-7-13. Since I entered this post on 7-12-13, the Texas Baptists webpage has uploaded the sermon videos. You can watch the video of my message by clicking on this link: Annual Sermon Video. If you would like to see videos of the other speakers at this meeting you can go to this webpage: Videos of speakers at the Texas Baptists Gathering. If you are interested in reading articles that report on the overall sense of The Gathering, here are a couple:
This year I have the honor of preaching the convention sermon for the annual meeting of Texas Baptists. I have been asked to speak on the topic of ethnic diversity on Sunday night (July 14). I share this with you because I need your prayer support and because I want you to know that I consider it a great privilege to do this as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, McAllen.
This year's meeting is a historic one because it is the first time the BGCT, the Hispanic Baptist Convention, the African-American Fellowship, the Vietnamese Fellowship, the Chinese Fellowship and the Western-Heritage ministry fellowship will have a joint meeting. On Sunday night the theme will be diversity. On Monday night it will be unity and on Tuesday night it will be missions. We will conclude this assembly with the celebration of the Lord's Supper.
As I did research for the assigned topic, I found out some information that I thought you might like to know. It has to do with the demographics of Texas and the diversity of our Texas Baptist Churches.
Currently in our state there is no racial or ethnic majority. In the chart below you can see that the population of Texas is 45% Anglo, 38% Hispanic, 12% Black, 4% Asian and 1% Native American/Pacific Islander.
According to Texas' demographer by the year 2040, 53% of the Texas population will be Hispanic, 32% will be Anglo, and 10% will be Black. Here's a chart that shows the projected growth from 1980 to 2040:
There are many implications of this information in regard to evangelism, missions, education, and the way we do church. If we care about the future of our churches and the future of our state, we need to be aware of these realities.
Thankfully Texas Baptists have not only been thinking about this for some time but have been proactive in the planting of churches that will reach this diverse state for Christ. According to the annual report that churches submit to the BGCT, of the 5,434 congregations affiliated with the convention:
- · 54% (2,953) are Anglo
- · 19% (1,039) Hispanic
- · 15% (822) African-American
- · 04% (238) Other
- · 04% (195) Asian
- · 03% (187) Western-Heritage
In the "other" category, 172 congregations consider themselves multi-ethnic or multi-cultural. Additionally there are 36 ethnicity and language groups included in the "Asian" and "Other" categories. They include Arabic, Brazilian, Bhutanese, Cambodian, Chinese, Cameroon, Chin, Congolese, Deaf, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Filipino, Haitian, Hmong, Native American, Iranian, Japanese, Karen, Kachin, Kenyan, Korean, Liberian, Laotian, Messianic, Nigerian, Romanian, Russian, Sudanese, Thai and Vietnamese. Did I mention these are all congregations in Texas? The ends of the world have come to our state and Texas Baptists are reaching them for Christ. We have a long way to go but we are on the right path.
You may already know that the Rio GrandeValley is 90% Hispanic with the rest of the population being Anglo, Black, Asian and other.
According to our records at Calvary, currently our congregation is very diverse. Of the approximately 1,300 members on our church roll 49.5% are Anglo, 45.2% are Hispanic, 2% are Asian and 1% is Black. That's in terms of ethnicity and membership. In terms of worship attendance and language preference, of the 940 people who attend worship on any given Sunday, 54% attend one of our English worship services and 46% attend our Spanish service. We are truly a diverse and multi-cultural church. We praise God for that. We are not in the business of targeting or preferring one ethnic or language group over another. We are about being inclusive of all people with the love of Christ because that is what reflects best the New Testament church. Ultimately, we as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "should not judge people by the color of their skin." Instead we should see the person for whom Christ died and desires to redeem.
As a multi-cultural church in the Valley, we are learning how to be effective in the midst of changing demographics. Just because you agree that we should love and accept all people does not mean that we know how best to do that. We still have much to learn. However, there are some ways in which we can be of help and encouragement to other churches in Texas.
This topic may open up a lot of conversations for you and me. I hope we get to have them. However, for now, I ask that you pray for me this weekend, pray for Calvary's effectiveness in reaching the McAllen area and for Texas Baptists as we reach a diverse state.
The plenary sessions of the annual meeting will be streamed live over the internet. Click on the following link to see the schedule and the the live feed link, in case you are interested in watching any of the sessions:
Texas Baptists Annual Meeting
(By the way, I report to you that I am making significant progress in my dissertation writing. I'm still on target to finish this summer! This month will constitute the last major preaching rotation at Calvary as I hope to submit the final chapter of my dissertation sometime in August).
(By the way, I report to you that I am making significant progress in my dissertation writing. I'm still on target to finish this summer! This month will constitute the last major preaching rotation at Calvary as I hope to submit the final chapter of my dissertation sometime in August).
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