Baptism at Crystal Cathedral Is Highlight of 2009 Hispanic Outreach
Members of Hispanic Adventist churches in Orange County ended the month of November having welcomed 241 people into their congregations by baptism and profession of faith during the previous six months.
This brought them well within sight of their goal of 300 new members by Dec. 31, according to Alberto Ingleton, vice president of Southeastern California Conference for Hispanic ministries. More baptisms were scheduled for December, said Ingleton, who was confident that the goal of 300 would be reached.
The largest baptismal service during the past summer and fall was conducted Oct. 17 at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Seventy-three new members were baptized outdoors in large swimming pools on that sunny Sabbath afternoon, the massive glass structure towering behind them.
The Crystal Cathedral baptism concluded a weeklong series of meetings by Frank Gonzalez, speaker/director of La Voz de la Esperanza.
More than 1,000 people attended the meetings every night, experiencing the Holy Spirit's work through Gonzalez's series on the eternal gospel of Jesus.
Planning for that event, and the baptismal services that followed during the remainder of October and November, began about 18 months earlier, according to Caleb Jara, pastor of the Anaheim Spanish church and director of El Instituto de Discipulado (Institute of Discipleship) in Orange County.
"Bringing disciples to the kingdom of God is our mission," Jara said. "I was encouraged and very excited that for the first time 100 percent of our Spanish churches in Orange County participated."
By the beginning of the year, evangelistic plans for 2009 had been made by Ingleton; Yohalmo Saravia, Southeastern's Hispanic evangelist; and the Orange County pastors.
Sabbath afternoon, Jan. 10, the pastors gathered the members of their congregations together at the Crystal Cathedral's arboretum for seminars on spirituality, small groups and how to share their faith. Gonzales met with them to inspire, train and challenge them.
Each church then began small group ministry in its part of the county in preparation for the evangelistic meetings that would be conducted in the fall.
Morena Zavala, leader of one of those groups, called the Crystal Cathedral baptism the "coronation" of the year of evangelistic work.
"As a member, host and leader of small group Bible study, I felt so blessed to see four of the Bible students of my group baptized, and another student became a member of my church by profession of faith," she said.
The group leaders were the key to the success of this venture, according to Jara. One of the main tools used in the groups was the Descubra-El Destino Feliz (Discover the Happy Destiny) DVD produced by La Voz de la Esperanza.
By Oct. 12, when Gonzales began his Crystal Cathedral series, thousands of Adventist members were prepared to attend and to bring with them the nonmembers with whom they had been studying. About 6,500 people in all attended the meetings, 1,500 of whom were nonmembers.
Among them was Ana Moreno, who had been attending the Adventist church in Anaheim for some time but had never joined it.
"I finished a series of Bible studies but did not want to be baptized, because I thought I had to be perfect before taking this step," she said. "During the week at the cathedral, I understood that salvation is a gift from God, and that I needed to accept Jesus as my personal Savior, so I got baptized."
The new members were not raised from the baptismal water to negotiate the challenges of their new faith alone. Every new disciple has been assigned a padrino spiritual, a spiritual guide and adviser. Sabbath school lessons and the La Fe de Jesus (Faith of Jesus) Bible study series will be provided to help them maintain their spiritual growth.
Most important, the new disciples are being encouraged to share their walk with Jesus with their relatives and friends to expand the kingdom of God even further.
By Jocelyn Fay with contributions by Alberto Ingleton and Nicole Jara.