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IRVING, Texas ? Ruben Hernandez announced his resignation July 15 as director of missions and evangelism for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to seek “the Lord’s direction” for other ministry opportunities.
During the convention’s first four years, SBTC has supported nearly 200 new church starts, begun a youth evangelism conference that has grown to over 2,000 in attendance, conducted yearly statewide evangelism conferences with over 1,200 participants, expanded the conference into regional meetings with youth and children’s rallies, and opened U.S. and international partnerships with the SBC mission boards.
“Ruben provided invaluable ministry in the early days of the SBTC and was no doubt God’s man for the hour,” stated SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards. When Hernandez began his ministry with SBTC in the fall of 1999, he was the second full-time ministry staff member of the new convention. Hernandez previously served as a vocational evangelist for 25 years and pastored for five years.
“He is a faithful family man and a constant soul-winner,” Richards added. “It has been my privilege more than once to listen to him witness to a person on an airplane or in a restaurant and see the person pray to receive Christ. He does not just talk evangelism, he does it,” Richards continued. “Only eternity will reveal the contribution Ruben has made to the Kingdom.”
He added that the recent renaming of the annual evangelism conference as the Empower Conference provides an opportunity to expand SBTC’s evangelism ministry.
“The Empower Conference is not just another meeting denominational people ask you to support. It is an inspirational, equipping tool that will set the tone for everything we will be doing in evangelism.”
During the interim period, Richards has asked former staff member Ronnie Yarber of Athens to assist SBTC in the area of evangelism. Yarber received SBTC’s W.A. Criswell Lifetime Achievement Award for Pastoral Evangelism in 2002. “Ronnie’s heart for evangelism has been proven over a long and fruitful ministry,” Richards said.
“People and circumstances change all the time, but Jesus never changes,” Richards concluded, citing Hebrews 13:8. “Keep talking about Jesus.”
