Dr. Gonzalez is our guest lecturer at this year's conference. He was recently the keynote speaker for the national meeting, entitled: "New Dawn: Challenges and Opportunities,".Dr. Gonzalez, is a Christian theologian and professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Gonzalez spoke about the increasing proportion of Spanish-speaking members in the different Christian churches across the country and the expectation that Hispanics will be 50% of the population in a majority of the states in a decade. "The church that doesn't pay attention to Latinos is not concerned with its future,"
A world renowned Church Historian and Theologian
and a much sought after speaker. You may be asking yourself, "How is
the claim of World Renown validated?" Academic credentials
are an excellent place from which to begin the validation process.
Dr. Gonzalez earned his M.A. (1960) and Ph.D. (1961) from Yale. He
has taught at Emory University, Columbia Theological Seminary,
Perkins School of Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary, and
Pacific School of Religion, (see more on Vitae below).
Another important question to ask in the validation process is,
"What are his contributions in the area of writing?" He has authored
or been the editor of over sixty books and has had published about
four-hundred articles in over twenty magazine titles.
Continuing the validation questions, "are there areas beyond
academics and writing in which he has served his church or society?"
Dr. Gonzalez has served on the Task Force on World Hunger,
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.; the Task Force on Ethnic Minority
Ministries, Presbyterian Church in the U.S.; the Board of
Agricultural Missions; and the Advisory Board of the
Mexican-American Program. He has been the preacher or speaker at a
number of ecclesiastical gatherings: the Annual Conferences of the
United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian General Assembly, and the
General Synod of the Reformed Churches in America.
In short, Dr. Justo L. Gonzalez merits the claim of World Renown.
It is truly a rare opportunity and privilege to hear from an
individual who has made such significant contributions.
Some of the many books by Dr. Gonzalez.
Charles Roesel,
Senior Pastor of First Baptist, Leesburg, Florida
Born and raised in Central Florida, Charles Roesel has served as Sr. Pastor of First Baptist Leesburg since 1976. During this time, the church has been in the top 1% of the nation in evangelism and mission giving. Through his dynamic leadership, First Baptist Leesburg has risen to over 7,000 members with over 70 ministries. The church has a weekly television ministry that reaches an area of over 3,000,000 homes.
First Baptist characterizes its approach as "ministry evangelism. "It involves over fourteen hundred laity in over seventy outreach ministries. Many of the outreach ministries take place in the church's 32,000 square foot Ministry Village; many other outreach ministries are offered across the city. The church uses this Bonhoeffer quote as inspiration: To allow the hungry to remain hungry would be blasphemy against God and one's neighbors. It's for the love of Christ, which belongs as much to the hungry man as to myself, that I share my bread with the homeless. If the hungry man does not attaint to faith, then the fault falls on those who refuse him bread. To provide the hungry man with bread is to prepare the way for the coming of faith.
First Baptist baptizes 250-300 new Christians each year, averaging over 2,000 in attendance, and has grown to 7,200 members by reaching "all the people we can find that no other church seems to want." What is so amazing about this ministry is that it takes place in a city of 18,000 people.
For more information about Pr. Roesel and First Baptist see Chapter Six in Radical Outreach by George Hunter III.
