{"id":66389,"date":"2025-08-12T13:23:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T17:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=50447"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:25:49","slug":"hispanic-baptist-churches-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/hispanic-baptist-churches-miami\/","title":{"rendered":"Hispanic Baptist churches unite in Miami to advance the gospel through unity and mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MIAMI\u2014 Nearly 500 pastors, leaders and members from Hispanic Baptist churches across Florida gathered at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goelevatechurch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Elevate Church<\/a> in Miami Lakes on Aug. 2 for Confraternidad 2025: Unidos en Cristo para Impactar Nuestro Mundo (United in Christ to Reach Our World). The statewide event served as a powerful reminder that while churches may differ in size, language and style, they are one in Christ, called to fulfill one mission\u2014advancing the gospel together.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The day began with vibrant worship in both <a href=\"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/espanol\/\">Spanish<\/a> and English, declaring the freedom found in Christ and the hope of the gospel. Pastor Luis Egipciaco, host pastor of Elevate Church, welcomed attendees to his home church with heartfelt gratitude and encouraged them to feel at home, emphasizing that Elevate exists to serve others in love.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout the event, speakers challenged and inspired attendees to pursue unity, service and evangelism as expressions of gospel faithfulness. Eloy Rodr\u00edguez, pastor of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlewild.org\/idlewild-en-espanol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Idlewild Espanol<\/a> in Lutz, reminded the group that evangelism is not optional for the believer but a daily calling rooted in intentionality. \u201cThe mission of God is not just for special trips,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lifestyle. And we must stop living as if we are on vacation from the Great Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elevate\u2019s Spanish language pastor H\u00e9ctor Torres shared how simple acts of compassion from his church transformed lives in their Miami community, including saving one woman from suicide. His challenge was clear: \u201cWhat if our Hispanic churches stopped working as isolated islands and started serving together as one body? What could God do through us?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rick Martinez, associational mission strategist of <a href=\"https:\/\/mbachurches.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Miami Baptist Association<\/a>, extended an invitation to churches statewide to participate in the Feb. 6-7, 2026, Serve Tour Miami, a large-scale outreach effort in collaboration with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sendrelief.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Send Relief<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/namb.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">North American Mission Board<\/a>. The initiative will unite churches across languages and cultures to serve under-resourced schools, bless bi-vocational pastors and meet tangible needs across the city\u2014all for the glory of Christ.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Noel Morera, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibnorthside.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Northside Baptist Church<\/a> in Hialeah, delivered a passionate message on including and discipling the next generation, emphasizing the centrality of preaching the Word. \u201cPrograms and entertainment are secondary,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat this generation needs most is to hear and know the Word of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The program also included a moving testimony from Ang\u00e9lica Berm\u00fadez, a summer volunteer with Send Relief, who shared how serving in Puerto Rico changed her life. \u201cThe mission isn\u2019t about the location,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about how we live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The day concluded with a corporate call to prayer, where attendees joined hands and lifted their voices in unity, asking God to break down barriers, raise up workers for the harvest, and make His name known from Pensacola to Key West\u2014and beyond.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cUnidos en Cristo para impactar nuestro mundo\u201d wasn\u2019t just a theme; it was a rallying cry. And as churches left the gathering, they did so with renewed vision and a shared commitment to live out that calling\u2014together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly 500 pastors, leaders and members from Hispanic Baptist churches across Florida gathered at Elevate Church in Miami Lakes on Aug. 2 for Confraternidad 2025: Unidos en Cristo para Impactar Nuestro Mundo (United in Christ to Reach Our World)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":66422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18,22,23,24,25],"tags":[980,2818,128,2819],"class_list":["post-66389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-espanol","category-multicultural","category-providing","category-sharing","category-region-southeast","category-stories","tag-angelica-bermudez","tag-confraternidad-estatal-hispana","tag-elevate-church","tag-enmanuel-roque"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69448,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66389\/revisions\/69448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}