DALLAS (BP) — The National Hispanic Baptist Network (NHBN) has elevated its executive director, Bruno Molina, from a part-time role to a new full-time role to oversee the organization’s diverse offering of support to Hispanic churches and leaders across the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

“I’m thrilled that, after two years of serving in this role on a part-time volunteer basis, I can focus full-time on reaching the Hispanic community and through them realizing our vision ‘that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God (1 Kings 8:60)’,” said Molina as he embarks his new role.

“I’m so glad that the NHBN will now have Dr. Bruno Molina serving as executive director on a full-time basis. He not only had the vision of what NHBN can and will become, but his life-long service to Hispanic Baptists will serve him well as he serves Hispanic Baptists all across the United States,” said Jesse Rincones, the chairman of the NHBN’s Board of Directors. Rincones is also the executive director of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas (Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas), and the pastor of Alliance Church in Lubbock, Texas.

“The work of the National Hispanic Baptist Network is needed now more than ever. The 3,400 Hispanic churches in the SBC need a network like this at the national level. It’s exciting to see how God is already working to bring unity, collaboration, and culturally contextualized resources and experiences that is so needed in our churches,” added Rincones.

“I’m grateful to God for a grant from the Lilly Foundation, in collaboration with the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, that has made my full-time service possible, along with our Communications Coordinator, David Inestroza, Hispanic Consultant for the Alabama Baptist Convention,” said Molina.

Molina will oversee the NHBN’s daily operations. This includes the NHBN’s 11 current ministry teams: prayer, evangelism, discipleship, missions mobilization, emerging leaders, Revitalization, finance, education, women’s ministry, pastoral care and church planting. 

He served bi-vocationally with the Navigators ministry, and for the last 16 years Molina has been the language & interfaith evangelism associate for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) partnering with churches by encouraging, equipping and resourcing them to evangelize the people of over 300 language groups and many faiths in the state of Texas.

Besides being a former pastor, church planter and human resources manager, he is an adjunct professor of apologetics, theology and world religions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). He also teaches at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS), taught at Louisiana Baptist University, the Baptist Seminary in Havana Cuba and Baptist Seminary in Nogales, Mexico.

Molina earned his bachelor’s degree from New York University in International Relations & Spanish, and both his Master of Arts in Theology and Ph.D. in World Christian Studies from SWBTS.

The NHBN also has Dr. Bob Sena as their vice chairman of the board of directors. Sena is the director of the Hispanic programs at Midwestern Baptist Seminary. Pastor Eloy Rodriguez serves as president of the NHBN, Pastor Verning Suarez is the vice president, Richard Aguilar, the president of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico and is the Chief Financial Officer; Diana Puente, a pastor’s wife, is the secretary, and Emanuel Roque, the Hispanic multicultural catalyst for the Florida Baptist Convention oversees the NHBN’s state representatives.

“Hispanic Southern Baptists make up a mission force of bilingual and transcultural missionaries that are poised to make a significant kingdom impact. United for His glory, we exist to connect on mission, contribute resources and celebrate what God is doing among us in collaboration with the body of Christ,” said Molina.

For more information about the NHBN, visit their website at rednbh.org.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Clara Molina is a member of the National Hispanic Baptist Network.)