RICHMOND, Va. (BP) — The Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) expanding diversity became a passion for Minh Ha Nguyen, leading to his work in establishing and updating a cutting edge portal and resource that has greatly influenced the SBC’s work to share the gospel among its ethnically diverse community.
Nguyen, 57, drowned at a North Carolina beach July 15. Coworkers learned of the tragedy from news reports and a message from International Mission Board (IMB) President Paul Chitwood, who called Nguyen “a faithful and gifted team member.”
His influence grew as he used his role as director of gift care and data stewardship for the International Mission Board’s Ministry Advancement Team to provide statistics and research that influenced the way Southern Baptists view ethnic growth and biblical generosity. At the SBC annual meeting last month, Nguyen presented an update to BaptistResearch.com as president of the Ethnic Research Network’s Core Team.
“Minh Ha was an incredibly gifted colleague who served for 24 years in key roles with the IMB to support our work and workers around the world,” Chitwood said in a statement to Baptist Press. “He helped shape our stewardship strategies and our efforts to evangelize the largest cities in the world, but also served our SBC family in ethnic ministry in the U.S. We rejoice in his eternal reward even as we grieve with his family, with hope.”
Victor Chayasirisobhon, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Anaheim, Calif., and interim director for the SBC Asian Collective, recalled in an email Nguyen’s “amazing smile, a kind heart, a body of research helping churches and specifically Asian churches that is second to none.”
“There will be no replacing him,” Chayasirisobhon wrote. “Let us pray for his family, his friends, and his church as they navigate this sad time. Life is short, heaven is eternal, so let’s continue to serve God together until the day we are together forever.”
Nguyen was 12 years old when he met Jesus. It was in a boat designed to hold a few dozen but crammed with more than 100 refugees from the Vietnam War. They broiled under a relentless sun as the South China Sea met the horizon in all directions.
“It was unbearable,” he said in a newly-released video of his testimony. “This is the story of the life I was born to live. It is a story about struggles, survival and salvations even amid sufferings, shootings, storms and starvation.”
In Vietnam, his father was a church planter who was imprisoned and tortured for a year. Upon escaping, he arrived home after weeks of walking through dangerous jungles and minefields. The country’s turn to communism forced the family to flee.
Days at sea included a storm that forced them to throw supplies and even navigation equipment overboard to stay above the waves. While the crew on an oil platform didn’t provide safe harbor, they did give food, water and the direction for the nearest island. Nguyen’s 12,000-mile journey to the U.S. would include a refugee camp in Malaysia and Bible college in Switzerland, where he met his wife, Corrinne, before coming to the U.S.
His work has been featured in several Baptist Press articles. The 2022 unveiling of BaptistResearch.com showed how the SBC had entered a new age in diversity. The following year brought the founding of the Ethnic Research Network. Research presented at this year’s annual meeting included how nearly a quarter of Southern Baptist churches are ethnic or racially diverse, and nearly 100 languages are heard in Southern Baptist churches every Sunday. Additionally, 60% of church plants reach those of a non-Anglo heritage.
Other non-SBC work, such as through Radius Global Cities Network, illustrated Nguyen’s drive on behalf of refugees and ethnic groups. Statistics don’t relegate people to being a faceless number, he believed, but serve as proof of the gospel’s expansive nature.
“When our destination is the kingdom of God, even the wrong boat can still take us there,” he said in his video testimony. “The Lord is close to His people in exile. He is the refuge for refugees. He is the asylum for all who seek shelter and protection.
“In Christ, God is on the move. He made Himself poor so that even the poorest could follow after Him. He made Himself in migration so that refugees and asylum seekers could be on the move with Him.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — This story has been updated.)
