The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated a decade of training Spanish-speaking ministers this fall by hosting Reconocidos por la Verdad (“Trusted for Truth”), a conference marking the tenth anniversary of the seminary’s Online Hispanic Program. The gathering marked a milestone for Southern: the first conference in the seminary’s history conducted entirely in Spanish, from worship through every plenary session.
Southern’s Online Hispanic Program launched in 2016 to give Spanish-speaking pastors and church leaders access to rigorous, confessional theological education without requiring them to leave their homes or ministries. A decade later, the program has grown into a channel of theological training reaching across Latin America, Spain, and Hispanic communities throughout the United States.
The idea for the conference began simply.
“The idea came up in a team meeting,” said Roberto A. Carrera C., assistant professor of biblical studies and director of the Online Hispanic Program. “One of the members said it would be good to have a conference to mark this anniversary.”
What started as a passing suggestion became a two-day event that drew far more participation than the Online Hispanic Program anticipated. The conference convened Friday evening and Saturday morning, October 28–29, with 178 attendees gathering in Heritage Hall. A smaller cohort of 18 students also took part in a dedicated conference course taught by Dr. Miguel Núñez, held in the seminary library.
Attendees traveled from across the Spanish-speaking world, including Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Colombia, along with participants from various regions of the United States.
Plenary sessions featured four respected voices in Hispanic evangelical ministry: Carrera, Núñez, Jose Mendoza, and Juan Carlos Martínez. The Hispanic Program plans to build on the momentum, with future conferences and modular course offerings both under consideration.
“Many have asked if and when we are going to do it again,” Carrera said. “They have also asked whether we can offer more conferences or modular courses.”
For Carrera, the conference reflected something central to Southern’s identity.
“The conference highlighted Southern Seminary’s commitment to the study of the Word of God and how this informs every aspect of Christian life and ministry,” he said.
By extending that commitment to a fully Spanish-speaking audience, the seminary reaffirmed that its mission to train gospel ministers knows no linguistic boundary.
“The worship and plenary sessions were all in Spanish. That milestone opened Southern’s doors in a new way to the broader Hispanic church and its leaders, signaling that Spanish-language theological education is not an afterthought at Southern, but a growing part of our mission.”
As attendees returned home to Chile, Colombia, Spain, and communities across the United States, many carried with them an expectation voiced again and again throughout the weekend: that Reconocidos por la Verdad was only the first of many gatherings still to come.