[1]GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (BP)–David Galvan, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida (New Life First Baptist Church), Garland, Texas, will be nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention by evangelist Rudy Hernandez of Grand Prairie, Texas.
Galvan, 47, pastor of the Garland congregation since 1981, is the third announced nominee for the SBC office. The others are retired Florida pastor J.C. Mitchell and William L. “Bill” Wagner, professor of evangelism and missions at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
Hernandez described Galvan as “a man of integrity, a man of dignity, a man of the Word … a man with evangelism running through his veins … a loyal Southern Baptist, true to the inerrant Word of God.”
Galvan “is a model pastor after whom many model their ministry,” Hernandez said. “He has taken a struggling congregation and led it to be one of the strongest in the SBC among ethnics.” Hernandez said the Garland congregation now has a 10- member staff, more than 20 weekly home Bible study groups, a commitment to giving 10 percent of its offerings to missions and hands-on involvement of church members in home and foreign missions projects.
Galvan “is a man of prayer and in all his ministry reminds us constantly that it is not he, but God, who deserves the credit,” Hernandez said.
“David has embraced the ‘Covenant for a New Century’ with heart and soul,” Hernandez added, referring to the SBC restructuring, “and will be invaluable in fleshing out” the new SBC structure among ethnics.
Prior to his Garland pastorate, Galvan was pastor of El Buen Pastor, a mission of First Baptist Church, Dallas. Galvan was president of the Dallas Baptist Association’s Pastors’ Conference in 1995. He was the 1988-89 president of the Mexican Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference and Brotherhood director for the Dallas Hispanic Fellowship, 1981-83.
Galvan earned a master of ministry degree from Criswell College in 1980 and a bachelor’s degree from Pan American University in 1973. He and his wife, Elvia, have four children.
The SBC annual meeting will be June 17-19 at the Dallas Convention Center.