[1]Annel Robayna named IMB’s Hispanic church mobilization strategist
By Myriah Snyder/IMB
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – The International Mission Board announces Annel Robayna as the new Hispanic church mobilization strategist, serving with the mobilization department. In the role, Robayna will work with 3,390 Hispanic congregations across the Southern Baptist Convention to mobilize pastors and church members to reach the nations with the Gospel.
“Annel Robayna serves IMB’s Revelation 7:9 vision by focusing on our mission to serve Southern Baptists,” said D. Ray Davis, manager of the IMB’s church mobilization team.
“We will further our cooperative efforts if we serve Hispanic Southern Baptist churches as they inspire and equip their members to pray, give, go and send,” Davis continued. “As we advance our relationship with Hispanic Southern Baptist leaders, we will expand the impact of their churches.”
Luis Lopez, who serves as associate vice president for Hispanic relations and mobilization for the SBC Executive Committee, added, “Annel Robayna is a gifted leader who understands the value and relevance of the Great Commission and loves the local church.”
[2]“I am happy to see him serve in this role connecting, encouraging and mobilizing our growing Hispanic churches in fulfilling the mission.”
In accepting the position, Robayna said, “I am excited to partner with the IMB and local churches in the task of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
“I believe the Great Commission is the most important task, and I am blessed by the fact that my job is anchored in the centrality of the gospel and its power to solve the greatest problem in world: lostness.”
Robayna, who is Venezuelan, grew up exposed to missions and evangelism because of his parents who were volunteer missionaries in their local church, church planters in Venezuela and sometimes translators for mission teams from the United States.
He moved to the U.S. for his education in 2003. He received his bachelor’s in church music from the University of Mobile in 2007, a Master of Arts in missiology from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2017 and a Master of Arts in music education from Anderson University in 2018.
Most recently, Robayna served as intercultural missionary for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “The Lord, through Revelation 7:9, helped me see the need to help other ethnic groups in Alabama,” Robayna said, explaining the creation of the intercultural missionary position.
In that role, he created a team of seven individuals from diverse backgrounds to help minister to the ethnic groups in Alabama. Together, that team hosted the first All Nations Youth Camp in Alabama and created a network of Hispanic youth leaders, intercultural youth leaders and intercultural pastors, as well as others.
Chicago church hosts Lottie Moon conference for Mandarin speakers
By Illinois Baptist Staff
The Chicago Golden Light Chinese Baptist Church honored the pioneering work of Southern Baptist missionary Lottie Moon with an online conference reaching more than 1,000 churches and homes worldwide. The conference in late September recognized Moon’s contribution in catalyzing missions to China.
Evan Liu, pastor of Chicago Golden Light and Asian Studies professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the conference a “missional feast for the global Chinese Christian community.”
The multi-day conference featured plenary sessions from Todd Lafferty and Hal Cunningham of the International Mission Board, Andrew Brunson, former missionary to Turkey and religious prisoner, and many Chinese Christian leaders.
Workshop sessions brought the experiences and witnesses of frontier missionaries in East Asia, Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas to Mandarin-speaking Christians in person in Chicago and Montville, N.J., as well as around the world through live streaming.
Liu also leads the Chicago China Servant Leadership Center. He has written on the need for missionaries to model Lottie Moon’s strategies on the mission field. Liu emphasized Moon’s importance to Chinese Christians, noting the stone monument built in her honor in Shandong Province that reads, “For the unending love of missionary Lottie Moon from Great America.”
Moon served in China from 1873-1912. She died from malnutrition in Kobe, Japan, while traveling back to the United States. The SBC’s annual Christmas offering for international missions is named in her honor.