Alcántara hopes to make impact on Hispanic churches

WACO—One of the newest professors at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary hopes to add to the diversity of voices at the Texas Baptist school and make an impact on ministry to Texas’ growing Hispanic population.

Jared Alcántara, former associate professor of homiletics and director of the Master of Arts in Ministry program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, joined the Truett Seminary faculty in July as associate professor of preaching and inaugural holder of the Paul W. Powell Endowed Chair in Preaching.

Alcántara arrived at Truett along with Scott Gibson, former director of the Center for Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, who is now professor of preaching and holder of the David E. Garland Chair of Preaching, who will direct the Ph.D. in preaching program, which Truett Seminary hopes to launch next fall.

After first hearing God’s call to pastoral ministry, which he said came while studying at Wheaton College, Alcántara served at various Baptist churches while earning his Master of Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell Seminary and completing his doctorate at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Alcántara hopes he can invest in the ministry of Texas Baptist churches by equipping preachers.

“One question that I always ask is, ‘How can I best steward the talents or the minas that have been put in my hands and multiply them in a way that honors God?’ One of the ways that I’ve answered this question has been through my teaching, my writing, through my itinerant preaching and also through my chance to mentor students who will then go out and preach or teach,” he said.

Alcántara hopes his work alongside respected colleagues such as Truett Dean Todd Still and Joel Gregory, who holds the George W. Truett Endowed Chair in Preaching and Evangelism and directs the seminary’s Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching, will lead to opportunities for him to preach in Baptist churches around Texas.

In a state with a longstanding Hispanic heritage and that receives new immigrants from Latin America every year, Alcántara anticipates teaching some English-speaking students whose first language might have been Spanish.

“I am excited to find ways to serve Latino and Latina students at Truett, as well as Latino and Latina pastors in different places,” he said.

Alcántara, who has written extensively on culturally contextual preaching, noted his next book will be released in October 2019 in English and the following spring in Spanish.

“The hope is that I’ll be publishing a preaching textbook that will serve English speaking seminarians but then also pastors in training at Latino and Latina Bible institutes or ‘seminarios’ here, and then also connecting with Latin American pastors as well,” he said.