Back in the mid-nineties, I was sitting in the audience at the annual meeting of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas. The tension was rising due to misunderstanding and misinformation about the recent institutional restructuring within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). A speaker rose and criticized the SBC for doing away with several ministries.
Dr. Rudy Hernández then went to the microphone and calmly and correctly explained the restructuring, which he had been part of, bringing the temperature of the room down and ending the controversy. He was able to do so, not only because of his gentle and kind personality, but because he had earned the admiration and respect of his community through decades of faithful service.
Servant of God
Rudy was born in San Antonio, the youngest of seven children, on October 19, 1927. He was saved when he was eight years old, began preaching at thirteen, was licensed and preached his first revival at fifteen, and was ordained at nineteen. That was only a preview of a life dedicated to preaching the Gospel and serving Christ as a pastor, evangelist, and denominational leader.
He graduated from Howard Payne University and Southwestern Seminary, serving as Texas alumni president for the latter. He also held Doctor of Divinity degrees from both Howard Payne and Criswell College.
Rudy pastored churches in San Antonio, Menard, Eden, Galveston, Fort Worth, and Corpus Christi. In 1973, he started Rudy Hernández Evangelism International, eventually leading revival meetings in the United States and in over sixty countries. He spoke often on radio and TV programs in the U.S. and abroad. He appeared regularly on Spanish television and in numerous TV Crusade specials. Because he was bilingual, he was able to serve as translator for Billy Graham, Paul Yonggi Cho, W.A. Criswell, R.G. Lee, and many others. Furthermore, he wrote articles for Baptist periodicals and tracts, booklets, and several books on evangelism in both English and Spanish.
On the state level, Dr. Hernández served the Baptist General Convention of Texas as the first Hispanic Evangelism leader and as a second vice president. In 1991, Baylor University honored him for fifty years of ministry by establishing a scholarship program for Hispanic students.
He was instrumental in the founding of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC), serving as its second president during the early years of explosive growth. He also served as a special assistant to the Executive Director and as the strategist for Hispanic Ministries, founding what became the SBTC’s Hispanic Initiative.
It was during this time that I got to know Dr. Hernández personally.
Friend of Many
I had just started with the SBTC as the Ethnic Church Planting Strategist, and was able to work alongside Dr. Hernández during Hispanic gatherings and events. His godliness, his gentle manner, and his love for people were inspiring examples. And he knew everybody.
He knew and cared so much for so many people that it occasionally got in his way. I remember one of the convention’s early Hispanic annual meeting gatherings when Rudy was leading the evening worship service. He had put a good number of people on the program to bring greetings, sing, give a testimony, read Scripture, pray, or simply give a few words. As if the program were not long enough, Rudy then spent five to ten minutes introducing each one of his longtime friends on the program, which was more time than the person he introduced was going to take! He would tell how and when they met and how they had served together. What was already a ninety-minute service reached almost three hours! But that was Dr. Hernández. He knew many people, loved them all, and just had to tell their story.
This kind man also served faithfully on the national level. He served as second vice president of the SBC, was on the SBC’s Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee, which led to the revised Baptist Faith & Message in 2000, and served on the Implementation Task Force which led to the SBC’s restructuring in the nineties. Dr. Hernández was also named to President Reagan’s National Committee for the Year of the Bible and the National Day of Prayer steering committee.
Rudy’s passion, however, was sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whether that was by preaching, writing, or one-on-one with a lost person. One of his most interesting evangelism encounters occurred when he and a fellow evangelist visited a federal correctional center near Miami. It was there that they were able to share Christ with General Manuel Noriega, the deposed president of Panama, who was awaiting trial on drug-trafficking charges. General Noriega himself testified in writing that “I received Jesus Christ as my savior the 15th of May of 1990 at 11 am in a small room, like unto a cave, in the Metropolitan Center of Dade County, Fla.” Noriega was then allowed to be baptized in a portable baptistry in the Miami Federal Court House.
Rudy Hernández, whom others referred to as “the consummate Christian gentleman,” “one of God’s choicest servants,” “one of the finest and gentlest men,” “a great statesman-evangelist,” and “a great man of God,” went to be with his Lord on January 18, 2005, after a battle with cancer. I am sure Jesus welcomed him with “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
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Baptist Press, The TEXAN, The Roanoke Times, and SBC Evangelist were consulted for this article.
