Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinator Daniel Vestal offers churches a three-point plan for rediscovering the Great Commission – dialogical witness, suffering love and dependence on the Holy Spirit – on Friday of the We Love Missions conference at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

SAN ANTONIO – Churches can be on mission by living out the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, taking a "dialogical approach" to evangelism, acting justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with God, and responding to need cooperatively.

After a day of challenge, speakers at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-sponsored We Love Missions conference at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio focused on the practical by highlighting ways the church can be on mission.

For the second day, prominent Baptist missions leaders conducted workshops and shared in worship, including Bill Tinsley, the leader of WorldconneX; Daniel Vestal, CBF coordinator; and Samuel Chetti, executive minister of American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles.

The evening service featured Jorge Zapata, pastor of Community Baptist Church in Harlingen and director of Border Ministries for Buckner Children and Family Services; Barbara Baldridge, CBF Global Missions co-coordinator; Paul Montacute, director of Baptist World Aid; and Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas.

Special music was provided by the Trinity Baptist Church SonShine Singers, the Trinity Chorale and the highly-acclaimed bilingual praise band, True Vine.

Throughout the day, speakers shared ways of fulfilling the Great Commission.

"It is about capturing the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and living it out," Tinsley said to introduce the day’s theme. "These are completely different values than the values of the world. This is how we connect to God’s vision."

Vestal offered churches a three-point plan for rediscovering the Great Commission: dialogical witness, suffering love and dependence on the Holy Spirit.

"We’re going to fulfill the Great Commission only when we take what I call a ‘dialogical’ approach, when it is an open dialogue," Vestal said. "That means listening to the convictions of others while remaining firm in our belief in and commitment to Jesus Christ. Then we let the Holy Spirit change hearts."

Vestal explained suffering love as a response to personal pain as well as the pain of the world. And recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit removes the burden and the bragging about results from the church, he said.

"I believe we in Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, in the world Baptist witness, are at the point in where we may be coming upon a time of harvest," Vestal said. "Not because we’re doing it, but because the Spirit is doing it."

In the evening service, Zapata continued the theme by sharing stories of God’s work in the colonias of the Rio Grande River Valley. A colonia is an unincorporated community characterized by poverty and the lack of basic services such as electricity and sewer.

"Since I took over this ministry working in the colonias, God has changed my life," Zapata said. "God is moving in the colonias. There is a revival there."

Last year, 43 church groups came to the Valley to work with Buckner, and so far this year, 88 groups have been to the Valley bringing more than 1,600 volunteers. During the course of Zapata’s work with Buckner in the past two years, more than 60 homes have been repaired.

"At every house that we have repaired, the entire family has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior," Zapata said. "God is moving out there. God has been transforming lives in those places."

The final two speakers of the day stressed the personal response within the church and the collaborative response through organizations.

CBF Global Missions Co-coordinator Barbara Baldridge leads a workshop on CBF vision and strategy for global missions on Friday of the We Love Missions conference at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

"When I come to a conference, I have to sift through all that I have seen and heard," Baldridge said. "I’m a very practical person, and I think about what is it I can do."

To find the proper response, Baldridge said churches need look no furthe