By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – For the past 13 years, Carlos Schmidt has fulfilled the Great Commission to Hispanics across the state.
He has seen the number of Hispanic-speaking churches grow from 25-55 and encouraged them to continue reaching their communities for Jesus.
Now, Schmidt is set to retire, March 31, as a church planting strategist for Louisiana Baptists. However, he will continue to pursue his passion for reaching the lost with El Renuevo, Lafayette, having served as pastor of the church since 2019.
CALLED
Born in the country of Colombia, Schmidt’s first exposure to life in Louisiana began when he was an exchange student with a Catholic family in Crowley. Though he did not know Christ at the time, he met his wife, Gwen, while living there.
The two married and moved back to Colombia, where they lived until they decided to return to Louisiana in 1980. After returning to Louisiana, they experienced marital problems, which led Gwen to find peace via her fellowship with members of First Baptist Church, Rayne.
Meanwhile, Schmidt was working as a helicopter mechanic with PHI Aviation in Lafayette. He also took a part-time job as a financial management and insurance planner with an agency in Rayne, where godly co-workers began encouraging him to find hope in Christ. Curious about Jesus, Schmidt began to evaluate his life and realized he was spiritually dead.
Two months later, in 1986, Schmidt and his wife both found Christ and reconciled their marriage.
The couple continued serving together at FBC Rayne and soon Schmidt felt led to pursue a call to ministry.
“I was reading Ezekiel 37 about preaching to the dry bones, and I just couldn’t get that passage out of my mind,” he said. “I asked my pastor, ‘What’s going on?’ and he said, ‘Maybe God is calling you to preach.’”
After preaching for the next year for various churches, Schmidt and his wife moved to Memphis, Tenn., where he attended Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.
In the ensuing years, Schmidt served the Lord in various capacities including Hispanic church planter with Mississippi County, Arkansas, and Hudson Baptist Association, Schenectady, New York.
ROOTED
In 2013, Schmidt accepted the call to become a Louisiana Baptist church planting strategist and helped lead tremendous growth in Hispanic church plants.
He never imagined that God would use him to reach that demographic, which has continued to grow in population.
“I never really sought to do convention or associational work,” Schmidt said. “I realized that by doing so, ministry would be multiplied in ways that I could never imagine than if I just was a pastor or just the church planter. And that just opened my eyes to the cooperative work we can do together, working together for a common goal of reaching Louisiana.”
During his time as a church planting strategist, Schmidt has seen Hispanic church plants grow, taken multiple mission trips to Indonesia and worked with Send Network to start Send Network Espanol, where he helped start Hispanic church plants around the nation.
NEXT STEPS
Schmidt said he has enjoyed his time as a member of the state mission services team, but the time has come for him to be the fulltime pastor of his church. In the last seven years, El Renuevo has grown from 40 to 110 in Sunday morning worship attendance and the growing congregation needs more of his attention. On April 19, El Renuevo will celebrate their 12th anniversary and constitute as a church after being a mission of First Baptist Church, Lafayette.
“We’re making disciples, we’re developing leaders, and people are just sharing the Gospel,” he said. “People continue to come, we preach the Word, we pray for people, we love people, and God is adding to the church those who are being saved. This has been one of the most solid plants that we’ve planted, and so it’s been a real joy to be part of that.”
WORDS OF GRATITUDE
“Carlos Schmidt is a Louisiana Baptist treasure,” Louisiana Baptist Executive Director Steve Horn said. “He has built fantastic relationships with our Hispanic pastors and churches. He has served us all in partnership missions, focusing on churches going on mission trips.
“I know that even in retirement from LBC work, Carlos will continue to pursue the lost in Louisiana and beyond,” he continued. “He is a faithful brother in Christ.”
Louisiana Baptist Missions and Ministry Team Director James Jenkins said Schmidt’s legacy in Hispanic work will be felt for many years to come.
“Carlos has been an exemplary strategist,” he said. “In the last 10 years, our Convention has doubled the number of Hispanic churches due to his leadership in both planting and developing the same. In addition, he has worked statewide to plant language missions reaching Asians and other non-Anglo people groups. We will miss his leadership.”
Louisiana Send Network Director Lane Corley said he is grateful for Schmidt’s heart for furthering the Gospel among Hispanics in the state.
“The fastest-growing demographic population in Louisiana since 2010 has been the Hispanic population,” Corley said. “Carlos has been the right leader at the right time to help Louisiana Baptists position ourselves to reach and minister to this growing community.
“He has been a champion for our Every People Group Strategy, helping start not only Hispanic congregations, but also Asian and Anglo congregations across Louisiana,” he added. “I’m grateful for the privilege of serving alongside him over the past 13 years and for the lasting impact his leadership will continue to have on reaching every people group in Louisiana.”
