The Central States Conference is pleased to announce a new addition to the Hispanic pastoral team. Pastor Anthony Galán is gifted with a vibrant spirit and a deep desire to serve the Lord with all his might. He hit the ground running his first Sabbath when I had the privilege of introducing him at the Columbus Spanish Church in Columbus, Nebraska.
Galán was born into a devoted Seventh-day Adventist home in Manhattan, New York and spent part of his childhood in the Dominican Republic. He gave his life to the Lord at a very early age and was baptized in 1997. That same year when he was asked to preach for a youth Sabbath he felt the Lord’s call to pastoral ministry.
He continued to be a sought-out speaker due to his natural ability to communicate the gospel to his peers. I personally can attest to such claims, after listening to the sermon he preached in Columbus. I was moved by his genuine, modest and thought-provoking message. He attributes his pastoral development to the different roles in which he has served in past churches, including Religious Liberty director, Youth Ministry director, Family Life director and Education director.
Galán attended Universidad Adventista de las Antillas in Puerto Rico, finishing his bachelor’s in theology in 2011. During this time at Las Antillas, he worked in different school ministries and developed a deeper sense of people needing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Galán also had the opportunity to work in the school’s media department.
Upon leaving Las Antillas he moved back to the States to enroll in school once again, and obtained his master’s in pastoral counseling from Liberty University in Virginia.
Galán is grateful that the Lord gave him the opportunity while living in Massachusetts to found a new ministry called Adventista Uni2 en la Misión (Adventists United in Mission) in which he served as president. This ministry focused on preaching the gospel, creating disciples and serving the community. Through this ministry Galán and his team were able to organize civil marches that led to many weeks of prayer and training seminars for area churches. This ministry promoted unity, evangelism and discipleship among members and also allowed him to broadcast radio sermons for over a year.
Between 2011 and 2014 he dedicated himself to preaching and presenting workshops around Massachusetts and New Hampshire until he received the invitation from the Central States Conference to serve as an associate pastor, assisting Pastor Pedro Vargas in his five-church district and focusing mainly on Columbus, Nebraska and Sioux City, Iowa.
Pastor Galán has seen the hand of the Lord leading him to Central States Conference and feels blessed to be part of such a family. Yet, he says his greatest blessings are his wife, Paola, to whom he has been married for seven years, and their two beautiful daughters, Alicia Paola (5) and Ana Paula (2).
This article is also being published in the May 2015 print edition of OUTLOOK. It was written by Roberto M. Coronado, director of Multicultural Ministries for the Central States Conference and pastor of the West Aurora and LifeHouse churches in Colorado.
