Warning of a rise in “extreme secularism” around the world, the president of the Baptist World Alliance encouraged Baptists to take seriously the discipling of new believers.
“We have many churches that have many members, but they don’t have disciples,” Tomás Mackey, from Argentina, told attendees at the BWA Annual Gathering, held at Samford University in Birmingham, July 10–15.
Extreme secularism, he declared, is promoting a radically different worldview than Christianity by advancing concepts and actions that infringe on religious liberty. The world’s universities, Mackey added, are not teaching students morality. Further, children in schools are being educated with “secular content.”
“[Churches] can be full of members that are not disciples,” he asserted. “Can you perceive the difference between a member and a disciple? … One hour of very good Bible study a week is very important but not enough — not enough.”
Baptists “need to produce better programs to train the disciples. That is a very big challenge,” Mackey said.
Equipping church members
He urged churches to equip their members to have “intelligent” conversations on matters of faith.
A secular world, he noted, needs Baptists to be “salt and light, all the days of the week, all the months of the year … to create a new way of thinking, for society, in our world where we live.”
This was the first in-person Annual Gathering as president for Mackey, who was installed in 2020 and will continue his five-year term through 2025.
He noted a meeting he had this year alongside other BWA officials with Russian Christians and government leaders. The 90-minute meeting took place in Russia at the invitation of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.
Mackey said he and other BWA members urged government leaders to end the war with Ukraine.
Aid and prayers
“We were able to … raise the need for the immediate cessation of the war. And we were very clear on that,” Mackey related. “And [also] the creation of humanitarian corridors and respect for religious freedom with a special emphasis on the occupied territory of Ukraine.
“And we were able to pray with them for a just peace and reconciliation.”
One of the government leaders told Mackey and others, “We do not often pray in this office.”
“That was a very moving moment,” Mackey recalled. “I believe that the Lord can do miracles.”
BWA members also met with Russian Orthodox leaders and discussed “ways in which the church should be a bridge-builder,” Mackey said.
“We pray for peace and for reconciliation.”
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