Looking at the 30 or so children all decked out in their clean, white jumpers with sky-blue sashes tied around their waists, no one would have suspected that they live on the edges of the largest garbage dump in Mexico City. The children formed a choir, and their singing was the highlight of a celebration hosted by the Baptist churches of Mexico City on the closing night of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) General Council, which met July 3–8 in that city.
The choir was sponsored by Horeb Baptist Church whose pastor, Gilberto Gutierrez, also serves as president of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico. The church sponsors a five-day-a-week feeding program for 150 children whose parents eke out a living by rummaging through the dump searching for items that can be reused. Gutierrez told the more than 400 Baptist leaders from around the world that the church has a waiting list of another 150 children who need proper nourishment but for whom resources are not present.
Learning about what God is doing through Baptists around the world is one of the greatest blessings provided by the BWA, and this year was no exception. Gutierrez shared how Mexican Baptists reach out to the 56 different language groups within that nation. He said 20 language groups are still considered “unreached” but Mexican Baptists now have work among 10 of the groups.
During the week, members also heard about the plight of evangelical Christians in the Mexican state of Chiapas in the southern part of the country. Many evangelical Christians come from the indigenous people groups of the area, according to Baptist leader Jamie Garcia Merino. For three generations, they have been persecuted because they refuse to be a part of the dominant religious group. More than 30,000 have been murdered or simply disappeared.
Today, Merino reported, most indigenous Christians in Chiapas live in misery, caught between the ongoing military struggle between the Mexican army and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Merino, who runs a Bible school to train area pastors, said he regularly reminds his students that to be faithful to the gospel will mean physical persecution and that some of them will be martyred.
Chiapas is not the only place where Baptists live under repression. A Burmese Baptist leader reported that the military regime of his nation, now called Myanmar, continues to violate basic religious freedoms. Yet great things are happening in the country for Baptists. Three years ago, he reported, there were 600,000 baptized believers. Today, there are 1.1 million baptized believers with another 400,000 believers not yet baptized, bringing the total Baptist community to 1.5 million. Baptists comprise half of the nation’s 3 million Christians, or about 6 percent of the population.
Burmese Baptists operate out of 18 regional conventions, reflecting the various language groups in the country. They also cooperate with other Christian groups to train leaders and pastors.
Bonny Resu, regional secretary for the Asian Baptist Federation, told about the 5,000 cross-cultural missionaries supported by Asian Baptists today. Many of these missionaries work in areas physically hostile to the message of Jesus Christ.
Solomon Ishola, general secretary of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, told of that convention’s efforts to start 1,000 churches a year for five years. Nigeria hosts the largest Baptist convention in Africa with more than 2.1 million members in more than 7,000 churches.
The nearly 1 million-member Baptist Convention of Brazil shared about its home missions efforts through starting, on average, one church per week. Brazilian Baptists also support more than 500 missionaries serving outside Brazil.
Outgoing BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz told participants that concerns about a lack of personal morality in some Western conventions and unions had caused two eastern European conventions to withdraw from the BWA. He specifically cited issues such as abortion, pornography, adultery and homosexual behavior as issues on which the church must give clear answers.
At the same time, the church must speak out on public issues of morality such as war, racism, corruption and poverty, Lotz declared.
General Council members stood for personal morality in their resolution on the AIDS crisis. The resolution urged conventions, unions and churches “to promote sexual abstinence outside of marriage and faithfulness within marriage.” At the same time, the resolution encouraged churches to become “safe places” where AIDS victims “can receive loving care, support and encouragement without fear of isolation.”
Through other resolutions, BWA members called for religious freedom in Myanmar, an end to the military hostility in Sudan and an end to violence against women and children.
In its first meeting of its second century, BWA members reaffirmed their primary reason to exist — to encourage one another in evangelism and missions. An adopted resolution said, “At the beginning of a new century,” the members “reaffirmed … our commitment to proclaim and demonstrate, through word and deed, our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.” It noted, “Our Christian faith needs to be expressed and lived out in societies throughout the world” and Christians can rejoice that “the good news of Jesus Christ transcends and enhances all cultures.”
Not all the concerns of African Baptists are like the concerns of Australian Baptists. And not all the concerns of Australian Baptists are like those of Alabama Baptists. But it was a privilege to learn from Baptists from both continents and from others during the recent General Council meeting. And it was a time of rejoicing to know that Jesus Christ reigns as Lord and Savior in the lives of Baptists around the world, just as He does in the lives of Baptists in Alabama. The BWA is a wonderful illustration that as Baptist Christians, we really are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
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