The newly elected president of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) offered three words of advice to Baptists around the world. “Prayer is my first advice,” said South Korean pastor and broadcaster Billy Kim. “Prayer is my second suggestion. And prayer is my third suggestion.”
Kim, 64, is pastor of Central Baptist Church, Suwon, South Korea. He was elected Jan. 8 to a five-year presidential term, which begins in July, by delegates to the 18th Baptist World Congress in Melboune, Australia.
Denton Lotz, general secretary of the BWA, told reporters that Kim gets up at 4 a.m. every day to participate in a 5 a.m. prayer meeting.
Kim, who has been pastor of the 13,000-member Suwon church 40 years, said he wishes he had learned about the centrality of prayer earlier in his ministry.
Other priorities cited by the new BWA president included global evangelization, concern for individuals in problem areas around the world and help for underdeveloped nations.
“The Coca-Cola Company has a goal and motto that it wants six billion people to taste its soft drink,” Kim said at a news conference after his election to succeed Nilson Fanini of Brazil.
“We Baptists have Living Water we can offer to the world’s people, and I want the entire world to taste that Living Water,” Kim said.
Kim asked Baptists to pray about the division between North and South Korea. With people fleeing North Korea into China, Kim said he looks forward to ongoing BWA work to help with needs in North Korea through channels developed by Hungarian Baptists.
Besides his 40-year pastorate at the Suwon church, Kim is president of the Far East Broadcasting Company-Korea, director of Christian Service, Inc., Korea, chaplain of the Korean National Police. He is also founder of Suwon Central Christian Academy and Capital Bible College and Seminary in Korea and formerly was director of Youth for Christ, Korea, a BWA vice president and president of the Asian Baptist Federation.
In 1993, Kim translated for Billy Graham in a crusade in which more than 1.1 million people attended a single service. (ABP)
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