Neville Callam will make history for Baptists around the world if elected general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).
If elected in July, the 55-year-old Jamaican pastor will be the first nonwhite chief executive of the group, which represents approximately 110 million Baptists in national and regional bodies across the planet. He would also be the first general secretary in the group’s 101-year history to hail from somewhere other than the United States or Europe.
Callam, who would succeed Denton Lotz, the organization’s retiring general secretary, was announced as the nominee March 7 during a meeting of the BWA executive committee at the group’s Falls Church, Va., headquarters. The panel responded by giving the nominee a standing ovation and symbolically affirming the candidate.
The position will not become formal until the organization’s larger governing body, the BWA General Council, votes on Callam’s nomination during its July meeting in Accra, Ghana.
Pastor of Tarrant Baptist Church in Kingston, Jamaica, Callam has been heavily involved in BWA life for more than 20 years. He has served on BWA governing bodies and on several other committees and work groups for the organization.
Callam has served two terms as president of the Jamaica Baptist Union and has, at other times, held every other office for that denomination, including acting general secretary.
He also serves as a member of the World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission. Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, is the only other Baptist who serves on the commission.
"I have a lot of respect for Neville," George said. "He is capable, able and, being a pastor, will bring the church-life perspective to the role."
A Harvard Divinity School and University of the West Indies graduate, Callam is a specialist in Christian ethics.
He and his wife, Dulcie, have two grown children. (ABP)
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