They said it was a normal day at the Baptist World Alliance office in suburban Washington, D.C. It was anything but a normal day for me. I arrived at the Falls Church, Va., office for a planning meeting in my role as chairman of the BWA’s communications committee. The first stop was the office of General Secretary Denton Lotz. He was on the telephone returning an urgent phone call from the president of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Georgia, a former Soviet republic.
The previous weekend an Orthodox priest had led an attack on the warehouse of the local Bible Society. Cameras of local television stations “happened” to be there as the priest and others set Bibles on fire, burning more than $10,000 worth of Bibles.
Walkhaz Songulaskvili wanted Lotz to talk to President Bush about the attack the next morning at the Presidential Prayer Breakfast. Lotz assured the Georgia Baptist leader of the prayers and support of Baptists around the world but told Songulaskvili that he would be unable to discuss the matter with President Bush.
Down the hall Tony Cupid was packing up for a trip to India. Cupid leads the evangelism and education division of the BWA. The catalyst for the trip was the 75th anniversary of the Boro Baptist Convention, a tribal group in the northern part of India.
While there, Cupid and 12 others traveling with him would do evangelism training conferences in several places. Baptists are the second largest Christian group in India.
At noon I was invited to join Lotz and a delegation from the Ukraine for lunch. Gregory Komendant serves as president of Ukrainian Baptists and as president of the European Baptist Federation. Traveling with him was Ukrainian Baptist General Secretary Victor Kulbich and army Lieutenant Colonel Vasyl Khimich.
As we ate our sandwiches, Komendant shared how Ukrainian Baptists started 149 churches last year. A work is not considered a church until it is organized and registered with the government. Ukrainian Baptists now have 2,600 churches and missions, he reported.
Khimich told of his work as president of the Military Christian Fellowship of Ukraine and how it has grown from one evangelical officer to more than 300 believers who serve as officers in the national armed forces.
Paul Negrut, president of Romanian Baptists and head of the Baptist seminary in Oradea, came in as we were eating. Negrut told how Romanian Baptists had grown from 600 churches in 1990 to more than 1,800 today. Last year Romanian Baptists baptized more than 10,000 new believers.
Negrut also shared that the national convention voted unanimously to reject the government’s offer to pay the salaries of all church pastors. He called the decisions “courageous” in light of the depressed economy and an average monthly salary for pastors of $80–$100.
“We were unanimous,” he said, “because we believe in separation of church and state. We know the one who pays the bills pipes the tune.”
Conversation turned to religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Lotz recounted that on Sept. 11, 2001, he was in Indonesia talking with national leaders about religions tensions in that nation. More than 1,000 Indonesian churches have been destroyed and hundreds of people killed.
By international treaty Indonesia must be a secular state. If it were not, Lotz observed, it would be a Muslim state and Christians would have few rights.
Lotz mentioned India where the leading political party seeks a Hindu state. For Baptists in India, he pointed out, a secular state is their goal. A secular state will mean Christianity has equal rights with all other religions, including Hinduism.
Negrut commented that while the Romanian government gives lip service to religious liberty, the government cannot enforce the principle at the local level. The result is a resurgence of physical attacks on Baptists by Romanian Orthodox.
After lunch, Baptist World Aid leader Paul Montacute stopped by the communications office. He was leaving for Goma in the Congo. The Baptist hospital there — the major medical center in the area — was destroyed by the recent volcano eruption. Only the maternity ward and the generator plant were left standing. Then someone stole the generator. Numerous other Baptist churches and works were also destroyed.
Area Baptists have requested more than $1 million in aid, much of it for the hospital. BWA will be able to give only a tiny fraction of that amount. Southern Baptists do not work in the area. Montacute said he hopes to encourage local Baptists by his visit and assure them they have not been forgotten by their Baptist family around the world.
That afternoon I left the BWA office with the work assignment completed. More importantly, I left with thanksgiving for the privilege of listening and learning from Baptist leaders as they shared what God is about in their respective nations. I had witnessed firsthand the role the Baptist World Alliance fulfills in Baptist life, especially in the places where Baptists are a minority faith.
The Baptist World Alliance describes itself as “a home for every Baptist.” That day I had seen how that slogan is a reality. The Baptist World Alliance deserves and needs the prayers and support of Alabama Baptists.
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