Leaders of Baptist conventions and organizations comprising more than 20 million adherents in North America explored “additional opportunities for fellowship and cooperation” in Atlanta April 10.
Former President Jimmy Carter, a lifelong Southern Baptist lay leader and Sunday School teacher, sponsored the gathering held at the Carter Center.
Bill Underwood, president-elect of Mercer University in Macon, Ga., helped recruit the participants. Representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention did not participate.
Carter noted the historic nature of the meeting, which attracted a diverse array of groups.
He urged participants to transcend their differences — including such factors as race, culture, geography and convention affiliation — and seek common purpose.
He also encouraged them to agree to cooperate and to let their shared commitments be known publicly.
Participants then engaged in a wide-ranging discussion, which lasted most of four hours and focused specifically on key issues of the conventions and organizations represented in the meeting.
Ultimately they approved a statement they called A North American Baptist Covenant, which expresses their concerns and commitments.
They affirmed their “desire to speak and work together to create an authentic and genuine prophetic Baptist voice in these complex times,” the statement noted.
They also reaffirmed their commitment to “traditional Baptist values, including sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality,” the statement said.
Participants specifically committed themselves to their “obligations as Christians to promote peace with justice, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick and marginalized, welcome the strangers among us, and promote religious liberty and respect for religious diversity.”
They agreed to hold a convocation, probably in 2007, “to celebrate these historic Baptist commitments and to explore other opportunities to work together as Christian partners.”
The Atlanta gathering met a long-standing need, Carter said in an interview afterward.
“For several years, I have had many leading Baptists express their desire to gather the diverse group we assembled,” he explained. “This happened in response to those requests.
“I was surprised and pleased at the enormous responses, which were unprecedented,” Carter noted.
Other participants in the meeting included Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; Jimmy Allen, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a founder of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA; Major Jemison, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention; William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA; and Bill Wilson, co-chair of the Mainstream Baptist Network. (ABP)
Share with others: