With praise choruses led by British Christian composer Graham Kendrick and a multinational choir singing the majestic strains of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah,” 13,000 Baptists from more than 100 nations ended their 100th anniversary meeting of Baptist World Alliance (BWA) with the same multicultural flair that characterized every session.
The group celebrated a century of togetherness July 27–31 in Birmingham, England, during the Baptist World Centenary Congress.
Returning to the land where it was formed in 1905, BWA — now an international fellowship of 32 million believers — set about the hard work of building unity in a world where, leaders admitted, religion often divides.
BWA members also clarified the group’s theological identity, discussed ways to combat global ills and recognized a shift of Christianity’s center of gravity to Africa, Asia and South America.
Changing times
A century ago when BWA first met in London, 85 percent of the world’s Baptists were in Europe and North America, said Denton Lotz, general secretary of BWA. Now 65 percent of Baptists are in the Third World, Lotz told the delegates.
“This is the new paradigm shift,” Lotz said as he asked delegates from Africa, Asia and South America to stand. The Southern Hemisphere may lack money, political freedom or clout, he said, but “they are going to re-evangelize the world.”
The Baptist World Centenary Congress, one of the largest Baptist meetings ever, was played out against the backdrop of terrorism and increased security in England. In the days leading up to the congress, London was struck by four suicide bombers and four attempted bombings in its transit system.
“We prayed that you would come, despite the bombings and the terror alerts,” said David Coffey, general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the hosts for the meeting. The high attendance despite the terror alerts was a sign of “visible solidarity” among Baptists, said Coffey, who was elected BWA president during the congress.
The 13,000 delegates were aided by almost 1,000 volunteers from the United Kingdom, making for the second largest BWA gathering ever. An earlier congress in Toronto drew 15,000.
Robert Green, a Baptist deacon from Wales, said the high attendance also sends a message to nonbelievers — Christians do not waver when evil events occur; they continue trying to follow God’s calling in their lives.
During the opening celebration July 27, participants experienced traditional music and dance from various countries. And they sang hymns, praise choruses and other musical styles representative of their diversity.
As a demonstration of their theological unity, the delegates were invited to recite together the Apostles’ Creed, a centuries-old declaration of orthodox faith used in many historic Christian traditions.
“Unity, unity, unity” was the recurrent theme of the five-day meeting, Lotz said.
“Unity is a gospel imperative, and disunity is always a major hindrance to evangelism,” said Coffey after his election as president, succeeding retired South Korean pastor Billy Kim.
“Too often, the world is more aware of what the church is against than what it is for, and this is no strategy for winning lost people to Jesus Christ,” Coffey said. “We need to be more like Jesus, to earn the reputation of being friends to sinners and to give ourselves in sacrificial service for a broken world.”
To mark their 100th anniversary, the Baptist World Alliance adopted a new identity statement (see page 7) that embraces traditional orthodox beliefs, and which BWA leaders hope will be used to clarify Baptist beliefs for other Christians and nonbelievers.
Titled “Message from the Centenary Congress,” it is the first statement of faith created by world Baptist leaders since one adopted in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1923, according to Keith Jones, who chaired a committee of Baptist theologians and scholars that formulated the statement.
The statement was adopted July 27 by the BWA’s General Council, the world fellowship’s decision-making body, and “received” by the BWA’s congress July 30 without debate.
Although the statement comes not long after the withdrawal of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which charged the world organization with liberal theology, BWA leaders said it should not be regarded as a response to allegations. “This was on the stocks long before those recent events,” Coffey said.
But Lotz, in an indirect allusion to SBC’s departure, stressed BWA must not allow others to define it. “We believe in Jesus Christ, the sole Savior sufficient for salvation,” he said. “To accuse the BWA of not believing the Bible is comparable to accusing a mother of not loving her child.”
BWA also introduced a five-year emphasis on evangelism, under the theme, Jesus Christ, Living Water, which also served as the theme for the Birmingham congress. With drama, video and preaching, the delegates considered the centrality and life-giving nature of Jesus. “As water is essential to life, so is salvation,” Kim said in a sermon July 27.
The delegates also met daily for Bible study and attended daily workshops, which focused on church-based needs like evangelism and church growth, as well as some of the most pressing global problems — health care, poverty, AIDS, human trafficking and religious persecution. Baptists seeking solutions to those problems offered advice and instruction.
For example, in Calcutta, India, approximately 6,000 women work in prostitution, often sold into slavery by a family member, one workshop leader explained. A Baptist ministry called Freeset helps prostitutes find work by offering them another business — making straw bags. “If you were to hang out with Jesus, you would have to spend time with the poor,” said New Zealand Baptist Kerry Hilton, who moved to Calcutta to help women trapped in the “human misery trade.”
During the Saturday evening celebration, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, first recipient of the BWA Human Rights Award, presented the same award to Lauran Bethell, an American Baptist missionary, for her work to aid victims of prostitution and human trafficking in eastern Europe. Bethell, who works out of the Czech Republic, began working in the area of human trafficking in Thailand before focusing her work on eastern Europe.
Henry T. Blackaby, author of “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God,” also addressed the group.
Challenging church leaders, he said, “I believe Baptists need a fresh immersion in fire. I’m watching with a great deal of anguish our efforts at evanglism.”
Blackaby reminded his listeners that church leaders bear special responsibility to repent and be cleansed of their sins. Only then, he said, will they be able to hear from God, and only after they hear can they obey immediately.
“The refiner’s fire is designed to expose all the impurities so that when God looks into the silver and gold He sees the perfect reflection of His Son.” (BWA)
Share with others: