BWA leaders focus on diversity, justice, development

[Avnish Jolly]

BWA leaders focus on diversity, justice, development
http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11491&Itemid=53

By Robert Dilday
Published: August 06, 2010

HONOLULU (ABP) -- The Baptist World Alliance’s first global congress
since its 2005 centennial and last year’s 400th anniversary of the
beginning of the Baptist movement revealed an ever-more-diverse global
fellowship poised to tackle injustice and poverty in some of the
planet’s most neglected regions, BWA leaders said.

Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam (foreground)
and BWA president John Upton speak during a press conference at the
20th Baptist World Congress meeting in Honolulu. (BWA photo)
The more than 4,000 delegates from about 105 nations who gathered in
Honolulu July 28-Aug. 1 for the 20th Baptist World Congress exhibited
a rich diversity -- a sharp contrast to the group of mainly white male
Americans, Canadians and Britons who organized the BWA in 1905 in
London.

Virginia Baptist leader John Upton’s election to a five-year term as
president reflects in part the continuing strength and commitment of
North American and Western European Baptists to the global
organization. But the every-five-year Congress also featured the first
non-white tapped to fill the BWA’s top executive position -- Jamaican
Neville Callam, who was elected general secretary in 2007. Callam is
also the first person to hold the position who hails from neither the
United States nor Western Europe.

“Some of us who have been speaking for so long need to be quiet and do
some listening,” Upton said at a press conference following his
election to the volunteer presidential post. “I’m speaking as a North
American now. The challenge is to listen more than we speak.... If we
listen to each other, we’ll have wiser words to say to each other.”

Callam voiced a hope that the BWA -- whose 220 member unions represent
almost 40 million baptized believers -- will “become a space where all
Baptists across the world may meet and hold hands ... as children of
God.”

New Baptist World Alliance president John Upton speaks during the 20th
Baptist World Congress meeting in Honolulu. (BWA photo)
With the celebration of the BWA’s centennial at the 2005 Congress in
Birmingham, England, behind them, many BWA leaders said they sensed
this year’s congress represented the beginning of a new era for -- and
perhaps a maturing of -- the global fellowship.

How BWA’s future will look, leaders of the group said, will be shaped
by three trends in its ministry.

Increasing cultural and ethnic diversity

While BWA leaders universally affirm the organization’s lively
heterogeneity, some expect a degree of tension as Baptists from the
developing world take on more leadership roles in proportion to their
growing numbers.

About half of the keynote speakers at the recent congress were from
India, South Africa, Argentina and Jamaica. The BWA’s nine senior
employed staff members -- though headquartered in the United States --
include two Jamaicans, two Brazilians and a Liberian. And the next
Baptist World Congress, in 2015, will be held in Durban, South Africa
-- the first congress on the African continent and only the fifth held
outside North America or Western Europe.

“The BWA is moving into an era of even deeper diversity and
inclusiveness of member bodies around the world,” Upton said.

Increasingly that inclusiveness extends to Baptists in countries whose
governments historically have regarded religion with suspicion. Among
the three new organizations granted BWA membership at the congress was
the Baptist Churches of Vietnam, a union of 509 congregations with
about 30,000 members which was recognized by Vietnamese officials only
in 2008.

Baptists from around the globe form prayer circles during the 20th
Baptist World Congress meeting in Honolulu. (BWA photo)
Callam emphasized that such diversity will strengthen the BWA witness
in the 21st century.

“We understand that one aspect of our [Baptist] tradition is the
emphasis on the confidence we have in the Holy Spirit to enlighten, to
equip, to enable and to empower us to appreciate the diversity we have
in Jesus Christ,” he said.

But, he added, it creates challenges: “Anyone who makes that
affirmation knows that one is running the risk of opening the door for
multiplicity and diversity of interpretation. We must ask if some of
the diversity that flows from our faith is divisive or enriching.”

A more holistic approach to mission

Church planting and evangelism remain key parts of the BWA’s agenda.
But BWA leaders increasingly rank relief and development as an
essential component of Christian witness.

Baptist World Aid, the organization’s relief arm, is arguably the
BWA’s most familiar face as it has responded rapidly to assist victims
of natural disasters such as last January’s earthquake in Haiti and
the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It also has moved beyond disaster
relief, working in Lebanon during the 2006 war between Israel and
Hezbollah and providing food to starving North Koreans.

“I think Baptists today are more holistic, not only in our thinking
but in our actions, and I see that the world over,” said BWAid
Director Paul Montacute. “The BWA’s member bodies and their
congregations have increasingly embraced Jesus’ call to meet the needs
of the world’s poor, oppressed and marginalized people without
compromising in any way our commitment to evangelism and
discipleship.”

Baptist World Aid Director Paul Montacute. (BWA photo)
Bela Szilagyi, director of Hungarian Baptist Aid, said relief-and-
development work has opened doors to Christian witness that might
otherwise have remained closed.

“Before the fall of the Berlin Wall the BWA and many Baptist bodies
from the West did a lot in Eastern Europe, and theirs was a good
approach,” he said. “They encouraged the Baptist churches and helped
them stay strong in their fight against oppressive regimes.

“But after the wall fell, what I think has happened is that the BWA is
providing not only fellowship and not only general mission work --
which are very much needed -- but it has begun relief and development
that really is part of a holistic mission work…. I am very happy for
that and really see it taking us a long way.”

Szilagyi said increased visibility for Hungarian Baptist Aid’s relief
activities has definitely improved the image of Baptists in recent
years in Hungary -- a nation where the overwhelming Catholic majority
has historically viewed Baptists as a sect.

Kabi Gangmei, director of Asia Pacific Baptist Aid, another BWAid
affiliate, called relief-and-development assistance a “leavening” that
broadens BWA influence.

“Some years ago, Baptists in Asia weren’t interested in funding that
kind of work. But since the [2004] tsunami, leaders at the convention
level have awakened to the need,” he said. He noted that Sri Lankan
and Indonesian Baptist groups have started relief ministries,” he
said. “Teaching and preaching and church planting and disaster relief
need to go hand in hand,” he said.

An increasing focus on social justice

The BWA has been an advocate for religious liberty since its founding
in 1905. But increasingly, a passion for protecting other human rights
and alleviating social and economic ills has animated its members,
reflected in the hiring last March of Brazilian Raimundo Barreto as
the organization’s first director of freedom and justice.

When speaking for justice, Upton said, the BWA needs to speak in a
common voice.

“It doesn’t matter if that voice is always eloquent, but we have to
speak the truth that we know to speak. God’s Word will speak through
us on issues of poverty, of equality, of human trafficking. We have to
get involved in these issues and we have to speak boldly to them and
we need a common voice around the world. And we need to speak not only
in the larger arena but also in the local arena as well.”

BWAid’s Montacute, standing in the exhibit hall at the congress,
surveyed the array of displays and said, “Twenty years ago this room
would have been dominated by vendors selling their wares. Now, look at
the number of organizations that are committed to responding to global
needs -- from hunger and homelessness to HIV/AIDS to human trafficking
to disaster relief.”

Korean Baptist women dance at the 20th Baptist World Congress meeting.
(BWA photo)
At the Honolulu gathering, Bible study leaders stressed the social-
justice implications of Scripture as they focused on Luke 4, in which
Jesus described his mission to proclaim good news to the poor and
freedom for the captives, bring sight to the blind and release the
oppressed.

In a message adopted at the close of the Congress, participants
pledged to “develop greater familiarity with the teachings of Christ,
cultivate a rich prayer life, bear witness to the gospel of salvation
through Jesus Christ and provide examples of godly living reflecting
the values taught by the Lord of the church.

At the same time, they promised to “remove the scourge of poverty and
hunger; support efforts to provide universal education; work for
environmental sustainability; promote gender equality; improve child
health and maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases; and develop global partnerships.”

--Robert Dilday is managing editor of the Virginia Baptist Religious
Herald. Texas Baptist Standard Editor Marv Knox, ABP Executive
Director David Wilkinson and freelance writer Wendy Ryan contributed
to this story.