LIBERTY, Mo. (ABP) — Speakers challenged nearly 1,000 ministers and laypeople from several Baptist denominations and Midwestern states to become agents of reconciliation, collaboration and justice during the Baptist Border Crossing April 2-4 at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo.
The event was the second of four regional New Baptist Covenant celebrations set for 2009 — the outgrowth of a national meeting organized by former President Jimmy Carter and held Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2008, in Atlanta.
Former President Jimmy Carter addresses crowd. (Photo by Bill Webb)
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Carter himself was present during the Friday morning worship session, sharing the platform with African-American preacher and evangelist Carolyn Ann Knight.
Referencing his unsuccessful efforts to bridge divisions in the Southern Baptist Convention, Carter called listeners to come together, especially setting aside racial differences.
Jim Hill, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Missouri, co-chair of the event with Wallace S. Hartsfield II, senior pastor of Kansas City's Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, said organizers "felt we needed to get to know each other in the communities where we live."
"It really is our prayer that God starts something among us that we can't control," he said.
Hartsfield outlined the three-point goal of organizers.
"We challenge you to meet at least one person at this meeting and forge a relationship," he said. "We challenge churches to make a commitment with another church." After forming those relationships, he said the next step would be to collaborate on ministry projects.
North American Baptist Fellowship president David Goatley, who also is executive director-secretary of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention, told participants, "I have a hunch that God is not particularly concerned about the lines we have drawn."
Preaching about Peter's unexpected experience of crossing the border between Jews and Gentiles to evangelize Cornelius, Goatley observed, "It wasn't Peter's idea to color outside the lines; it was God's revelation.
"At the times God colors outside our lines, some of us are stressed," he added. "[But] God is in the habit of calling us outside the lines we have been coloring inside."
Carolyn Ann Knight calls on Baptists to cross borders to share the gospel message. (Photo by Bill Webb)
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"My life is made up of border crossings," Baptist World Alliance president David Coffey of Great Britain said, noting he had visited Egypt in January, Jamaica and Cuba in February and Jordan and Romania in March.
Coffey credited Carter with "rehabilitating the good name of Baptist people."
Citing the experience of Philip in bringing the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, Coffey reminded listeners to be sensitive to God's calling, be prepared to make sacrifices ("it goes with the gospel") and not to be judgmental.
"Some of you have been wounded" by disinformation, denigration and discrimination, he said. "But you have to stand against judgmentalism; God will reward you for that."
The example of Philip and the Ethiopian was a classic example of border crossing, Coffey said, noting it called for an Arab Christian to share the gospel with a black man — high up in government — who had been castrated.
Like Philip, be creative, know how to apply the Bible and trust the providence of God, Coffey said.
Knight, also founder of Can Do Ministries, reminded listeners of the imperative to cross borders to engage in the simple act of bringing others to Christ.
Pointing to the account of a paralyzed man being lowered to the feet of Jesus by four determined friends, she suggested everyone present could relate to the paralytic.
"Someone, somewhere, took you to church, told you about Jesus…. Someone prayed for you," she said, noting the helpless man received healing and salvation because Jesus noted the faith of the man's friends.
As the four friends discovered, "getting people to Jesus is not easy," she said. "Being a Christian is not easy. It is not comfortable and smooth…. God wants to use you — your faith — to lift someone up."
Tony Campolo warns against the snare of materialism. (Photo by Jennifer Harris)
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In an animated closing sermon, speaker, author and professor Tony Campolo compared the fall of ancient Babylon — destroyed by materialism — to America.
In Babylon, almost anything was available for purchase, he said, including people. "There is growing up in Babylon another city; it is the church of Jesus Christ."
"We have sought the welfare of ourselves, not the welfare of others," he charged. "The church has got to be different" and pursue justice for those in their communities who are most vulnerable, he said.
Wallace S. Hartsfield Sr., now retired as pastor of Metropolitan, the church of which his son is pastor, reinforced Campolo's call to seek justice for the vulnerable.
Hartsfield urged attendees in an earlier session to rally friends to go to the Missouri capital, Jefferson City, on April 16 to protest the House rejection of Gov. Jay Nixon's effort to raise from $3,000 to $6,000 the earnings threshold for those eligible to receive Medicaid.
The elder Hartsfield, long known for his involvement in social justice issues, said such legislation is necessary to help families and children who are hurting.
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Bill Webb is editor of Word & Way.