EDE, Netherlands (ABP) — Members of the Baptist World Alliance General Council affirmed John Upton as the organization’s presidential nominee July 31. Assuming he is elected by the group’s quinquennial Baptist World Congress meeting next year in Honolulu, Upton will help lead 214 national and regional Baptist bodies representing the vast majority of the world’s Baptists until 2015.
Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, sat down with an Associated Baptist Press reporter shortly after the council voted unanimously to recommend him as president.
Q: You are president-elect of the Baptist World Alliance. What kind of honor is this for you?
A: The honor is being able to work with Baptists from all over the world. It’s been an honor to work with them in the capacities I have in the past — and now to serve as president.
And I hope during this next five years to have a real emphasis on building community in the world. I think we’ve had a transition of leadership and we’ve had transitions of structure, a transition of bylaws and constitution. I think, having accomplished that during this particular quinquennium, the next quinquennium I hope to focus on the building of community in even a broader sense.
With our general secretary, Neville Callam — from Jamaica, being from another part of the world, leading the BWA — I think we have a tremendous moment for the BWA to become a broader family and more inclusive in ways that we didn’t even know we could be in the past. So, I get really excited; it’s an honor to be a part of that process.
And also to deal with all the issues that churches are going to face all over the world as we enter the 21st century. It will be an honor to work with people who are bright people, who are committed people, who are courageous people, who will look for creative spiritual solutions.
John Upton speaks to the BWA's General Council following his nomination as president. (BWA Photo)
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Q: What do you think the biggest challenge that BWA will face over the next five years will be?
A: Probably the biggest one I think we’ll face — and it deals with the community piece, because I think BWA has been able in the past to build its future on loyalty and commitment to denominations and denominational structures. I think as we see that shift in the future, people are going to be committing less out of loyalty and more out of purpose. And it will be incumbent on us to demonstrate with clarity the purpose of the BWA while at the same time building passion for the mission. And I think that’s going to be a key challenge in the coming years — it’s a shift from a loyalty-based concept to a mission-purpose-based [concept]. So that we can articulate clearly, when people engage with the BWA, that we know what we’re about, that we know who they are and they understand the international component to that multicultural diversity and yet can find a unity in the midst of all of that.
Q: On that point, specifically, Dr. [Neville] Callam [BWA’s general secretary] referred to it earlier in this report, the fact that the leadership in the BWA really is starting to look like its member bodies more and more now, with an African-Caribbean general secretary, with a lot of leadership from the “two-thirds world,” women increasingly.
A: Right.
Q: How does that play in to both the challenges and the opportunities that BWA faces over the next few years?
A: Well, I think it’s going to have to listen with bigger ears than we have in the past, and a little more patience and with less assumptions. I think, with the General Council being made up of equal — a nominating committee being made up of equal people, representatives from around the world, from the different regions, they’re going to have a much more diverse General Council. And I think that’s going to cause us to just sit and listen in a way that we haven’t had to in the past. Not that we didn’t want to; we just didn’t have to.
And, personally, I think as we approach issues, we’re going to hear solutions we haven’t heard before. Because we’ll have perspective on issues we haven’t had before. And that’s one of the joys I have in coming here, is I don’t realize how provincial I am until I get here. And — out of kindness and in gentle ways — I get probed to think bigger.
And it’s larger than just seeing the world; I get probed in, I think, a Kingdom kind of way. And I think, when I get here, that my provincial way is the Kingdom way — only to discover how small that is.
That’s an interesting item to bring, element to bring to all the future discussions, whether it’s global warming, stem-cell research — or whatever those issues are that we’re going to have to face in terms of ethics and make some statements on. Not to mention how we address powers in the world. We’re going to have to hear from each other so we speak with a, again, with a clearer voice so that people around the world hear their voice in that bigger voice.
Q: I guess finally — and this sort of relates to your idea of your own perceived provincialism — what does this mean for Virginia Baptists? The fact that you’re the president-elect now, and you’re the executive director of the BGAV. We also have Daniel Carro, another Virginia Baptist, as the first vice-president nominee for BWA. Will this create a new nexus between Virginia Baptist life and the BWA — and what does it mean for the way the BGAV works?
A: Two or three things I think I’d say on that item. No. 1, I think the fact I’ve had the opportunity to be the president-elect and that Daniel Carro is the first vice president-elect — I think that’s because of who Virginia Baptists have been. And when they have done their mission work, they have done it with respect of others, they have done it with dignity. I think I have this opportunity because of who Virginia Baptists are.
And my hope for Virginia Baptists in this is that maybe they will see themselves the way the rest of the world sees them. Because I would really like for them to know who they are through the eyes of the international family. Because they have just done missions in a good way, in a respectful way. And a mutual way, because they have been receiving into their churches and their homes mission groups from all over the world; we’ve not just gone. It’s been much more mutual than that; we’ve had teams come from all over the world to Virginia. And we’ve grown because of that. So, I think this opportunity comes out of that background…. There’s not a corner of Virginia you can go to that a team from somewhere in the world hasn’t been and done mission work for us.
Q: Or has come to live.
A: That’s right — and come to live, or studied, and now are even pastoring in Virginia. Out of our partnership with Hungary we have a pastor. And from France, we have a pastor. We have several who have come from around the world who are now pastoring in Virginia.
So, I think, No. 1, I hope Virginia Baptists are able to see themselves as they are known, in a way they wouldn’t know any other way. And through this office, they’ll begin to see that and even engage missions in a deeper way.
So, I hope that Virginia Baptists will have a much more expanded vision of their own mission and who they are in the global family — that we know our place in that bigger picture.
No. 2, it will mean some — the Virginia Baptist Mission Board approved me doing this; I did share this with them in executive session; I wanted our Virginia Baptist Mission Board to approve before I finalized my candidacy for this. And they voted unanimously, stood on their feet. And that was a special day for me — a highlight in my personal life. One, to feel their affirmation was a highlight, but also to see their affirmation of the Baptist World Alliance, that this was something that they saw as a good thing to do.
And so I feel almost commissioned by them to do this.
Q: As part of your job, not an addition to it?
A: As part of my job — I’ll still continue to be [BGAV] executive director. And the challenge in this — and I mean this as a good challenge, and the staff has been really supportive of this — don’t leave us and do this; in whatever way you can, take us with you, that we can be a part of this with you.
And not just staff, but all of Virginia Baptists, that we get to share this experience with you. And that one has meant a lot to me. I’ll need to go back and talk with staff about, you know, while I’m gone [traveling the globe on BWA business], how things will work; that things will run and they’ll know who to go to, with clarity, about that. But I have an excellent staff; I have absolute confidence.
We’ve been fortunate in Virginia. You know, we have a five-year strategy that we’re just now implementing, so we know our direction for the next five years — which I think is part of God’s design, that we’re not in the midst of determining what we’re going to do in the future. We have some real clarity about what our next-five-year objectives are, and we’ve even worked that down to action plans for the next five years. So, it will be a matter of carrying this out. It couldn’t have been better timing.
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief or Associated Baptist Press.