WARSAW, Poland (ABP) — Twelve conservative Baptists from Europe met with nine Southern Baptist leaders July 1-2 in Warsaw, Poland, in what one participant said could be a precursor to a new international organization of “like-minded” Baptists.
The participants said their intent was not to criticize the Baptist World Alliance, the 100-year-old organization that unites 210 Baptist bodies worldwide. But the Warsaw meeting was an outgrowth of dissatisfaction among Southern Baptists and other conservatives because BWA has not distanced itself from perceived “liberal” influences. The Southern Baptist Convention, largest Baptist body in the world, withdrew from BWA last year, in part because the international body accepted the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship into membership.
The 12 European Baptist participants came from six countries, most in eastern Europe and among the most conservative in the region — Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Moldovia, Poland and Romania. The individuals were not identified in a press release from the SBC, and it was not clear if they were official representatives of the Baptist unions in those countries.
“This meeting may prove in time to have been the inaugural meeting of a network that shall extend to every corner of the earth, creating a close fellowship among like-minded conservative Christians,” Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, told Baptist Press afterward.
In January, Chapman said the Warsaw meeting was not an “organizational” meeting for a conservative alternative to BWA. But after the meeting, he said, “The longer we met, the more you could sense a growing enthusiasm [for such a group] in the hearts of everyone in the meeting.” Chapman predicted Southern Baptists will hold other “exploratory gatherings” around the world. The participants were in agreement about “the inerrancy of the Bible, the absolute lordship of Christ and the recovery of historic Baptist doctrine,” the SBC leaders said in their statement.
Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, was not immediately available for comment. Earlier, however, he said such a movement would be “a slap in the face to Baptists in the rest of the world,” particularly since it was held about the same time as the 100-anniversary meeting of BWA July 27-31. In February, Leszek Wakula, the Polish Baptist Union's general secretary, expressed “regret and sorrow” about the planned Warsaw meeting.
The meeting reportedly focused on opportunities for cooperation on evangelism, church planting and theological education. It was initiated by Paul Negrut, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Oradea, Romania, and president of the Baptist Union of R.S. Romania, the SBC leaders said. Negrut, the only European participant named, is a leading conservative in Romania.
Southern Baptist representatives at the meeting were Chapman; O.S. Hawkins, president of Guidestone Financial Resources, the SBC's retirement and benefits agency; retired Houston judge Paul Pressler; Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board; and five SBC seminary leaders — Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Philip Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Craig Blaising, provost of Southwestern; and Bill Wagner, professor at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
Chapman, Patterson, Pressler and Rankin served on the SBC committee that recommended withdrawing from BWA.
The committee's recommendation, approved by the SBC in June 2004, earmarked the SBC's annual $425,000 in annual support for the Baptist World Alliance for creation of a new organization of “conservative evangelical Christians around the world.”