ATLANTA (ABP) — Leaders of Baptist conventions and organizations comprising more than 20 million adherents in North America explored “additional opportunities for fellowship and cooperation” in Atlanta April 10.
President Jimmy Carter, a lifelong Baptist lay leader and Sunday school teacher, sponsored the gathering at the Carter Center. Bill Underwood, president-elect of Mercer University in Macon, Ga., helped recruit the participants.
Carter noted the historic nature of the meeting, which attracted a diverse array of groups. He urged participants to transcend their differences — including such factors as race, culture, geography and convention affiliation — and seek common purpose.
“The most common opinion about Baptists is we cannot get along together. … I have been grieved by the divisions of my own [Southern Baptist] Convention,” he acknowledged.
But “there are some things on which we can have unanimity,” he added, mentioning the involvement of all participants' in the Baptist World Alliance and the shared belief that people are “saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.”
Not participating were representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention, which recently withdrew from the Baptist World Alliance over issues of theology and control.
Carter urged participants to agree to cooperate and to let their shared commitments be known publicly. They engaged in a wide-ranging discussion, which lasted most of four hours and focused on key issues of the conventions and organizations represented in the meeting.
Ultimately, they approved a statement they called “A North American Baptist Covenant,” which expresses their concerns and commitments.
They affirmed their “desire to speak and work together to create an authentic and genuine prophetic Baptist voice in these complex times,” the statement notes. They also reaffirmed their commitment to “traditional Baptist values, including sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality.”
Participants specifically committed themselves to their “obligations as Christians to promote peace with justice, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick and marginalized, welcome the strangers among us, and promote religious liberty and respect for religious diversity.”
They agreed to hold a convocation, probably in 2007, “to celebrate these historic Baptist commitments and to explore other opportunities to work together as Christian partners.”
The Atlanta gathering met a longstanding need, Carter said in an interview afterward.
“For several years, I have had many leading Baptists express their desire to gather the diverse group we assembled,” he explained. “This happened in response to those requests.”
“We wanted to move expeditiously,” Underwood added. “There's been a yearning for this kind of gathering of Baptist leaders.”
“I was surprised and pleased at the enormous responses, which were unprecedented,” Carter noted.
In addition to Carter and Underwood, participants were:
— Jimmy Allen, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a founder of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
— David Goatley, executive secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society.
— Kirby Godsey, president of Mercer University.
— Major Jemison, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
— Marv Knox, editor of the Baptist Standard, news journal of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
— Roy Medley, general secretary of the American Baptist Churches, USA.
— Gary Nelson, general secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries.
— Tyrone Pitts, general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
— Jerry Sanders, president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society.
— William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA.
— Walter Shurden, director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University.
— Samuel C. Tolbert Jr., general secretary of the National Baptist Convention of America.
— John Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
— Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
— Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
— Bill Wilson, co-chair of the Mainstream Baptist Network.
All of the organizations represented in the meeting are committed to the Baptist World Alliance, Underwood said. “They all share a great deal of support for historic Baptist principles, and they're all large and represent many Baptists,” he noted.
“Other organizations will want to be a part” of the movement, he added. “We will continue to involve as many as possible. Given the short notice and logistical problems — we put this meeting together in less than two weeks — the involvement was unprecedented. We will see even more involvement as we continue.”
Follow-up to the meeting — including strategic planning and development of a convocation of Baptists — will move forward, Carter predicted.
“The participants expressed determination to follow up,” he said. “All the participants insisted there be an aggressive follow-up.”
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