ATLANTA (ABP) — While known for their historic independence and stubbornness, Baptists from more than 40 American and Canadian denominations and groups will converge under a banner of unity next month in Atlanta.
Organizers of the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant recently announced the event's theme, “Unity in Christ,” and details of special breakout sessions. The historic convergence — 20,000 Baptists are expected from a wide variety of geographical, racial, denominational and ideological backgrounds — is scheduled for Jan. 30-Feb. 2 at the Georgia World Congress Center.
The organizers are seeking common ground that will unite Baptists around an agenda of ministry. To that end, special-interest sessions will focus on religious liberty, poverty, racism, AIDS, faith in public policy, stewardship of the earth, evangelism, financial stewardship, and prophetic preaching.
Both the special-interest and plenary sessions are inspired, organizers say, by the ministry agenda announced in Jesus' sermon in Luke 4:18-19. The five plenary sessions will focus on unity in peacemaking, in preaching good news to the poor, in respecting diversity, in welcoming the stranger, and in setting the captive free.
One goal of the meeting is to provide “an atmosphere in which networking can be accelerated,” Jimmy Allen, the event's program chairman, said.
Such networking opportunities for broad groups of Baptists have been in short supply. Indeed, Allen told a group of Baptist leaders in February, Baptists have shied away from such broad-based cooperation since before the Civil War.
Such networking will serve the purpose of pan-Baptist cooperation on fostering social justice and alleviating social ills, Allen said. For attendees, the theme will be “hard to miss” with the range and depth of the sessions planned, Allen said. He is a former Southern Baptist Convention president and one of the initiators of the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore will speak about Christian environmentalism during a special luncheon. Other speakers include Baptist author and sociologist Tony Campolo, former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, seminary professor Joel Gregory, journalist Bill Moyers, and two Baptists who are both prominent Republican senators: South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and Iowa's Charles Grassley.
One breakout track will focus on disaster-relief ministries. Allen has invited experts such as Tommy McDearis, pastor of Blacksburg (Va.) Baptist Church; and Samuel Tolbert, general secretary of the National Baptist Convention of America. McDearis was one of the first and most prominent responders after the April massacre at Virginia Tech. The campus is adjacent to his church. Tolbert played a significant role in flood relief and community rebuilding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated many African-American Baptist congregations.
The disaster-relief program will also feature Millard Fuller, founder of the Habitat for Humanity housing ministry for the working poor.
While organizers are still finalizing other presenters and moderators, several well-known names in Baptist life have already confirmed their participation. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, and Neville Callam, new general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, will speak about Baptists finding common ground with people of other faiths.
Stan Hastey, executive director of the Alliance of Baptists, will speak about peacemaking; Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, will speak about the separation of church and state; Suzii Paynter, director of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, will speak about faith and public policy; Lauran Bethell, a Baptist missionary based in Prague, will speak about sexual exploitation; and Malcolm Marler, of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Alabama, will speak about the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Professors from Baptist-affiliated colleges such as Baylor University and Mercer University will speak in special sessions as well. Among the schools whose professors will be featured in the theological breakouts are Fuller Theological Seminary, Emory University's Candler School of Theology, Wake Forest University Divinity School, McAfee School of Theology at Mercer, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Memphis Theological Seminary, and Canada's McMaster Divinity College.
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