BIRMINGHAM, England (ABP) — Delegates to the Baptist World Centenary Congress July 30 elected a British Baptist as their president, received a report on the state of the Baptist World Alliance, and heard an impassioned call for social justice from a Jamaican pastor.
Meeting in downtown Birmingham, England, Baptists from around the world unanimously elected as president David Coffey, currently general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.
“To experience the love and trust of the global family is overwhelming, and I now seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit for the ministry that awaits me,” Coffey told delegates at the business session of the Baptist World Alliance.
In outlining values that will shape his presidency, he affirmed belief in the gospel, the church and worship that intersects real-world issues of peace and justice.
Coffey affirmed his commitment as a “Great Commission Christian” — one dedicated to the principle that every Baptist is a missionary — and underscored the need to follow Christ's example as a servant.
“Too often, the world is more aware of what the church is against than what it is for, and this is no strategy for winning lost people to Jesus Christ,” he said. “We need to be more like Jesus, to earn the reputation of being friends to sinners and to give ourselves in sacrificial service for a broken world.”
As a part of that witness, Coffey stressed the need for unity among Christians.
“Unity is a gospel imperative, and disunity is always a major hindrance to evangelism,” he said.
In a world torn apart by war and sectarian violence, one of the greatest questions facing all cultures is how to live with deep differences, he said, and “God's sign to a disunited world is the church, united in Christ.”
Stressing justice and compassion as the “hallmarks of true worship,” Coffey urged Baptists in particular and Christians in general to alleviate suffering, which he called “the acid test of obedience” for Christ's followers.
“To make poverty history is the duty of every Christian, and we should not need the world to tell us so,” he said.
Coffey emphasized the importance of the BWA providing a voice for those who are denied basic freedoms and human rights.
“If this means challenging those authorities who exercise might without morality and power without compassion, so be it,” he said.
In his report to the assembly, BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz urged delegates to learn from their history but focus on their future.
Looking back 100 years, when the BWA first met in London, he described the prevailing sense of optimism and the hope that the world was entering the “Christian century.” Instead, in many ways, it proved to be a “demonic century” of warfare and a decline of missionary zeal among many Christian in Europe and North America, he noted.
However, he pointed with enthusiasm to a growing missionary movement and spiritual renewal in the Two-Thirds World.
Lotz called on the BWA to continue its role as a “drum major for justice” and “drum major for evangelism,” particularly in light of religious oppression and warfare around the world. He also urged BWA to remain steadfast in defending the separation of church and state, work to alleviate suffering through relief and sustainable development, and enhance opportunities for theological education in the Two-Thirds World.
In an indirect allusion to Southern Baptist Convention's defunding of BWA based on accusations of liberalism, Lotz stressed the international fellowship must not allow others to define it.
“We believe in Jesus Christ, the sole Savior sufficient for salvation,” he said. “To accuse the BWA of not believing the Bible is comparable to accusing a mother of not loving her child.”
Baptists also must be forthright in issuing a call to holiness, particularly regarding human sexuality, he said. “We are opposed to premarital sex, extramarital sex and homosexual behavior,” Lotz said. “We believe marriage is a monogamous relationship between a man and woman.”
In the morning Bible study, Neville Callam, pastor of the Tarrant-Balmagie Circuit of Baptist Churches in Kingston, Jamaica, also emphasized the theme of a changing world, as well as the need for an unchanging commitment to social justice.
In 100 years, the BWA has moved from a mostly Anglo body to a truly multicultural, multiethnic fellowship.
But in many ways, the world has remained the same, as has the need for Baptists to work for justice and peace, he noted.
“Pious acts of corporate worship cannot compensate for our social sins,” he said.
Callam emphasized oppression anywhere results in violent reactions and a widespread ripple effect that is felt far away.
“Injustice anywhere does damage everywhere,” he said.