In this our 100th year of the Baptist World Alliance, we give thanks to God for his awesome grace and providence that has guided us from 1905 to 2005. Ebenezer said, “Thus far the Lord has helped us” (I Samuel 7:12). Indeed we can raise our Ebenezer because for 100 years the Lord has blessed the work of the BWA.
In 1905 when the BWA was founded in London, England, there was optimism in the air. There was excitement that this was going to be “The Christian Century.” But the guns of August soon destroyed this fantasy. Instead, these past 100 years have been among the most tumultuous of times in world history. World Wars I and II doomed the so-called Christian West to extinction. No longer was the Christian faith the dominant theme of the European nations. Even the European Union recently refused to acknowledge a Christian history as part of its new constitution.
During this century of the BWA there were also positive historical developments which contributed to the progress of the Christian mission and an ever growing Christian presence in the “Two-Thirds World.” In 1905 when the BWA began, more than 85 percent of Christians in the world were in Europe and North America. In 2005, this centennial year, 60 percent of the Christians of the world are in the so-called “Two-thirds World” of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The former missionary-receiving countries have now become missionary-sending countries. While in 1905 Spurgeon's Tabernacle was the largest Baptist church, with thousands of white English worshippers, today the largest Baptist church in Britain is a Ghanaian/Nigerian Baptist church composed of African immigrants to Britain. This is one of the many paradigm shifts of the past century of Baptist life.
These past 100 years have seen dramatic changes in the political world: the fall of communism in 1989, the end of segregation in the USA in 1965, the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1991. September 11, 2001, brought the world of terrorism into mainstream political life of all the nations, the consequences of which the world and the church are still trying to figure out. All of these changes meant the church had to develop new strategies for mission, with new opportunities in Eastern Europe and Africa and new hindrances in the Middle East.
With the end of colonialism in the 1960s, Baptist conventions/unions grew rapidly. Consequently representation in the BWA from the southern hemisphere began to grow as Africans, Asians and Latin Americans voiced their concerns about where we were going. In 1960, after 55 years of English and North American leadership, the BWA elected its first president from the developing world, Jao Soren of Brazil. Since then there has been Tolbert of Liberia, Wong of China and Kim of Korea. Indeed we have become internationalized, and more sensitive to the needs of the growing majority of the BWA.
The 20th century was a time of dramatic breakthroughs in technology. No longer would we travel by steamship, but airplanes would take us to far-off places in hours. The telegraph and telephone have been replaced by email and a major part of communications is done on the web. Television has made the world a global village. Now joy and sorrow enter our living room daily. Disunity in the world has also expressed itself in disunity within the church. We rejoice at the great unity among Baptists worldwide as expressed in the Baptist World Alliance. In spite of the recent Southern Baptist exodus, we rejoice at the tremendous support for the BWA from its 211 member bodies in every part of the globe.
The past 100 years saw great Baptist spiritual and political leaders: Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Graham and Jimmy Carter. These men represent three significant aspects of the gospel message for which most Baptists have stood for many years: social justice, evangelism and human rights.
Who will be the new leaders in the next century of Baptist life? Let us pray that God will send men and women to the Baptist World Alliance with a prophetic and biblical word for bringing renewal, kingdom growth and advance for Christ and his Kingdom. We are grateful to God almighty for his love and grace. We can say with the Psalmist, “His steadfast love endures forever!”
Happy 100th birthday to the BWA! What a celebration we will have in Birmingham, England, July 27-31, 2005!
Denton Lotz is general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance.