ATLANTA (ABP) — What might be called the “Baptist diaspora” — a wide array of Baptists dispersed by a quarter century of denominational discord — will come together in downtown Atlanta Feb. 25-26 to consider “A New Day in Baptist Life.”
The fourth annual Mainstream Baptist Convocation hopes to “begin a conversation that attempts to envision what the Baptist landscape might look like as we proceed into the 21st century,” said Bill Wilson and Bob Stephenson, co-chairs of the Mainstream Baptist Convocation, in a letter distributed to some 70 Baptist agencies, institutions and entities.
Speakers will include Theo Angelov, immediate past general secretary of the European Baptist Federation; Penny Long Marler, associate professor of religion at Samford University; Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist University of the Americas, a historically Hispanic school in San Antonio, Texas, and president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas; and Walter Shurden, a long-time Baptist historian, professor, speaker and author, who directs the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University.
Mainstream's goal, the letter said, is to host a representative gathering of Baptist clergy and laity, along with representatives from entities that have emerged in the last 25 years or have been defunded by the Southern Baptist Convention. The convocation is also open to churches, associations, conventions and organizations that have chosen to withdraw from official SBC connection or have chosen to partner with the new entities.
“We will not seek to start a new organization or denomination,” Wilson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., said in an interview. “MBN is acting as a catalyst to get an impressive array of Baptist Christians who have grown out of the conflict to explore how we can network and use our resources effectively.
“Baptists have a chance to create a positive future for authentic ministry that is proactive and focuses on the good things we can do collectively and individually, rather than on the pain inflicted by fundamentalists,” Wilson said.