A suburban Washington-based church planter and evangelist who serves as president of a prominent African-American Baptist denomination will be among the speakers at the New Baptist Covenant II, it was announced Nov. 2.
Carroll Baltimore of Gainesville, Va., president of the 2.5 million-member Progressive National Baptist Convention, will be one of nine speakers at the Nov. 17-19 gathering of diverse Baptists in Atlanta which will be linked by satellite and internet to dozens of viewing locations around the country.
Carroll Baltimore
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Satellite-fed locations close to Baptists in the Mid-Atlantic will be in at Israel Baptist Church in Washington and Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
The New Baptist Covenant, started by former President Jimmy Carter in 2008, is a loose-knit, grassroots effort to unite disparate Baptists groups in North America around a platform of progressive social and justice ministries.
As many as 30,000 to 35,000 Baptists could participate in the three-day event, predicted Philadelphia pastor William Shaw, former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, and one of two national co-chairs for the event.
Such a turnout would double the size of the first New Baptist Covenant meeting, which drew 15,000 people to Atlanta in 2008, including Baptists from 40 different denominations and groups.
With more than 33 million adherents, scattered in about 70 denominations, Baptists are the largest Protestant group in North America. One key objective of the New Baptist Covenant is to provide an alternative voice to the more strident Baptist denominations that attract media attention.
In addition to worship services and hands-on ministries, NBC II will include breakout sessions to teach strategies to work for justice, fight poverty and address other human needs that would fulfill the Luke 4 mandate.
In addition to Baltimore and Carroll, others in the multiracial lineup of speakers include:
Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, an advocacy group of children and families;
Tony Campolo, a sociologist, popular speaker, prolific author and former university professor;
Rosalynn Carter, wife of the former president and a longtime champion for mental health research;
Wendell Griffen, the first African-American partner in a major Arkansas law firm before becoming a state appeals court judge, a post he held until 2008;
DeeDee Coleman, pastor of Russell Street Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, who operates a resource center for ex-offenders;
Stephen Thurston, president of the National Baptist Convention of America, which is based in Dallas and has 3 million members.
Ken Fong, senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church, a multiethnic American Baptist church in Los Angeles. He also is a church consultant, an author and a trustee of a drug-abuse program for Asian-Americans.
The New Baptist Covenant II will originate from Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta, but most participants will gather at satellite-viewing locations. In addition to Washington and Philadelphia, other sites are in Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Seattle and St. Louis. Many more people will watch in smaller church-based gatherings nationwide via Internet video streaming.
The first session begins Thursday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. ET. In order to compensate for viewing sites in three different time zones, some sessions will be recorded and shown at more appropriate times.
Organizers are still enlisting viewing sites for the web-streaming video. Local organizers must involve at least two churches of different denominational and ethnic makeup and conduct a service project on the third day, Nov. 19.
Jimmy Allen of Big Canoe, Ga., the last moderate president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is the other national co-chair for the event in addition to Shaw. Allen was a key organizer of the initial New Baptist Covenant, working closely with Carter and Bill Underwood, president of Mercer University in Macon, Ga.
Other details about NBC II are being published at www.newbaptistcovenant.org and in an e-mail newsletter available through the website.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald. Greg Warner writes for of New Baptist Covenant Communications.