RALEIGH, N.C.—Health care missions provide access to millions of people who’ve never heard of the Great Physician, and health care professionals play a crucial role in prescribing treatment for both physical and spiritual needs.

These were some of the messages attendees of MedAdvance heard. The conference was designed to inform, mobilize and connect health care professionals and students with International Mission Board missionaries serving in medical missions roles.

Held yearly since 2007, MedAdvance 2025 met in Raleigh, N.C., from Aug. 21-23 at Providence Church.

More than 300 people, including 47 health care students, attended. Participants included an endodontist, nurses, physician assistants, an OBGYN, general practitioners, nurses who are members of a chapter of the Filipino Woman’s Missionary Union and a church volunteer coordinator.

Some MedAdvance participants, like a physician assistant and her family who are preparing to move to West Africa and a nurse who is pursuing work among the Deaf, are currently in the process of serving with the IMB. Others, like the group of Filipino nurses, were exploring ways to serve. Others were looking to get involved through prayer and giving.

Tom Hicks, IMB director of global health strategies, said he’s seeing a movement of greater understanding among Southern Baptists of how the IMB is involved in health care missions.

Hicks’ prayer was that attendees would see how they can participate in healthcare missions, whether that’s praying more effectively, giving specifically and strategically or going. The many commitment cards placed on two maps of the world at the end of MedAdvance were evidence this prayer was answered.

IMB President Paul Chitwood told participants via video that 12 percent of the IMB’s missionary workforce have a medical background. IMB missionaries are touching the lives of 50,000 people through healthcare ministries every year.

MedAdvance attendees participated in an affinity marathon, where they heard about the health care ministries of missionaries from the IMB’s eight regions of service, including global Deaf ministry.

Health care ministries included art therapy for trauma survivors in Europe, training national medical workers in Sub-Saharan Africa, disease prevention in the Americas and pre- and post-natal care in the Asia-Pacific Rim.

The affinity marathon allowed conference attendees to learn about short- and long-term opportunities to serve.

Health care professionals attended breakout sessions on topics such as how to be a health care volunteer, engaging Hinduism and Islam, fitness and wellness strategies and how to address human needs in your community.

Veteran missionary doctor discusses strategies

In two packed sessions, Dr. Rebekah Naylor spoke on the core missionary task as it relates to health care missions. Naylor served 50 years with the IMB at Bangalore Baptist Hospital in India as a surgeon, chief of medical staff, administrator and medical superintendent.

Naylor walked MedAdvance participants through the ABCs (and DEs) of health care strategies: access, behind closed doors, caring for needs, disciple-making and empowering the church. Each of these connects with components of the core missionary task: entry, evangelism, disciple-making, leadership development, church formation and exit to partnership.

MedAdvance participants also learned about the Dr. Naylor Preach and Heal fund, which provides money for the health care ministries of IMB missionaries. Donations provide resources and services like ultrasound machines in the Asia-Pacific Rim, repairs for a gym in Thailand where IMB missionaries started a church and trauma-informed coloring books for refugee children.

Victor Hou, IMB associate vice president of global advance, reported from 2000 to 2100, the global population is projected to exceed the number of people who lived in the previous 600 years. An estimated 24.9 billion people will live, breathe and die in 100 years.

“Much of the credit goes to those of you who are health care professionals,” Hou said. “Because of your skills, because of the advances of medical technologies, because of the training and what you’re able to bring, we’ve seen lives extended. We’ve seen longevity in lifespan, and we are better at treating diseases and keeping people healthier.”

However, there is no earthly cure for the diagnosis every human receives at birth.

“Why has God placed us in this generation, in this era, in this time when we see the greatest number of people on earth and unprecedented human growth?” Hou asked.

“God has given all of us and the church this opportunity to steward his gospel to the greatest number of people who have ever walked the face of the earth.”

‘We are going to make disciples’

April Bunn, the IMB’s prayer office director, led participants through three prayer sessions. She reported 166,338 people die daily having never heard the name of Jesus.

Dr. Joel Vaughan spoke during two sessions. Vaughan is an internal medicine and pediatrics physician and served for 10 years with the IMB. He now practices medicine for a Duke Health primary care clinic in Raleigh.

“When we go, we’re not going principally to treat diabetes or rehab a bad contracture or remove a gallbladder. We’re going to make disciples,” Vaughan said.

Vaughan’s journey to the mission field began at Providence, just a few feet from where he stood.

As a 22-year-old, he sat in the sanctuary and petitioned the Lord to show him what he should do after graduating. After pleading for weeks, God answered through someone who read John 14:6, “I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”

Vaughan suggested that some in the room were in a similar situation this weekend.

“Jesus shows the way as we walk with him, as we follow him, as we’re willing to do whatever he asks us to do,” Vaughan said. “He’s going to use who you are, what you have and your skills.”

Todd Lafferty, the IMB’s executive vice president, was the key speaker during the evening sessions.

“Some of you might be sensing [God] wants you to go full time,” Lafferty said. “Now is the time to use your health care skills and combine that with the need on the field to reach people that wouldn’t otherwise be reached.

“You have a unique opportunity in the mission in our day to get to the places where most people can’t because of the skills that you have.”

Dr. Nora Chiu, an OBGYN from Houston, attended MedAdvance last year and felt the Lord leading her to use her medical skills on the mission field. She began the application process with the IMB and came to this year’s MedAdvance to confirm her calling.

“I would have never imagined using medicine to do missions,” Chiu said. “There are so many needs I didn’t realize.”

Attending this year’s MedAdvance helped confirm her call.

During the closing session, attendees were encouraged to make a commitment to partner by marking a commitment card. According to early reports, 70 committed to pray, 49 were interested in short-term trips, 12 indicated interest in mobilizing for health care missions and 35 committed to pursuing mid- or long-term service.

Texans on Mission is not only bringing fresh water and good hygiene practices to people in the Andes Mountains of Peru, but also bringing the gospel, with 46 professions of faith recorded during an August mission trip.

“We have moved our efforts in Peru from the Amazon River basin to the mountains because of various logistical challenges that surfaced along the river,” said Mitch Chapman, director of Texans on Mission Water Impact. “Now we are seeing God really move through our work.”

Texans on Mission drilling efforts in Peru have produced one successful well in the Andes, and the August team began work on a second well for another community with residents scattered throughout the mountainside.

The dry season lasts six to eight months in the Andes. Springs dry up, and pond water becomes “nasty,” said Julio Campos of Gateway Church in Justin, one of the Texas leaders in the work in Peru.

“The pond water is all they have to drink unless they walk or get to other water sources, in some cases two to four hours down the mountain and back during the dry season.”

Water Impact identified increasing opportunities in the area and began working in the region in January, but the mountains create challenges.

The mountain faces are, in places, “sheer straight up and very close to each other,” requiring multiple roadway “switchbacks all the way up the mountains,” Campos said.

Still, the first Texans on Mission well struck water at 80 meters in Capulipampa.

The August mission team divided into two groups—one to drill a new well in Llimbe and the other heading to Capulipampa to do evangelistic work.

Women receptive to the gospel

The evangelism team had planned to work with children—telling Bible stories, distributing Gold-to-Gold gospel bracelets, playing games and singing. It turned out the women of the community were open to learning through Bible study, which diverted some of the team’s efforts.

Team member Delia Lozuk of Alice “ministers like no one I’ve ever seen,” Campos said. “Ministry to women is her forte.”

On the first day, 10 to 15 mothers brought their children to be part of the activities, Campos said. By the end of the day, Lozuk “got a Bible study going on” with even more women.

Team member Rhonda Dodson said about 40 women ended up participating in the two days of Bible study led by Lozuk, and 30 of them eventually made professions of faith in Christ.

She and her husband Paul are former missionaries to Venezuela, and both speak Spanish.

“My wife Delia has an extraordinary anointing with women,” and especially with “these people that are descendants of the Inca,” Paul Lozuk said.

He explained people living in the Andes are a distinctive group.

“They are short of stature and extremely strong,” walking long distances at high altitude, he said. They also dress in traditional clothing, and “the women don’t talk too much to the men, especially foreigners,” he added.

The cultural preference for women to communicate with other women opened the door for ministry in the Andes.

Making Bibles available

“One thing I understand,” Delia Lozuk said. “There is no doubt that these people from Peru really do need Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and most do not have a Bible.”

Local pastor Alex Miranda had boxes of New Testaments, so the team handed them out. “He had enough for every single person, every woman,” she said, and copies of the complete Bible were ordered for distribution.

“The people were very hungry for the word” of God, said Dodson, a Texans on Mission Water Impact employee who was on her first mission trip. “When we were in Capulipampa, the ladies’ request was for Bibles. So, of course, we’re going to get them Bibles.”

The Bible studies took on the form of a conversation, Delia Lozuk said. The women living in the Andes were “hungry for something, and I asked them, in the middle of just having small conversations, about the Bible, about the word of God. I was trying to put everything I could in there so they could get a little bit of a taste of what I was trying to say.”

A ‘God-appointed time’

She saw the trip to Peru as being a “God-appointed time for me. … I didn’t know I was going to minister to women.” She went only as an interpreter, but “something happened the first day” as more and more women gathered.

“Women are very hungry, but we don’t know, because they don’t speak with the men for some reason,” she said. “They’ve heard about a Savior, but they don’t know the Bible.

“I’m thinking, ‘What the heck are you doing, Delia?’ But it’s not my show; it’s God’s show.” So she did another unexpected thing; she gave the women homework—Scripture to read so they can discuss it together sometime in the future.

With an expectation of a return trip, Lozuk promised to “literally give them a little nugget about every single book in the Bible” to whet their appetite for additional Bible study.

Six of the women attending the meetings stood up with excitement when asked if anyone had given their lives to Christ. By the end of the two days, all of the others had professed faith in Christ.

‘God just took control’

“It was my impression that God set all this up,” and the team “just walked into it,” Delia Lozuk said. “God just took control, and that’s really what happened. … God did this through us.”

The drilling of the second well and the evangelistic outreach did not occur in a vacuum of ease. Campos said he asked in his daily devotionals with the team for “God to show up.”

When luggage and a passport were lost, the group prayed. No matter the difficulty, Campos said the theme of the trip became, “just ask”—ask God for help. And each time, the prayers were answered.

With the success of the well drilling and the women’s ministry, Campos said the mission trip “went fantastic.”

Chapman said: “The well we drilled in Capulipampa laid the foundation for all that happened evangelistically on the trip. And now, with the second well in Llimbe, we are continuing to pursue our vision of bringing clean, sustainable water to as many people as possible while sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to people in need of both.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—The Southern Baptist Convention’s office for abuse prevention and response has launched a revamped helpline for those needing assistance with matters related to sexual abuse.

The initiative, a partnership with the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention, is designed to deliver support for survivors, ministry leaders and others needing advice on preventing sexual abuse or responding to abuse allegations.

The helpline can be accessed at 833-611-HELP or by visiting https://sbcabuseprevention.com/helpline. The website also features email and chat options.

The office for abuse prevention and response, a department of the SBC Executive Committee created last September, announced the new helpline Aug. 18.

“Our new helpline suite of services enhances our efforts at providing Southern Baptist churches and ministries the resources they need to prevent sexual abuse or respond to sexual abuse allegations,” SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg said.

“The new helpline will provide competent assistance to those seeking assistance—for survivors as well as services for ministry leaders who are responding on these issues. We are putting in place long-term strategies for confronting this pernicious evil because even one instance of sexual abuse is too many.”

Help for survivors and ministry leaders

The establishment of the helpline begins the transition away from a hotline hosted by Guidepost Solutions since May 2022. Jeff Dalrymple, director of the SBC’s abuse prevention office and a founding member and former executive director of the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention, told Baptist Press the council shares Southern Baptists’ convictions and values.

There are currently three call takers and four coaches, Dalrymple said. The coaches have been approved by the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention, and the call takers have completed specially designed training in addressing crisis situations.

“Christian experts lent their expertise to create the training from scratch,” he said. “It didn’t exist before.”

Call takers will receive calls and walk through each unique situation with the caller, then refer a caller to a coach as needed.

“In addition to the functionality of the Guidepost tip line, we felt compelled to provide help to survivors that are calling that need access to counseling and for ministry leaders that find themselves in the middle of an abuse allegation and don’t know what to do,” Dalrymple said.

The Guidepost-operated hotline, which averages 15 to 20 calls per month, will remain active through at least the end of this year, Dalrymple told BP.

“We don’t want to miss any calls,” he said.

Dalrymple called sexual abuse “a scourge on our society.”

“We aim to prevent sexual abuse from occurring in the first place, but when it does occur, we will use our resources to respond in a healing manner following the teachings of Jesus Christ,” he said.

How the helpline works

The helpline will respond to the following four areas of service:

• Reporting abuse to the SBC Credentials Committee and to the appropriate authorities
• Coaching for appropriate church-related response to abuse claims, within ministry programs or external.
• Trauma-informed Christian counseling referrals for victim/survivors, family and caregiver
• Guidance regarding abuse prevention in ministry

Call takers will be available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Central, with after-hours options available also. One of the call takers is fluent in Spanish, and translation services for other languages, including American Sign Language, are available.

“Calls will be triaged to determine what assistance would be most helpful to the caller,” Dalrymple said. “This could mean guiding a caller through legal reporting requirements, seeking a referral for survivor care, and/or providing support for a ministry leader navigating an allegation or incident of abuse.”

Matt Espenshade is a former FBI agent who now serves as executive pastor of Journey Church in Lebanon, Tenn. He also is a member of the SBC Abuse Prevention & Response Advisory Committee and gave input for the helpline.

“The collaborative effort between the SBC and the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention demonstrates how to lead with integrity and humility in providing a resource for timely, accessible, transparent and biblically grounded expertise to ensure this problem is not ignored or mishandled,” Espenshade said.

“The helpline is more than a resource; it is a statement of commitment to pursue justice, extend grace, and ensure that the church remains a place of safety, hope and healing.”

FORT WORTH (BP)— Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President David S. Dockery told faculty and staff the seminary has experienced a “turnaround” and is in “a place of stability and health” at the start of a new academic year.

Dockery voiced gratitude for God’s faithfulness over recent years and expressed reliance on God’s blessings in the future.

“I am incredibly excited as we enter this new year,” Dockery said of the measurable improvements made over the past three years.

“We have a new place of stability in terms of continuity of people, financial stability, enrollment markers, faithfulness from our donor base. … God has blessed us during these three years.”

Third straight year of measurable improvement

Dockery said the 2024-25 academic year was the third straight year of increases in both the nonduplicating annual headcount enrollment and credit hours taught.

Enrollment increased from 3,403 to 3,656 while credit hours increased from 33,253 to 36,284. This was the first time since 2014-2016 to have three consecutive years of increases in those areas, he said.

Southwestern also continued to make measurable steps toward institutional and financial stability. This past year, Dockery observed the seminary has seen additional improvements to its operational and financial positions, noting a $9 million operational turnaround over three years and a third year of reaching the institution’s goals for unrestricted giving.

“These three years have strong markers in enrollment and financial management and unrestricted giving, and in that sense, I think these things point to a genuine turnaround, particularly financial,” Dockery said.

“We are at a place of stability and health as we enter this new year that Southwestern has not seen in a long time. We haven’t arrived, we still have work to do, but we’re in such a different place than was the case in 2022. … God has been so good to us, and I hope that you will not let it go by without thanking the Lord for his providential care for us.”

Dockery said the institution will continue to address the sanctions from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which this summer noted the seminary had made considerable progress but still needed to focus on three particular areas.

‘A renewed sense of hopefulness’

He also pointed out other achievements including the revised Master of Divinity degree program, the recently launched Equip the Called platform, and the publishing of Shapers of the Southwestern Theological Tradition and other faculty publications.

Dockery also spotlighted national and international mission trips, as well as new partnerships with the Prestonwood Pregnancy Center, Logos Bible Software and a gap-year program with Turning Point Academy.

“We enter this new year with a renewed hopefulness, a lot of good things happening,” Dockery said.

When he voiced commitment to pursue the seminary’s core values of being grace filled, Christ centered, scripturally grounded, confessionally guided, student focused and globally engaged, faculty and staff joined in reciting the seminary’s mission statement.

He underscored the previously announced theme verse for the 2024-2025 academic year, Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.”

During the annual gathering, the seminary also recognized faculty and staff celebrating significant service anniversaries this past year, including 15 years for Adam Dodd and Brian Rolfe, and 25 years for Jamie Knight.

Jimbob Brown, director of audio-visual productions, Stephanie Litton, director of Student Success and International Student Services, and Brian Rolfe, data architect in Campus Technology, were named the three staff members of the year.

Brent Leatherwood, who spent nearly four years dealing with critics from the most conservative wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, resigned as head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

The commission’s board announced Leatherwood’s resignation July 31. Miles Mullin, vice president and chief of staff, will serve as acting president.

Leatherwood—a former executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party—played a key role in advocating for the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood.

The ERLC under his direction also placed 40 ultrasound machines in pregnancy resource centers around the country through its Psalm 139 Project.

However, Leatherwood resisted the efforts of some abortion abolitionists to seek criminal penalties for women who pursue abortions. That position proved unpopular with a vocal segment of Southern Baptists.

Other Southern Baptists criticized the ERLC under Leatherwood’s direction for participating in the Evangelical Immigration Roundtable.

Agency survived vote at SBC in Dallas

At the SBC annual meeting in Dallas in June, Southern Baptists voted to reject a motion to do away with the ERLC.

However, the motion to abolish the agency received support from about 43 percent of the voting messengers at the annual meeting. It marked the fourth attempt in recent years to disband or defund the ERLC.

Seven weeks after the ERLC survived the floor vote at the SBC, its board issued a statement from Leatherwood announcing his departure from the moral concerns and public policy agency.

“After nearly four years leading this institution, it is time to close this chapter of my life,” he stated. “It has been an honor to guide this Baptist organization in a way that has honored the Lord, served the churches of our convention, and made this fallen world a little better.”

He applauded the ERLC and its staff, saying the commission “never wavered in serving as a light on Capitol Hill, before the courts, and in the culture.”

‘A balance between conviction and kindness’

“In all of our advocacy work, we have sought to strike a balance of conviction and kindness, one that is rooted in Scripture and reflective of our Baptist beliefs,” Leatherwood stated. “That has meant standing for truth, without equivocation, yet never failing to honor the God-given dignity of each person we engage.”

The ERLC “has helped the world clearly understand that Jesus Christ reveals a better way to live rather than the angry, self-absorbed, and cruel model that is so often served up by our modern culture, and, more importantly, he freely offers the gift of eternal salvation—selflessly purchased with his own blood,” Leatherwood continued.

“That hope has powered our work these last several years, and has shaped my own conscience. It will continue to do so as I move forward to render service where the Lord is calling me next.”

Led in the face of ‘polarizing culture’

Scott Foshie, chair of the ERLC board of trustees, expressed gratitude to Leatherwood for his leadership and service.

“Brent has led the commission well and demonstrated loving courage in the face of a divisive and increasingly polarizing culture in America,” Foshie said. “While biblical values have been under attack, Brent has been a consistent and faithful missionary to the public square. We are thankful for his commitment to the Lord and to this commission.”

That “polarizing culture in America” plagued Leatherwood for much of his tenure since the time he was elected president in 2022, after serving one year as acting president. Previously, he served the ERLC as chief of staff and director of strategic partnerships.

Leatherwood, the father of three children who survived the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, angered some in the SBC when he supported a proposal by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to allow authorities temporarily to keep guns out of the hands of people at risk of hurting themselves or others.

He also alienated some supporters of President Donald Trump when he praised President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, calling it a “selfless act.”

Kevin Smith, who was chair of the ERLC board at that time, initially announced Leatherwood was fired as ERLC president. Less than 12 hours later, the ERLC executive committee issued a statement saying Leatherwood was not fired, Smith acted without board approval, and Leatherwood had the board’s support “moving forward.”

BRISBANE—J. Merritt Johnston, executive director of Baptist World Alliance Women, urged women to live Jesus-shaped lives so the world will note, as a 4th century pagan intellectual did, “What women these Christians have!”

Delivering the final keynote address of the BWA Women’s Summit in Brisbane, Johnston explained Libanius made the comment after hearing a story of John Chrysostom’s mother, Anthusa, who was renowned for her dedication to Christ.

After summarizing who makes up the BWA sisterhood, Johnston noted as she has traveled around the world to meet with BWA Women in their home countries, “It’s overwhelming to me, the good that I see you doing.”

While people often feel overwhelmed by all the challenges happening in the world, she asserted, “There is good happening. And as I travel it is often, very often, the women that are leading that charge.”

Johnston said if the world could see what she sees and hears about the work of BWA Women, the world would be saying, “What women these Christians have!”

The evidence

As evidence, Johnston spoke of the work BWA Women have done with the United Nations promoting equality for women worldwide, a goal experts have suggested is at least 300 years away from being achieved.

Johnston said it’s not only equality the BWA Women U.N. participants are fighting for.

“We’re fighting not for equality, but eternity,” she said, noting she sees BWA Women standing strong in the worst situations.

Before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, for example, BWA assembled a group of Baptist women in Ukraine to pray. Johnston sent a message to check on the women to find out if they were OK when the situation worsened.

“Yes,” came the reply. “We’re in the basement of the church, and we can feel the walls shaking.”

Yet with bombs as the background accompaniment, the Ukrainian women sang “Count Your Blessings,” Johnston recalled, saying, “What women these Christian have.”

She spoke of “sisters in Manipur” who were stripped naked and paraded through the streets and whose churches and homes were under attack.

One “sister just had her home burned down,” but she wouldn’t be homeless because her Baptist sisters would stand with her, Johnston said.

She pointed to Scripture for the answer to the question: “How am I supposed to live the good news where I am?”

The world sees limitations—a 300-year timeline to equality. Yet, Johnston said, “time and time again women” like Jesus’ mother Mary, Mary Magdeline and the other Mary bore witness—to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.

The world may “see through the lens of limitation, but the Lord sees through the lens of love,” Johnston observed.

“Jesus loves you,” she said. “Jesus loves me,” but sometimes “we forget what it is to feel loved.”

Because Jesus loves “you, we have the best news,” that needs to be shared with those who do not know Jesus yet.

She urged women to live into the charge in Luke 4:18-19, to proclaim the good news, so that the world would note, not only “What women these Christians have,” but even more, “What a God these women have!”

General secretary’s address

BWA Women is a fully integrated ministry arm of the Baptist World Alliance. In BWA General Secretary and CEO Elijah Brown’s opening address to the BWA Women’s Summit, he affirmed women’s equality and disavowed limitations upon how God uses them.

“BWA Women,” Brown began. “You are at the heart of the Baptist World Alliance, just as you are at the heart of the biblical narrative.”

Providing a list from Scripture, he backed up his claim, noting, Shiprah and Puah were the midwives fighting for justice and stood against government oppression to bring forth life.

Rahab provided refuge to strangers. Ruth “embraced isolation and risk … to provide for her family,” and Hannah’s “prayer and sacrifice sets in motion the search for a king … and gives rise to a deepened worship and understanding of God,” Brown said.

“It was Huldah, who was trusted to provide theological reflection and insight into the ways of the Lord.”

And he noted, Esther bravely prevented a genocide. Elizabeth sensed the Spirit in ways her husband, a priest, did not, and she bore and reared “the voice of one calling in the wilderness.”

Mary the mother of Jesus changed history. Mary Magdelene and the other Mary were “commissioned as the first evangelists with a transformative declaration that ‘Jesus is risen,’” Brown said.

He said Mary the mother of Mark likely owned the home where the Last Supper was hosted and where Jesus gathered with his disciples after the resurrection, the home where the disciples reflected on the Holy Spirit’s outpouring at Pentecost and perhaps where the first church in the world was organized.

Lydia was the first Christian in what is today, Europe. Priscilla, with her husband planted a church. Junia was well known to the apostles and imprisoned for her faith, Brown reminded the women.

“We could go on,” Brown said, because the Scriptures are clear: “women are equal custodians of faith leadership.”

Brown noted, “the BWA continues to affirm the calling God places on the lives of women to serve him fully and completely.”

Yet, Brown observed, women continue to face “disproportionate levels of gender discrimination,” forced marriages and higher levels of violence—including “sinful domestic abuse.”

Women “often face religious persecution in ways less visible than men,” including “house arrest, abduction and loss of custody.”

Brown noted, women “even within the church, are too often discounted and dismissed.”

“I am sorry,” he said. “And BWA affirms every woman, equally alongside men,” to be created in God’s image and filled with the same Holy Spirit as the resurrected Jesus when they accept him.

“You are equally called to join Jesus in his redeeming mission in the world today,” Brown said, whether as ordained pastors or in other equally important ways.

Brown pointed to the first sermon given in the church by Peter: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams and even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those last days.”

Brown noted his prayer is for everyone in the world to have an opportunity to know Jesus and affirmed the important role BWA Women play in helping to accomplish that mission.

He prayed for God to “do it again”—send a global revival and pour out his Spirit as he had at Pentecost—“and Lord, let it begin right now, and right here, with BWA Women.”

CORDOVA, Tenn. (BP)—Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., called Ben Mandrell as senior pastor. Mandrell has served as president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources since 2019.

“I cannot tell you how thankful we are for this moment,” Mandrell, 48, said in a statement from the church. “This big hurricane of Bellevue love has just swallowed us up.”

The July 13 vote came as the entire church met in an overflow worship service followed by a special-called business session. His first Sunday as pastor is scheduled for Aug. 10, according to church staff.

Bellevue has played a key role in the Memphis area and across the Southern Baptist Convention over the last century with pastoral leadership from R.G. Lee, Adrian Rogers and Steve Gaines, all former SBC presidents.

Gaines, 67, announced last September his desire for a pastoral transition process to begin at the church. He has served as Bellevue’s senior pastor since 2005.

The pastor search committee began its work in November 2024, according to the release.

“In our first meeting, we spent most of our time in prayer,” said Chad Hall, chairman of the pastor search committee, in the statement. “From that very first night, we began praying for our pastor. We prayed for his wife, his kids—his whole family. We didn’t know who he was, and we didn’t know where he was, but we knew God did.”

According to 2024 Annual Church Profile data, Bellevue reported 7,382 people for in-person and online worship attendance, 329 total baptisms and $26,276,186 in total undesignated receipts.

Earlier this week, Mandrell met with Lifeway staff to inform them of the potential call.

“Our entire family is deeply grateful for these years in Nashville with Lifeway,” he said. “This ministry is filled with salt-of-the-earth people, and it’s truly heartbreaking to think we won’t see their faces as often in the years to come. Even so, the Lord has made it crystal clear that it’s time for us to return to the pastorate and to join the Bellevue family.”

Lifeway trustees met July 15 and selected Joe Walker, Lifeway’s executive vice president and chief operating officer to serve as interim president and CEO until a new president is named, in accordance with Lifeway’s bylaws.

Mandrell has roots in West Tennessee, having served as pastor of Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, Tenn., from 2006-2013. He also served as the church’s college pastor and as director of discipleship ministries at Union University in Jackson.

The Mandrells left Jackson in 2014 to help launch Storyline Fellowship in Denver, Colo. The church, planted through a partnership with the North American Mission Board and First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., grew to nearly 1,000 in weekly worship attendance prior to Mandrell’s departure for Lifeway in 2019.

A native of Tampico, Ill., Mandrell is a 1998 graduate of Anderson (Ind.) University. He also holds a master of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Union University.

Mandrell and his wife Lynley have four children.

BRISBANE—Ralph West, founding pastor of The Church Without Walls in Houston, challenged global Baptists to embrace a “theology of reconciliation.”

He was among more than 50 speakers representing about 30 countries who presented Bible studies in 10 languages—with each presenter teaching the same passage each day—during the Baptist World Congress, July 10-12.

In a study of 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, West encouraged Baptists to recognize they worship a God who is reconciling his creation to himself.

“God’s ultimate act of reconciliation was to send his only Son,” he said. “All reconciliation comes through Christ.”

Through the incarnation, God reconciled himself to humanity by taking on humanity, he noted.

“People need a Jesus who they can identify with and a Jesus who can identify with them,” West said.

Baptists and other Christians need to answer the call to be “ambassadors for Christ,” he said, recognizing an ambassador’s role is not to make policy but to represent faithfully the policy of the one who is sovereign.

“We are not given authority to change the message,” West said.

Rather, Christians are to proclaim “a message of peace and a message of freedom” as presented in Scripture and to “set the message loose in the world,” he said.

Disruptive good news

Julio Guarneri, executive director of Texas Baptists also taught on 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2. He focused on the disruptive nature of the good news.

Recalling a series of disruptive events from his own history—beginning with his parents’ coming to Texas from Mexico as missionaries to Spanish-speaking people in his teen years—Guarneri asserted surrender to God’s direction moved him to a deeper plane, no matter how imperfect his surrender may have been.

In the passage, Jesus sets his kingdom agenda of reconciliation—an agenda that is clear: “through his perfect work on the cross, he proclaims good news to the poor, freedom for the captive,” sight to the blind, healing for the sick and the beginning a new era of the Lord’s favor.

“Our agenda ought to reflect Jesus’… the metric for success ought to be the same as that of Jesus,” Guarneri noted.

Jesus’ agenda is comprehensive, including proclamation, healing and liberation. “It is physical, it is spiritual, and it’s emotional,” he said.

“The nature of the gospel requires us to be holistic in our approach,” Guarneri noted, continuing, “Our ministry is about words and about works … It is about loving, and it’s about living the good news.”

Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians they are partners with God, he said.

God’s coworkers cannot be mere recipients of God’s redemption, but also must be reconcilers, Guarneri asserted.

God’s heart has always been for the nations, but the Holy Spirit’s power took an ethnocentric understanding of God and “reframed it to be inclusive of all people.”

When God sends the disciples, it starts a global movement that extends to the ends of the earth.

Guarneri noted 60 percent of the world’s Christians today can be found in the Global South where Christianity is growing rapidly.

So, “the church, the academy and the mission” are at a pivotal moment.

“To be disruptible disciples in the rest of the world is to change our paradigm from simply thinking that we send from the West to the rest of the world, to coming alongside the Global South to send from everywhere to everywhere.”

Godly fasting

God wants his people to fast—not to deprive themselves of needed nourishment but to meet the needs of others, said Micheline Makkar from Damascus, Syria.

“True fasting is doing good and loving justice,” Makkar said, focusing on Isaiah 58:6-12. “A godly fast is not about afflicting oneself but about liberating others.”

When a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Aleppo in 2023, no international humanitarian aid was able to reach the affected people because of sanctions imposed on Syria, she recalled.

Many members of the Baptist Church of Damascus struggled to feed their own families and had experienced deprivation themselves due to war.

However, leaders of the congregation encouraged church members to share what little food and other resources they had with the people of Aleppo.

“Our church gave 1,000 bags of blessing to Aleppo—from the poor to the poor,” Makkar said. “Our church learned fasting.”

God honors acts of “costly compassion” as expressions of worship, she said.

“God answers those who answer the needs of others,” Makkar said. “God responds to human mercy with divine favor.”

Acts of kindness and pursuit of justice are never in vain, even if their results are not immediately apparent, because they plant “the seeds for generational renewal,” she said.

Makkar urged global Baptists to ask: “What legacy of justice am I leaving?”

With additional reporting by Calli Keener.

BRISBANE—Bruce Webb, pastor of The Woodlands First Baptist Church, recounted the history of Baptist advocacy for freedom of religion during a breakout session at the Baptist World Congress focused on the persecution of Christians.

Webb started with Thomas Helwys and John Smyth becoming the first Baptists in direct response to the lack of complete religious freedom in England.

He traced Baptist championing of religious freedom through the American colonies, noting persecution of dissenting Christians by the official state churches—during that period.

“Using political power to achieve spiritual gains … is always short-sighted,” Webb said, alluding to Christian nationalism.

“If we give Congress or any political leader the power to give Christianity an advantage, then we also give them the power to remove it and grant that advantage to another ideology we oppose.”

“Baptist Christians have historically believed, if put on equal footing, Christianity will win because it is true,” Webb continued.

“We have never asked for an advantage, have never supported coercion, but have passionately advocated for the freedom to worship, serve God and share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone everywhere.”

Samson Aderinto Adedokun, pastor of New Dawn Baptist Church in Lagos, Nigeria, described the situation for Christians in his country. He and his family have experienced religious persecution firsthand by what he called “Islamic fundamentalists.”

Adedokun described the positive results of persecution. Persecution scatters the church, but for a purpose.

“When you cannot escape the fire, carry the flame where you land,” he said.

Persecutors also need God’s love, Adedokun said. So, persecuted Christians need to act in love. This love can be demonstrated in kindness toward persecutors. “Your kindness may be someone’s miracle,” he said.

“Persecution is temporary. Kingdom joy is permanent,” Adedokun concluded. “Joy flows from obedience [to God], not comfort.”

Lessons for churches from areas of conflict

Igor Bandura, vice president for international affairs with the Union of Ukrainian Baptists, participated in a breakout session focused on lessons learned from churches facing war, violence and terror.

Bandura began by  pointing to Psalm 46:1—“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

“This promise anchors us,” he said.

Bandura shared four lessons—“practical wisdom for any church facing trials”—Ukrainian Baptists have learned in the current war.

• “Plan for the worst. Act in faith.”

Even though their prayers expecting God to stop the war were not answered, “not one pastor said God failed us,” Bandura said. “War became our call to serve.”

• “Pace yourselves for the long haul.”

Likening war to a marathon, Bandura said: “The finish line is unknown. … Be sure you’re not alone. … Never face trials alone.”

• “Adapt your theology to war’s challenges.”

Bandura made clear he was not speaking of core theology, but theology of concepts like peace and evil.

“Peace-time theology often crumbles in war. … Theology written in a soft chair does not work because life is bloody,” he said.

“Evil is very intentional,” Bandura added. “Propaganda deceives even good Christians. … War demands sober realism. … A deceived church cannot stand.”

• “Community preserves mental and spiritual health.”

Knowing their No. 1 plan would be to serve their community when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Baptists provided  water, generated electricity and offered church basements as bomb shelters.

To maintain their mental and spiritual health and build resilience, “we laugh a lot,” cry together and pray together, Bandura said.

BRISBANE—Featured speakers at the Baptist World Congress challenged global Baptists to live out the gospel by caring for neighbors, making disciples, pursuing justice, advocating for freedom, and bearing witness to the transforming power of Christ.

With “Living the Gospel” as their theme, more than 3,000 Baptists from about 130 nations gathered in Brisbane, Australia, for the 23rd Baptist World Congress.

Throughout the international event, speakers focused on different aspects of what it means to join in the “Acts 2 movement” as presented by Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance.

Brown urged Baptists around the world to mark the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost by committing to follow principles demonstrated in Acts 2.

Disruptiveness of the gospel

John Kim, executive director of South Korea-based Good Steward, urged Baptists to embrace radical discipleship that transforms lives and disrupts the status quo.

“Jesus came to disrupt things,” Kim said, noting a life spent following Jesus is “not for the faint-hearted.”

Being a follower of Jesus and making other disciples requires making an investment in the lives of others, he noted.

“We invest in people because people matter to God,” Kim said.

Discipleship demands self-denial and challenges followers of Jesus to examine their lifestyles, he said.

“We are comfort-driven creatures,” Kim said. “We don’t want to let go of our stuff.”

Australian Baptist pastor Dale Stephenson rejected the notion that making disciples is a spiritual gift limited to only a few Christians.

“Disciple-making is everybody’s responsibility,” said Stephenson, pastor of Crossway Baptist Church in Melbourne.

“There is not a gift of disciple making. There is the command of disciple making.”

Christ gave his Great Commission—to “make disciples” of all nations—to “ordinary people” equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit, he noted.

“Listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit,” Stephenson said. “Do what God is prompting you to do.”

Pursuing freedom in a broken world

Christians should count the cost of pursuing freedom in a broken world, said Jennifer Lau, executive director of Canadian Baptist Ministries.

“The gift of freedom does not have a price, but it does have a cost,” Lau said.

While some view freedom in terms of individualistic, self-centered autonomy, true freedom in Christ is “meant to be experienced in community and in relationships,” she said.

And that connectedness carries an emotional cost, she acknowledged.

In a world “rife with injustice,” Christians cannot be emotionally detached “bystanders” to oppression, she continued. Instead, Christians are called to be people who “move toward the suffering.”

“We don’t get to stand at a comfortable distance,” Lau said.

Rather, Christians should “emulate the character of Christ” and be willing to love deeply and without restraint,” she said.

“The freedom we have in Christ compels us to be neighbors to those on the margins,” Lau said.

Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church in Southern California, called on Baptists to offer care and support to individuals who wrestle with mental health issues and to their families.

She and her husband Rick discovered the challenges families face when a loved one experiences mental illness. Their son Matthew battled mental health issues 20 years before eventually taking his life 12 years ago.

Families whose lives are touched by mental health struggles need the love of a caring community, she stressed, and churches can meet that need.

“Every church—no matter its size, location or financial status—can make an intentional, deliberate decision to become a caring and compassionate sanctuary for individuals living with mental illness and their families,” Warren said.

She urged churches to minister to families affected by mental illness by helping meet practical needs, training volunteers and putting them to work, removing the stigma attached to mental illness, collaborating with the community and offering hope.

Courageous truth-telling

“Perilous times” compel Baptists to be courageous truth-tellers, said Marsha Scipio, director of Baptist World Aid.

“Truth-telling can get you into trouble,” Scipio said. “It can have painful consequences. But truth-telling can lead to transformation.”

Sometimes, Christians must assume a prophetic posture and offer “frank speech” that challenges the status quo, she stressed.

“Prophetic speech names what is wrong that needs to be made right,” Scipio said.

While “frank speech” may produce sadness, it can become godly sorrow leading to repentance that produces transformation, she said.

“Be about the business of prophetic agitation,” she urged. “Take up the mantle of truth-telling.”

Kethoser Kevichusa of Nagaland, director of intercultural learning and collaboration with BMS World Mission, described the state of the world and Christ’s impact on it.

“We all know our world is in a mess,” he said.

The coming of Jesus did not bring an immediate end to violence, poverty, hunger and injustice, he acknowledged. However, it brought something far greater.

“Jesus brought God in the flesh,” he said. “We now have God with us.”

God has “staked his claim” on all of creation, and he has given his Holy Spirit to his people to guide, equip and empower them to proclaim the gospel, Kevichusa said.

The New Testament book of Acts emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in the growth of the church and the spread of the gospel, he noted.

“If the early church needed the Holy Spirit so much, how much more do we?” he asked.

Charlie Dates, pastor of both Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago and Salem Baptist Church in Chicago, called on global Baptists to be “anointed proclaimers” who are “not ashamed of the gospel.”

“The gospel is the only message that cures what it diagnoses. The gospel has unlimited capacity. The gospel is the power of God,” Dates said.

Unfortunately, some churches go to the wrong source for power, he noted. In the United States, some Christians hope to gain power from political candidates and elected officials.

“We have moved from megachurches to MAGA churches,” Dates said.

Christians need to recognize the church does not need worldly power, because it already has been entrusted with a powerful gospel that has “incomparable rearranging power,” he observed.

The gospel has the power to transform lives, and that transforming power is available personally to all who will receive it, he emphasized.

“The gospel is for everybody,” Dates said. “It reveals the righteousness of God.”

BRISBANE—Good news for the poor exists, and his name is Jesus, Tim Costello, executive director of Micah Australia, told a July 9 symposium on aid, immediately prior to the Baptist World Congress.

“Yes, we worship Jesus, but Jesus didn’t say, ‘Worship me.’ He said, ‘Follow me.’ … You cannot follow Jesus without being profoundly concerned for the poor,” Costello told the symposium sponsored by the Baptist Forum on Aid and Development.

In his “signature sermon” in Nazareth at the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus proclaimed “good news for the poor,” Costello said.

When Jesus told his disciples “the poor you will have with you always,” he was not telling them there was no point in trying to alleviate poverty, he stressed. Rather, he asserted, Jesus was emphasizing his disciples’ continuing responsibility to the poor.

“There is no escaping the claims of the poor,” Costello said. “This isn’t an option. … This is fundamental to following Jesus.”

Need to ‘prioritize the poor’

A world that “is retribalizing fast” needs Christians who are not focused on the greatness of any single nation but upon the greatness of the mission of following Jesus by embodying good news for the poor, he insisted.

“It’s not about seizing power. It’s about being a witness,” Costello said.

Jesus has called his followers to “prioritize the poor” in a world that seeks to disregard them, he asserted.

“In a retribalizing, populist, post-truth, polarizing world, is there good news?  Yes, there is. The answer is Jesus. He is the good news,” Costello said.

‘This is a humanitarian disaster’

Costello described what he witnessed one week earlier, spending eight days on the Thai-Burma border among the Chin, Kachin, Karen and other persecuted ethnic minority groups.

“Please, in their moment of Gethsemane, do not forget the Baptists of Burma,” Costello urged.

Talking with Chin leaders, he heard about 60 churches that had been bombed.

“Sadly, with the cessation of USAID, the TB, malaria, HIV treatments and emergency health care is no longer getting into the ethnic areas,” he said.

A Baptist doctor with whom he spoke wondered how the hospital where she serves could continue running without USAID funds.

 “The nine refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border—mainly with Karen refugees, mainly Baptist—will all close at the end of this month. Why? Because the $1 million to feed them from USAID has ceased,” Costello said.

Other governments also have cut their aid budgets, leaving the camps without resources.

“This is a humanitarian disaster. … The churches in the ethnic areas of Burma are literally the only humanitarian centers left. There is really no aid getting in,” he reported.

“It’s the churches alone, even with churches being bombed and under attack, who are trying to feed some 1.6 million Karen internally displaced people in their state.”

Direct action, advocacy and generosity

Costello described the Australian “Safer World for All” campaign to mobilize Christians to direct action, advocacy and generous giving to help the poor.

Christians who have a passion for the world’s poor not only are contrary to society at large that sees empathy as a “fundamental weakness,” but also are at odds with some evangelicals who talk about “the sin of empathy,” he noted.

“I want to say that because it has been so profoundly influenced by the story of the Good Samaritan, the fundamental strength of western civilization is empathy,” Costello said. “It’s good news for the poor.”

In a panel discussion, Irene Gallegos with Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission emphasized the importance of working not only at the “macro level” through large-scale organizations and international efforts, but also at the “micro level” through personal ministry to neighbors.

A vision of shalom

Johnathan Hemmings with the Jamaica Baptist Union focused on the need to serve the poor, stand with the poor and walk alongside the poor.

Missional engagement must be informed by a vision of shalom—biblical peace and wholeness, he asserted.

Hemmings described how the “haves” and the “have nots” perceive peace differently. Those who have abundance may be willing to practice charity but not be open to transformational initiatives because they benefit from the status quo, he observed.

“Charity never transforms systems and structures. It requires justice, mercy and humility,” he said.

Wissam Nasrallah, chief operations officer for Thimar, a Christian nonoprofit based in Lebanon, decried any form of the gospel that is focused exclusively on improving one’s own life, rather than doing good for everyone.

“What the gospel does, first and foremost, is that it destroys self-centeredness,” he said. “This is the source of our ills. We are too self-centered.”

Move beyond charity

Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, United Nations resident coordinator in Lesotho, not only participated in the panel discussion, but also as keynote speaker at a luncheon sponsored by Baptist World Aid.

“I think we have become too comfortable,” Mukwashi said, challenging churches to move beyond charity and instead pursue freedom and justice for the poor by seeking to dismantle unjust systems and structures.

“We live in a turbulent and volatile world. … It is a world where poverty, war and injustice persist,” she said. “But it is a world where the church is called to respond not just with charity, but with prophetic clarity and moral courage and fortitude,” she said.

She drew a sharp contrast between allegiance to the empires of this world and the kingdom of God.

The church too often mirrors the unjust systems and structures of empire, but it is called to disrupt and dismantle them, she stressed.

“It involves breaking free from both external domination and internalized oppression, from inherited injustice and distorted images of God, self and others,” Mukwashi said. “It means calling out the gospel of Caesar masquerading as the gospel of Christ.”

Deliverance from the grip of empire

The Exodus story not only was the central event of God’s people in the Old Covenant, but also informs how the church should view liberation today, she emphasized.

Exodus focused on “God delivering his people from the grip of empire not only physically but spiritually,” she said.

“Pharaoh and empire did not see the Israelites as people or as neighbors. It saw them as threats, laborers and problems to manage and to solve. Their identity was stripped. Their worth was reduced to simply economy. I hope that sounds familiar,” Mukwashi said.

“Many of our churches and institutions have inherited theologies shaped by empire—prioritizing hierarchy over service, order over justice, control over compassion, and charity over restoration—and God help us if we mention the word ‘reparations.’”

‘Are we preaching a gospel of freedom?’

Even humanitarian aid to the poor can become an instrument of manipulation and oppression, she noted.

“When humanitarian efforts treat people as problems instead of partners, they unintentionally mirror Pharaoh’s mindset. Aid is offered, but voice is silenced. Needs are met, yet dependency is perpetuated,” she said.

“The church must ask itself, ‘Are we empowering communities, or are we replicating Egypt draped in religious language?’”

The people of God are called to a reimagined world and to create community “where dignity is restored and the image of God is recognized in every one of us,” she said.

“Are we preaching a gospel that liberates or one that domesticates? … Are we preaching a gospel of freedom?” she asked.

“Are our churches places of refuge or replicas of Pharaoh’s palace? Have we accepted theologies and structures that mimic empire more than the kingdom of God?”

Christians are called to challenge empire—including empire within the church, she said.

BRISBANE—The Baptist World Alliance Women’s Summit celebrated the work of Baptist women around the globe and connected them to support one another with renewed sense of purpose in living the good news.

Along with BWA Women Executive Director J. Merritt Johnston and outgoing President Karen Wilson and Secretary/Treasurer Sherrie Cherdak, the women who comprise BWA Women Executive Board lead continental unions of Baptist women.

These serve voluntarily as BWA Women vice presidents and as presidents of their continental conferences.

Each regional leader reported on special projects their organizations have undertaken, as well the ongoing work of Baptist women in her continent or region.

Union leaders reported work related to ministering to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, religious persecution, literacy education for children and adults, disaster relief, ministry in areas of conflict and to internally displaced people and otherwise meeting basic human needs.

All the while, women proclaimed the good news of Jesus and sought to disciple and intentionally seek to engage young Baptist women to become Jesus-shaped leaders.

The unions and their leaders include: Verónica León Caro, Unión Femenil Bautista de América Latina; Siham Daoud, European Baptist Women United; Karlene Edwards-Warrick, Caribbean Baptist Women’s Union; Patty Lane, Baptist Women of North America; Elissa Mcpherson, Baptist Women of the Pacific; Jane Mwangi, Baptist Women’s Union of Africa; and Vernette Myint Myint San, Asia Baptist Women’s Union.

Live counter-cultural lives

Tamiko Jones, executive director of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, challenged BWA Women to live counter-cultural lives, formed by the Holy Spirit, and do good even if it means suffering like Jesus.

Jones noted four teachings found in Romans 12 showing how to live lives on the basis of Christ.

First, Christians are to demonstrate love—not a transactional love, but a genuine love that seeks to outdo one another in showing honor.

Christians are not to wait until someone is “worthy” to show love, but rather to love one another as Christ, who died for us while we were still sinners, loved us, Jones said.

Also, Christians are to serve enthusiastically, “not as unto man, but unto the Lord Jesus,” who though he was worthy to be served, chose instead to serve.

Following Christ means that we are servants first, “as we serve in a global community, as we serve right where he has placed us,” Jones said.

Romans 12 also compels Christians to keep on praying even through the most difficult circumstances and to practice hospitality, holding each other accountable in community and giving testimony to the ways our lives never have been the same since meeting Jesus.

“Our sisters” around the globe need hope, Jones asserted, noting “we have more in common than our differences.”

“For such a time as this, we must be unified and demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ to the world,” she said.

Two panels discussed the global issue of gender-based violence and sexual abuse and global Baptist women leaders.

Gender-based violence panel

French Baptist theologian Valérie Duval-Poujol began the Red Chair Project to raise awareness of domestic abuse and sexual abuse. She shared startling statistics to answer the question of “why” there is a need for global advocacy on this matter to begin panel discussion.

Duval-Poujol noted:

• Globally, 12 million girls are forced into marriage each year “which often means a sentence to domestic violence for life” she asserted.
• 6,000 girls are subject to female genital mutilation each day.
• Excluding marital rape, which were those numbers included the statistics would be even higher she pointed out, in the United States every 1.5 minutes a woman is raped.
• Worldwide, 1 in 3 teenage girls aged 16 to 19 in settled relationships has been the victim of emotional, physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of her husband or partner.
• Globally a woman or girl dies at the hand of an intimate partner or family member every 11 minutes.
• Globally, 1 in 4 women has experienced sexual violence from her intimate partner in the last 12 months.
• And in every denomination, 1 in 4 Christian women has experienced domestic violence in her current relationship.

Other panelists included Ruta Aloalii, community conversations facilitator and leader of Village Connect in Australia, and Zandile Tshabalala, general secretary of the Baptist Convention of South Africa National Women’s Department and manager of Ndawo Yahko, a women’s shelter for abused women and their children in South Africa.

Aloalii and Tshabalala discussed with Duval-Poujol and moderator Pastora Nohemy Acosta, of Honduras, their efforts to combat domestic and sexual violence in their countries.

Baylor University President Linda Livingstone participated in the second panel featuring global Baptist women leaders, which included Penetina Kogoya, who has served for 20 years as representative for Paupua Indigenous peoples in the Papuan Parliament and Melissa Lipsett, CEO of Baptist World Aid.

Introduction of new leaders

Outgoing BWA Women President Karen Wilson of Australia explained the term for the new officers beginning their terms will be shorted from 5 years to 2.5 years. Caribbean Baptist Women’s Union President Karlene Edwards-Warrick was announced as incoming president, the first Caribbean woman to hold the position.

Wilson noted the second officer now will serve under a new title as first vice president. That officer’s term also is reduced to 2.5 years but with the hope that the first vice president then would step into the role of president. Rula Abassi form Jordan was announced as the new first vice president.

BWA President Tomás Mackey of Argentina prayed a blessing over the women as they assume their new leadership roles.