Speakers during the virtual Baptist World Congress called on the global Baptist community to work together in the midst of their diversity for the sake of the gospel.
Public health concerns related to COVID-19 and international travel restrictions forced BWA to postpone the Baptist World Congress last year and conduct the event this year virtually rather than in person.
However, BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown noted the July 7-10 online event allowed for greater and broader participation in the 2021 Baptist World Congress.
“This Congress is the most globally diverse gathering of Baptists in the 115-year history of the BWA, and it may—perhaps—be the most globally diverse gathering of Baptists in our 400-year history as a movement,” Brown said.
Christians in general and Baptists in particular need to stand together in diversity, Paul Msiza, a past president of the Baptist World Alliance, told the virtual Baptist World Congress.
The blood of Jesus has the power to remove every barrier that separates people and to draw believers together, said Msiza, senior pastor of Peniel Salem Baptist Church in Pretoria, South Africa.
‘Blood brothers and sisters in Christ’
“Yes, we have become blood brothers and sisters in Christ,” Msiza said. “In our diversity, we have been brought into one family.”
Baptists also are able to stand together in their diversity because they belong to one kingdom—God’s kingdom, he said.
“The kingdom transcends our government, transcends our tribes, transcends our clans, transcends every ethnic group and every kingdom of earth,” Msiza said.
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The same Holy Spirit indwells and empowers every believer, he added.
“Without the blood of the Lamb that purchased us and brings us into the kingdom of God, without the power of the Holy Spirit, all that is left in us is tribalism, racism and sexism,” Msiza said.
Christians live in a world filled with pain, suffering and conflict, he observed. But they must not allow themselves to be used to contribute to division.
“We see politicians in many parts of the world continue to become instruments of division, causing frictions within their nations. These frictions are running so deep that they affect every person, including Christians. It is sad that in some parts of the world, even Christians are used as instruments to perpetuate these divisions,” Msiza said.
“May the Lord help us to know that we are special. We were bought at the most expensive price. We can never be used to be instruments of darkness. We belong to God.”
Together in bearing witness
John Kok, senior pastor of Kuala Lumpur Baptist Church in Malaysia, asked Baptists globally to consider, “How can we be a good witness if first of all we Baptists are not together?”
“We are not an island by ourselves. We Christians are not an island by ourselves. We Baptist Christians are not an island by ourselves,” Kok said. “We need one another. Therefore, we need to work together.”
Christ’s Great Commission compels Baptist Christians to bear witness of Jesus and the gospel message, he said.
“We lead with a passionate commitment to gospel witness in every context and people group. We foster multidirectional partnerships that connect individuals and churches and encourage global mission and evangelism,” Kok said.
“The unbelieving world needs to see the gospel’s transforming power and witness embodied in a local family of Christians who love God and serve each other in the most gracious and loving way.”
Together in pursuing justice
Karen Kirley, a pastor within the Jamaica Baptist Union for 19 years, challenged global Baptists to unite around the proclamation and pursuit of God’s justice.
“God’s creative activity in creation affirms God’s commitment to creation—that is, a commitment shaped by God’s self-giving love to transform the brokenness of creation generated by acts of injustice,” Kirley said. “God’s justice pays attention to the relationships between God, people and the rest of creation.
“It is about respecting the humanity of every person despite human diversity. It means bearing evidence of a commitment to shared life which nurtures a value system in which all people feel included and is the response to the work of inclusivity the Holy Spirit performs.
“It means standing in solidarity with all of creation by honoring its integrity. It also means bearing witness of God’s covenantal relationship with us—that relationship which fuels our declarations of God’s justice for all creation.”
The marginalized of the world are at the heart of the continuing struggle for justice, Kirley said.
“God in Jesus Christ shares in the actual situations of the marginalized—the migrants, refugees, landless, abused and poor—by entering into their toil, suffering and alienation or by being present in their displacement,” she said.
God’s incarnational ministry
The global Christian community—including the global Baptist fellowship—bears “faithful witness of God’s incarnational mission” by being involved in the lives of the vulnerable and marginalized, Kirley emphasized.
“Here is an opportunity to be bound to a partnership with those whom Jesus dared to welcome and those to whom he extended his hospitality,” she said. “The global Christian community is a Spirit-led advocate for those treated unjustly.”
Kirley specifically called on Christians to be involved in advocating for workplace equity and diversity; against predatory lending; against gender inequality and gender-based violence; against forced child labor; and for basic services and health care for migrants, refugees and the poor.
Until Christ returns, Christians live in a fallen and sinful world, laboring under an inherited debt, said Robert Smith Jr., professor of Christian preaching at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala.
Smith pointed to the Hebrew Prophet Jeremiah’s words to God’s people during their exile in Babylon—the middle-aged and older generations who never would return to Jerusalem, as well as the young people who would go back to Judah to rebuild the temple.
“God has a plan for our lives,” Smith said, and Jesus was the One who made possible the fulfillment of the promises made long ago. God’s ultimate plan is to gather his people—believers “from every nation, tribe, people and language”—in the New Jerusalem, he concluded.
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