It was a privilege last Sunday for Steve and I to share lunch with Rodney McCann, the National Leader of our Baptist Family of Churches here in NZ, and Dr Neville Callam, the General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance.
The Baptist World Alliance began in 1905 and is a fellowship of 214 Baptist conventions and unions worldwide, comprising a membership of 36 million baptized believers and a community of 105 million.
It seeks to be a global movement sharing a common confession of faith in Jesus Christ, bonded together by God’s love to support, encourage and strengthen one another, while proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to a lost world. Coming together as a whole enables us, for example to advocate on behalf of persecuted Baptists.
The Baptist World Alliance has five stated goals:
1. To unite Baptists worldwide.
2. To lead in world evangelism.
3. To respond to people in need.
4. To defend human rights.
5. To promote theological reflection.
It was great to meet this learned and gracious Jamaican and hear a little about the work of the BWA, as well as to be encouraged in the work that we are undertaking down under in Aotearoa New Zealand.