Baptists Highlight Cooperation Amid Diversity Challenges
Very, very little should divide Baptist Christians, said the head of a global Baptist group.
Baptist World Alliance president David Coffey recently concluded a brief U.S. tour that made stops in Kentucky and Texas, where he urged cooperation especially addressing those of Southern Baptist heritage.
"The Baptist World Alliance needs Kentucky Baptists, and I dare to suggest to you that Kentucky Baptists need the Baptist World Alliance – because we are family," said Coffey at Campbellsville University, a Kentucky Baptist Convention-related school, according to Associated Baptist Press.
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The Southern Baptist Convention withdrew its membership from the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) in an overwhelming vote in 2004. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson had noted a "continual leftward drift in the BWA" at the time of the vote.
"The decision saddened me," Coffey said of the withdrawal, "and I still have some very good friends on the other side of the decision."
Addressing charges of liberalism among some BWA member bodies, Coffey acknowledged wide diversity in the global body but affirmed the BWA is not a liberal organization.
"Are there liberals in the BWA? When you have a family of 34 million baptized believers … inevitably you will have those who will cast themselves as liberals. The real question is: Is the Baptist World Alliance liberal? The answer to that is no," he said, according to ABP.
"I think Christians must always hold in their hearts the hope of reconciliation," Coffey told Kentucky Baptists.
The Washington-based Baptist World Alliance claims a membership of 38 million members worldwide with membership most concentrated in the United States. Some of the organization's main objectives include uniting Baptists worldwide and leading in world evangelism. Coffey, who was elected in 2005 to a five-year terms as BWA president, regularly visits Baptists worldwide promoting unity and the work of the global body.
Baptists need to focus less on the differences that divide us and more on the Savior who unites, Coffey told a group of Texas Baptists during the Baptist General Convention of Texas' annual meeting last week. This unity allows Baptists to speak with one voice when calling others to repentance and faith in Jesus, he said, according to the Texas convention.
Coffey's continued call for cooperation comes as Baptists increasingly recognize the urgency for world mission works and thus the need for unity around the Great Commission.
Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page has urged fellow Southern Baptists to "build bridges" rather than tear them down in support of missions.
"We are far more diverse than maybe we previously had thought," Page noted, alluding to Building Bridges author Dr. David Dockery's description of a large number of subgroups currently active within the SBC.
"The book points to the truth that our potential is awesome. I have stated around our convention that if we move in the common direction of supporting missions and evangelism as we should, God can do great things through us," Page wrote in a recent column, according to Baptist Press. "It is my prayer that we truly will get behind the task of world missions and evangelization."
The Rev. Neville Callam, the first black BWA general secretary, has also placed emphasis on the need for living out a life of unity despite diversities, particularly in the United States where it can be a more challenging task.
Callam, who ended his month-long tour across North America last week, has urged for a "genuine unity that flows from our understanding of our common baptism, our oneness in Christ Jesus and of the admissibility of diversity in some of the areas of our lives."
"And I believe that it is in the mind of Christ that Christians should be united," Callam said.
