The Baptist World Alliance's 18th Baptist World Congress, held January 5-9, 2000, in Melbourne, Australia, featured a mixture of evangelical terminology and social gospel theology. The Baptist World Congress, held every five years, is organized by the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) which unites 196 Baptist conventions around the world and represents an estimated 43 million Christians. This year's Congress witnessed the election of Dr. Billy Kim as the new BWA president. Kim, who serves as pastor of the 13,000-member Central Baptist Church in Suwon, South Korea, and president of the Far East Broadcast-ing Company-Korea, gained notoriety in the United States when he translated for Dr. Billy Graham in a 1993 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association crusade. This year's Congress began with "the chant of aboriginal singers and dancers from Australia's outback," according to a January 5 BWA press release.

The release noted that outgoing BWA president Nilson Fanini welcomed the Congress by saying, "Our languages and cultures are various. Yet as God's Word affirms, there is but 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism.' The bonds which unite us are stronger than the differences that identify us." As ecumenical observers from the Anglican, Seventh-Day Adventist, Roman Catholic, Reformed, Churches of Christ and Salvation Army churches looked on, speakers at the Congress continually stressed the need for unity amidst cultural, ethnic and doctrinal diversity, and BWA officials emphasized the diversity of organizations that exist even within the BWA itself (Ecumenical News International, 1-5-00).

Fanini said, "Theology often divides Baptists but our commitment to evangelism unites us" (BWA press release, 1-5-00). He told 5,000 individuals at an evening worship service that no Baptist convention could stand alone and make a difference in all the world. "To reach our world we must have the cooperation of all Baptists..." (BWA press release, 1-7-00). General Secretary Denton Lotz emphasized the need for unity among all professed Christians when he told the Congress, "Christians enter a new millennium divided. The division between Catholic, Orthodox, ecumenical and evangelical is in some cases worse than at the beginning of the 20th century.

We, as Baptists, must work for the unity of God's people" (BWA press release, 1-7-00). He added, "Whenever Baptists unite, it is around evangelism and mission. Doctrinal uniformity and creedalism divide us, but proclaiming Christ unites us." Besides stressing the need for unity despite doctrinal differences, the Congress also championed the need for the social gospel, that is, that the purpose of the church is to change society by alleviating social ills. Baptist Press reported that at the opening night's keynote address, H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., of Washington, D. C., told the audience that "'The gospel of Jesus is an invitation' both to salvation and to a moral vision to minister to the needs of suffering people" (Baptist Press, 1-10-00).

He said God pours out wonders, miracles, healing and anointing "on those who are faithful to God's Word" (BWA press release, 1-5- 00). Frederick Haynes, pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church of West Dallas, Texas, told the Congress that "the church is at its best when it recognizes the link between salvation and liberation" (BWA press release, 1-7-00). He challenged those in attendance to work for social justice. "The world will be a better place when the church leads the fight against social injustice," he said. "We're not to walk home from this BWA congress, but to fly home- to correct social injustice."

Other speakers during the congress included female preachers such as Anne Graham Lotz and Jill Manton, associate pastor of Ashburton Baptist Church in Victoria, Australia who lectured on "Spiritual Formation," flowering her speech with New Age terminology and ideas and even quoting a 14th century mystic. Sadly, the BWA is a dangerous mixture of truth and error and is home to both liberals and conservatives. While the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) comprises the largest Baptist communion in the BWA, it is also the most conservative. The American Baptist Churches USA, the Baptist General Conference and the National Baptist Convention, USA are also members of the BWA. During the convention, one unnamed retired Baptist pastor from the United States told an ENI reporter that he was "shocked" by the statements made by the SBC's Randy Springer who spoke about the need to evangelize even when evangelism is unwelcome in certain areas (Springer referred to the attack against SBC evangelism efforts by an interfaith group in Chicago, Illinois.

See Jan.-Feb. 2000 Foundation). The unnamed pastor said Springer's comments about evangelism did not reflect the views of Baptists in the United States outside the SBC. Such an account exemplifies the sad mixture of truth and error that permeates the BWA. Believers who desire to honor Christ should have no part of an organization such as the BWA that is home to such compromise and theological error.