Neville Callam, General Secretary of the BWA, to visit us

In recent days, the topic of the Baptist World Alliance has surfaced a few times as some bloggers have questioned once again why the Southern Baptist Convention voted initially to defund the organization and later to withdraw from it. Some have pointed out the discrepancy and inconsistency between accusing the BWA of theological liberalism based upon its loose ties with some organizations while giving the SBC a free pass when it also partners on specific social issues with a number of groups that could hardly be described as conservative evangelicals. My contention has been from the outset, and I believe the facts undeniably support this, that the SBC’s defunding and withdrawal from the BWA was a direct consequence of the BWA’s decision to admit CBF into its ranks. The supposed charges of liberalism and anti-Americanism leveled against the BWA ring very hollow and cannot be demonstrated to be true.

I would appeal to those in the Kansas City or St. Louis area who are interested in receiving firsthand information about the BWA to come and meet Neville Callam, the newly elected General Secretary of the BWA. Our church, First Baptist of Lee’s Summit, has the privilege of hosting a meeting on October 16th to introduce Neville Callam and the vital ministries of the BWA to interested Baptists and other fellow Christians. Callam will be in the St. Louis area the following day at Fee Fee Baptist Church in Bridgeton. I’ll be attending a planning meeting tomorrow afternoon to finalize some of the details of Callam’s visit and will pass those along in a later post. In the meantime, I wanted to share the dates so that hopefully those who happen upon my blog will be aware of this wonderful opportunity to meet and hear from the head of this group that brings together some 38 million Baptists from around the world. It's always the better part of wisdom to form an opinion about someone or an organization based upon firsthand experience rather than hearsay. I hope many will take advantage of the opportunity to do just that with Callam's visit to Missouri.