Why do Baptists associate?

Neville Callam, General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, recently spoke to leaders of the North American Baptist Fellowship, one of the BWA’s six regional fellowships, in Dallas. This excerpt from Callam's talk was shared by the Associated Baptist Press.


The principle of associating rests on the nature of the God in whom we believe.

When 3,000 Baptists from 26 countries gathered in London in 1905 for the inaugural congress of the Baptist World Alliance, they performed one corporate act of worship that was meant to affirm what those who gathered believed -- and what they wished to communicate to fellow Christians around the world -- about themselves. They stood together and repeated the words of the Apostles’ Creed -- a creed structured on the conviction of faith in the Trinitarian nature of God.

Relating is part of God’s nature. When the Father acts, the Son is acting and the Holy Spirit too. When the Son acts, the Father is acting and also the Spirit. When the Spirit acts, the Father and the Son are also at work. Any successful attempt to characterize the relations in the Trinity must necessarily reflect the love that binds Father, Son and Spirit in a relationship that is indivisible.

If the church is the body of Christ, then, we cannot escape the responsibility to reflect the characteristic of the inner life of God. We are a people who belong to each other, who are called to live in love with each other and who have an obligation to enter into partnership with each other.

(For the rest of Dr. Callam's speech, click here.)