VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 7/7/09)—The opening worship service of the Biennial Meeting of the American Baptist Churches USA began on June 26 with the blare of a Mariachi Band, and ended with the swell of an old hymn tune adorned with new words.
Music from the Stock Brothers, Jacqueline Colbert, and the house band led by Brad Berglund, wove through an evening of prayer, creative scripture reading, preaching, and some very good news.
American Baptist Women’s Ministries (ABWM) announced that it far exceeded its goal of $100,000 to break the chains of sex trafficking around the world. Women in churches across the country saved change and gave change to break chains: $348,507.09 worth.
They did much more than raise money. Rev. Virginia Holmstrom, executive director of ABWM, told the stories of women like an 84 year-old who convinced her church to hand out pamphlets on human trafficking at a community street fair, and members of a church in Oregon who have reached out to women who work in a local strip club.
Chains are being broken from Los Angeles to Thailand, South Dakota to Lebanon, Illinois to Ghana, Italy to Prague. God is at work among at-risk women.
The preacher for the night was Dr. Kirk Byron Jones, professor of ethics and preaching at Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS).
“We’re called to stretch,” he told participants. Preaching from Matthew 12:9-13, the story of Jesus healing the man with a shriveled hand, Jones reminded the listeners that Jesus told the man to stretch out his hand, and in the man’s stretch as he responded, he was healed.
“We must become spiritually stronger and to do it on purpose,” Jones said. “But genuine stretching is risky. We risk the unknown and the loss of the known—loss and changes. But, where Jesus is concerned, the stretch is worth the risk. We should thirst to stretch, to become a new creation—not just instantly, but continually, morning by morning.”
The “thirst to stretch” was reflected in Learning Experiences held earlier in the afternoon. Participants gathered to learn about children in poverty, hands-on discipleship through economic development, the ABCUSA response to human trafficking and modern-day slavery, and cross-cultural equipping of leaders.
The great diversity of ABCUSA was especially evident Friday morning at the caucus meetings. Hispanic, Asian, Haitian, African American, Indian and Portuguese speaking Baptists met to discuss concerns and perspectives out of their American experience.
Burmese refugees—a group that has been growing recently, in ABCUSA and in America—also met Friday morning for their first Biennial gathering. Many of these individuals are from the Karen and Chin ethnic groups, “Hill Tribes” whose history of Christianity reaches back a hundred years with the work of American Baptist missionaries Anne and Adoniram Judson.
At the Christian Unity Dinner, Dr. Donald C. Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, was honored with the Luke Mowbray Ecumenical Award for his work strengthening Rhode Island’s human trafficking laws and reducing poverty in the state. As small as it is, Providence, the state capital, is the second worse city for number of children living in poverty.
Anderson announced that, just the day before, the Rhode Island House of Representatives passed a bill on human trafficking that will not go to the Senate.
Diversity is woven into American Baptist life and informs its relationship with other faith groups. A special guest at the dinner, Dr. Sayyid Syeed, national director of the Office of Interfaith and Community Alliance for the Islamic Society of North America, was present as Dr. David Coffey, president of the Baptist World Alliance, discussed his participation in drafting a response to a letter that was sent to the Christian world from King Abdullah II of Jordan and scholars from the Muslim world. The letter, and the Christian response, has resulted in continuing dialogue between Christian, Jewish, and Muslim scholars.
“This represents a landmark in Muslim-Christian relations,” Coffey said.
He also discussed the Alexandria Initiative, in which Christian and Muslim scholars meet regularly. “The ‘elephant in the room,’” Coffey noted, “is that both traditions are missionary faiths.”
“The best contribution Christians can make in sharing their faith,” he reminded participants, “is sharing their lifestyle.”
American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with 5,500 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.
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