Several years ago the Southern Baptists made a decision to leave the Baptist World Alliance. The main reason was that many of the unions had liberal tendencies and we felt that we should not be unequally yoked with them. There is a long history that led to this decision. One of my studies has been to try to understand where the BWA is coming from. During my many years in Eastern and Western Europe, as well as North Africa and the Middle East, I met and prayed with many of those who are active in the BWA. I had been involved in meetings with Baptist leaders for many years. In fact some of them were my Masterlife students earlier. I attended many of the BWA meetings. Many of our problems with European leaders came from the defunding of Ruschlikon several decades back. I have written a long description of what really happened and would be glad to send a copy in English to anyone who requests a copy. Also I will bring some copies with me to the Convention meeting in June.

The Ruschlikon issue alienated many of the European unions from the SBC and they became rather vocal at the BWA meetings. This was one of the reasons for us to pull out. Before the final decision was reached to leave the BWA, I sent a letter to the committee recommending that we not pull out. My reasoning was that we were giving the Cooperative Baptists all our international relationships on a silver platter. I was right. They have a much larger influence in International dealings than they should have. Our leaving left a vacuum and they filled it.

The average Southern Baptist does not have the opportunity of meeting with these leaders and hear what they are saying. Many of the leaders of our Worlds Baptists Unions are friends of mine and most are very conservative. They feel as if we have left them and they simply cannot understand why.

It is my understanding that our SBC leaders are now trying to formulate another strategy where we can have contacts with the conservatives. Again I have been in on some of these attempts, especially in Europe. My evaluation of what has happened is that we are doing too little too late. We must work more at building our international relationships. I do feel that Bobby Welch is doing a fine job in his attempts to better the situation, but I think he is overwhelmed with the task

Some have asked if I favor returning back to the BWA. My answer is simple. It should be on the table, but our way forward must be planned very carefully. The BWA now has new leadership. An evaluation should be made to see if the BWA’s new direction is more acceptable to us.

I see three options. They are:

1. Return to the BWA after negotiations with the new leadership
2. Work on the creation of a new alliance for Conservative Baptists from around the world.
3. Use missionaries and others to rebuild individual relationships with conservative World Baptists.

For too long most of our energies at the Convention level has been on domestic matters. For the next two years, we need to find ways to build up a world wide fellowship. Because of my cross-cultural experience, as well as my many contacts, I feel that I can do this or at the least help in our ongoing attempts to solve the problem.

Recently I spoke with one of the Chinese Baptist leaders who is also involved in the BWA. He was concerned that we as Southern Baptists have become isolationists. He hoped that we would take a new direction and begin to relate more with Baptist brothers and sisters in other countries. I feel that this is a must.