LIVING WATER CONFERENCES:
CENTRAL AMERICANS CHALLENGED TO “GET OUT INTO SOCIETY ”
By Tony Cupit

British evangelist Dennis Pethers made the startling claim that in most places only three in 100 Baptists
actually share their faith in Jesus Christ. He said, “We know we should, we are taught we should, we feel guilty
that we do not – but the reality is that only three percent of Baptists intentionally speak to others about our faith
in the risen Saviour.”
Pethers presented a major paper at the 15th international BWA Living Water conference in Panama City,
a conference designed for and by Baptists of Central America on the vital topics of evangelism and servant
leadership.
His stirring challenge for Baptists to concentrate more on getting out into society to discuss faith in Jesus
Christ was a salutary word to the 200 delegates gathered in Panama City from September 6-9. He asserted that
for decades, Baptists have believed that getting people into church so they could hear the Gospel preached was
the way to do evangelism; that people will just come into our churches as they may have done in years gone by.
However, experience is proving that most people no longer see value in attending church and many have no idea
what church and our faith is all about. “Of course we want people to come to church,” he said, “but as a result of
them first having been witnessed to by Christ’s people sharing their faith-stories out in the marketplace.”
The Panama City Living Water conference for Central American countries – Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua – was part of a series of Living Water events put on by the BWA during
the quinquennium 2005-2010. This strategy seeks to encourage and equip Baptists everywhere to proclaim and
demonstrate the Good News in Jesus Christ and to do so with a servant spirit. Like at preceding conferences,
delegates were receptive to the themes and embraced the creativity that the Living Water motif provides. No
major session passed without a segment featuring water in some fashion or another. There was water pouring,
“passing the peace” with a cup in hand, a hand-washing ceremony, a memorable foot-washing, and a moment
when we all drank together from special water bottles to express our oneness in Christ. The national leaders
insisted that every session should be a reminder that Christ is the Living Water.
Along with the more than 200 delegates from Central America, about 1,000 Panamanian Baptists attended
the evening sessions. Those gathered were stirred by messages from Latin American leaders Daniel Carro,
Raquel Contreras and Alberto Prokopchuk. Several choirs from churches in Panama City sang with joy and great
skill and young people proclaimed their faith through creative gospel dance.
The Lord’s Supper, led by Francisco Medina, president of the Baptist Convention of Panama, assisted by
Union of Baptists in Latin America President, Ivan Martinez from Venezuela, was a true worship experience.
A specially created Living Water prayer quilt provided a “sacred space” for people to pray silently in groups or
alone.
The foot-washing that accompanied the Lord’s Supper reminded delegates of the example of self-giving that
our Lord exhibited during His life on earth. Once again, the Spirit of God revealed to us the beauty of Jesus as
we celebrated Christ the Living Water in Panama City.
Reports from the various Central American conventions and unions on the witness of their churches and
future objectives in outreach, revealed a people intent on proclaiming Christ to the societies where they are
situated.
It is to be hoped that, as a consequence of the BWA Living Water strategy, the percentage of Baptists
intentionally witnessing to faith in Jesus Christ will exceed the three percent about which this Panama Living
Water Conference heard. The follow-up efforts to this event will endeavor to work to that end.
(Tony Cupit of Australia is the coordinator of the Living Water program of the Baptist World Alliance.)


NEW CHURCH PLANT IN GRENADA INSPIRED BY LIVING WATER CONFERENCE
The following is a letter from the Caribbean island of Grenada, sent to BWA Living Water coordinator Tony
Cupit, about a new church plant that was inspired by the BWA Living Water conference held in Barbados in
March.

Hello Tony,
Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ! My experience in Barbados [at the BWA Living
Water conference] was a refreshing one. So much so that in returning to Grenada, the Lord used my openness
to him and enthusiasm for evangelism to start a new work in the parish of St. David’s, where we have no Baptist
church. (Continued on next page)

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