AROUND

HAPPENINGS AROUND THE WORLD A by Bonny Resu

sia Pacific remains the largest mission field and unreached

continent of the world. We also seem to have the largest share of recurrent natural calamities in the world, which has given us opportunities to provide relief and encouragement

to the

affected. The world we live in is not getting

better in terms of peaceful co-existence, be it in politics or religion. Religious intolerance and extremism is on the rise, and so we hear of names that were nonexistent even a year or two ago. The atrocious civil war in Syria, which was the focus of the world, soon became overshadowed by the activities of Boko Haram (Western education is forbidden), and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), whose vicious and destructive ways are setting new standards of terror. These seem to be impacting every country in the world. The Asia Pacific is not left out, as we saw in the Sydney Lindt Café hostage holdout, or the Paris shootings and the recent killing of two Japanese by ISIS. Before 2014 ended, yet another

HAPPENINGS AROUND THE WORLD n HAPPENINGS AROUND THE WORLD n HAPPENINGS AROUND THE WORLD ASIAN Christians Face Growing Threats

airline from our region went down, shaking the confidence of the traveling world, making it the third major air incident to happen in one year. Religious intolerance rears its ugly head every so often in our world. India is now ruled by a political party which arose to counter flagrant corruption with the support of avowed extreme right-Hindu groups. Despite the claim of the ruling government of being secular and nonreligious, incidents of persecution of minorities (Christians and Muslims) are on the rise, including the notorious Ghar Wapsi, or home- coming, a program to welcome back people of other religions to Hinduism, on the premise that all Indians are and were Hindus. Political tensions are on the rise in Asia proper, between old and new foes. China is now a new superpower of the world and is in danger of treading on the toes of others nearby. Smaller countries in South and Northeast Asia are becoming wary. This is giving excuse to pacifist Japan to increase its military buildup in the name of self defense. North Korea is blowing hot and cold, mostly hot!

Myanmar is slowly trying to find

its place in the world and regain lost confidence. It has some ways to go with its continuing ethnic issues, be it the various tribal insurgent groups or the Rohingya issue and the larger Buddhist-Muslim conflicts. We laud the church in Myanmar for its efforts to be a peacemaker and broker wherever possible. Pray for peace and freedom of the people and for the leadership of Myanmar to respect multi-culturalism and ethnicity.

Forming only about eight percent of the population, the church in Asia needs to introspect on developing a vision and sense of mission that includes engaging in mission and considering ways it can be salt and light wherever they are: How to live in the midst of those who are entrenched in their traditional faiths, those who are atheists as well as those who are sceptics; and how to not lose our identity by becoming like everyone else in all the evil ways with corruption, religious intolerance, racism, sexism (lack of respect of the female gender), militarism and materialism, etc.

I by George Bullard

NORTH AMERICAN Baptist Fellowship: The next 50 years 2064?” Twenty

potential

n March 2014, in the city of Philadelphia, in the United States, FutureBaptists:

A Collaborative Missional Movement, was the theme of the meeting celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of the North American Baptist Fellowship (NABF) and the 200th

Triennial Convention among Baptists in the United States The overarching question the Future- Baptists Convocation dealt with was, “What will characterize Baptists as a collaborative missional movement from the base of North America in the year

Facing page, top: The House of Gospel in Vinnytsia was opened in 1996 and is one of the largest Baptist churches in Ukraine.

(Photo courtesy of Håkan Henriksson)

Facing page, middle right: The UTCWI in Jamaica, one of only a few theological training institutions in the English speaking Caribbean (Photo courtesy of the UTCWI)

issues were anniversary of the

identified. Five hundred people were asked to weigh in on these issues. The two days began with 12 prioritized issues. The Convocation ended with five issues rising to the top with three of those screaming out for immediate and significant emphasis. We are going through a time in Baptist life in North America when many people talk about their favorite issue or cause. Then they seek to convince others to join them in their cause. With this in mind we thought this perspective would dominate our top priority issues with which to launch a collaborative missional movement. We were wrong.

The dominant answer was that, unless Baptists discover effective ways for congregations to transform and renew, we will not have an effective grassroots base for missional engagement and social action. We need to energize congregations who desire to thrive. We must do this in

collaboration with a broad cross-section of Baptists using our collective health and strength to address key congregational vitality and vibrancy issues.

This was a top priority for 80 percent of the people present for the FutureBaptists Convocation. This was unexpected. Yet, the affirmation of missional engagement and social action through congregations rather than parachurch organizations is a powerful statement of collaborative ministry in the 21st

century. Missional engagement and

social action is not something others do for congregations. It is the core nature of vital and vibrant congregations.

Along the way we will focus on four

other issues: economic oppression and hunger; authentic and genuine evangelism that is about sharing faith and making disciples; addressing modern day slavery that is seen in exploitation and trafficking; and elevating and emphasizing women in ministry.

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