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Approximately
850 Baptists from 57 countries met together over the weekend, 24th-26th
July, in the Rai Centre to mark this great occasion and to celebrate
reaching our 400th birthday. The EBF is to be commended for organizing
the event and choosing such an ideal location for it and for the smooth
running of the programme.
As we entered the auditorium on the Friday evening the worship band was leading the praise in singing:
'Lord, we lift up Your name, with hearts full of praise,
Be exalted, O Lord our God, hosanna to the King of kings'.
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To
me this was a fitting start to the weekend which was about looking back
and giving thanks for our rich heritage and moving forward encouraged
and enthused by what we heard to continue to reach out with the love of
Christ. This year also marks 60 years of EBF and Baptist Theological
training – another reason for thanksgiving. The worship was very ably
led by Paul Merton, Baptist pastor from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
and Dutch musicians and singers.
The Central Choir of the Baptist Union of Hungary and Logos, a choir
from Russia, sang on a number of occasions over the weekend. Their
singing was beautiful and lifted us up in our spirit in praise and
adoration of our God.
Tony Peck and Toma Magda, General Secretary and President respectively
of EBF, welcomed everyone and took part in various ways over the
weekend.
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Neville
Callam, General Secretary of BWA also addressed the gathering, as did
other dignitaries. The Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam, Alderman Caroline
Gehrels welcomed us to Amsterdam and passed on her greetings and
desire that we should have a good conference. We were given a brief
history of how John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, along with others seeking
refuge from religious persecution in England came to Amsterdam to
Bakkerstraat (Baker Street) to a bakehouse there, owned by a Mennonite,
Jan Munter. He placed the bakehouse at the disposal of these religious
refugees and there they were able to meet and worship as they desired.
From these early beginnings came the Baptist denomination which spread across Europe and beyond.
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Over
our time together various people brought reports from many countries,
telling of how the churches are witnessing and fulfilling the great
commission given by the Lord Jesus. Exciting things are happening in
Europe and there is no doubt that God is at work calling out a people
for Himself. We heard of areas where the church is under immense
pressure and persecution yet remains true to her calling and seeing
growth. We heard of churches where the people are reaching out to
ethnic peoples and seeing them come to faith. We heard of work being
done among drug addicts and alcoholics, among those being trafficked,
among street children, among the Roma people, among the elderly etc. We
heard of churches who are reaching out into their communities with the
love and truth of the gospel – so much to give thanks for and so much
to bring before God in prayer, which we did. It was heartening to hear
how God is indeed using His people all over Europe and to be part of
what He is doing.
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A
wide range of subjects were covered in seminars and workshops and on
Saturday afternoon we had the opportunity to go into the centre of
Amsterdam and visit some of the historical sites there, particularly
those associated with the Baptists. It was a lovely sunny day and it
was good to be out enjoying the fresh air.
The main topics of the Conference were Freedom, Mission, Community and
Discipleship. Both mornings we were led in Bible Study; on Saturday
Toivo Pilli, Estonia, led us from Acts 17:16-34 – 'the Gospel taking
New Paths' and on Sunday Vyacheslav Nesteruk, Ukraine, spoke from John
15 – 'our Community in Christ'. Both gave us much food for thought.
Covering the four main topics we had four very able speakers:
Teun van der Leer, Rector of the Dutch Baptist Seminary, whose topic
was Freedom in Christ to shape our Future. He spoke from 2Kings 2:1-15
– building the future on God's history with us, are we spectators or
partakers, willing to take up the mantle, willing to change, having the
freedom to discover what God wants us to be and do.
Raquel
Contreras, President of the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of
Chile, BWA Vice-President. Her topic was Mission as compassion for the
world. From Luke she told of how Baptist work in Chile began through
European Baptist migrants coming to work in agriculture and shared the
work and the gospel with the Chileans.
Compassion
is our partner in mission; mission is to win others for Christ,
compassion is to live the gospel and so is an excellent tool to
'preach' the gospel.
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Teddy
Oprenov, General Secretary of the Bulgarian Baptist Union. Community,
diverse in culture, language and tradition but united in Christ was his
subject. Again from John 15:1-17 he reminded us that our life together
is in Christ; as we share in prayer, support one another and allow
God's Word to dwell in us and be part of our lives so we maintain our
unity in Christ. At the end of Teddy's message we celebrated Communion
together. This was a very special time around the Lord's table and
being very aware of His presence with us.
David Coffey, President of the BWA. He spoke on Discipleship, being
sent out like Jesus – privileges to be relinquished, service to be
rendered, cost to be endured, glory to be shared.
As our time together came to an end Valeriu Giletchi, the newly
appointed EBF President, Moldova, closed by reminding us that we have a
future and a hope – in Christ Jesus. He asked us to consider two
questions a) what are the old things we can lay down and b) what are
the new things we are to embrace. Let's ask the Spirit to enable us to
be true disciples.
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have only told of a small part of the time we spent in Amsterdam; there
was much, much more I could have said, but I trust you now have an idea
of what it was like to have been there sharing with brothers and
sisters of like mind.
We have such a rich heritage handed down to us from our Baptist
forbears who had the calling and the vision to go forward as the Lord
led them. Let us continue to follow their lead and be relevant to
today's society in which we live, as we seek to reach out with the love
of Jesus to our communities. It was so marvellous to be part of such a
great crowd of people, such an encouragement, such a blessing. Praise
the Lord!
Margaret Brown
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