Missionaries From Africa

Missionaries From Africa

By Dr. Dock Hollingsworth, Senior Pastor

I’m punching keys on my laptop while at my first attendance at a Baptist World Alliance meeting. (It’s 3:30 a.m. in Atlanta but not in Norway.) The Missions Council recommended our involvement in BWA as a way of engaging and supporting the world-wide witness of Baptists. I have long admired the work of BWA from a distance but this first step into international Baptist work has converted me to an enthusiast.  

For years I have been sitting with other U.S. Baptist leaders, bemoaning the decline in our American churches. For the past 25 years, Baptists and other Christian groups have been losing ground in our evangelistic cause. (I had lunch with a professor from France and she said that it is much worse in France than in the U.S.) The theme of my 10 years of pastoral ministry has been the decline of the American church and “What are we going to do?” But this is not, at all, the theme of the BWA gathering! There are pockets of the world where the Christian witness is on fire. I heard several regional reports announcing expansion and a vibrant witness.

My favorite report came from the large contingent from Africa. While the Baptist church in North America has declined 5% in the last decade, African Baptists have grown 102% in the same ten-year period. Last year alone, the Baptist Church of the Congo grew 22%. And here was my favorite part of the report … African Baptists are raising money, within their churches, to sponsor missionaries around the world. Do you love that or what? We may soon need to sponsor housing for a missionary from Africa to come teach us how to reach a lost world.

I have been inspired again by the vitality of the gospel and its power to transform the lives of those who are willing to admit that their sufficiency isn’t cutting it. Maybe that’s the difference. Maybe some people are still humble enough to recognize that there is something missing. Maybe there are not enough of those people living in France or the USA.

By the way, our own Jim and Becky Smith were deeply involved in BWA work before retiring as Baptist missionaries. They are rockstars in BWA circles. I am a rookie participant, but once people found out that I am Jim and Becky’s pastor, they pulled out my chair… offered to refill my coffee … bowed when I entered the room! Our church has a seat at this international table because the Smiths have been such long and loyal representatives of the Baptist witness. I have been grateful for their ministry this week. I will be glad to see you next week.

I love being your pastor,

Dock