Planning for New Baptist Covenant III

Robert Parham wrote an Ethics Daily column last week about plans being made for a New Baptist Covenant III gathering in 2014. In 2008, about 15,000 Baptists from different denominations and ethnicities gathered in Atlanta for the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant (the picture is one I took of former President Jimmy Carter, who helped initiate the New Baptist Covenant movement, at that event). I served as a Co-Chair of the Communications Committee and reported on the event for the media pool, Ethics Daily, and the Baptist General Convention of Missouri (now Churchnet). The following year, several regional gatherings were held, with events in Birmingham (Alabama), Kansas City (Missouri), Winston-Salem (North Carolina), and Norman (Oklahoma). I reported on the Kansas City and Norman events for Ethics Daily. I also helped promote the Kansas City gathering (the Baptist Border Crossing), which the Baptist General Convention of Missouri helped organized. Although I was unable to attend the New Baptist Covenant II gathering in November, I watched the videos from the main plenary sessions (which you can watch here). As a result of these experiences, I have found the New Baptist Covenant movement to be a wonderful time for Baptists of various denominations and backgrounds to unite for fellowship, ministry, worship, and missions. Parham noted in his piece last week that a major focus of the next gathering will likely be prison reform--and he talks about some interfaith efforts related to it (more on interfaith efforts with Muslims can be found here). It is exciting to see the movement continuing!