Following the announced retirement of General Secretary Denton Lotz of the Baptist World Alliance, a new General Secretary will be elected at the Annual Gathering set for Accra, Ghana, in July 2007.

|TOP|Lotz gave notice of his retirement at the BWA Executive meeting in March of this year, and will leave office December 31, 2007.

A worldwide search will begin to replace the CEO, who has been in the position since 1988, and will have spent a total of twenty seven years with the organisation. Lotz previously served as Director of Evangelism and Education and Director of Youth Ministries from 1980.

Lotz, who prior to joining the BWA was a missionary and seminary professor in Eastern and Central Europe. He succeeded Gerhard Claas, a German, upon his untimely death in a motor vehicle accident in California.

During his time at the BWA, Lotz has presided over an organisation that has grown in stature and mission with focus on human rights and freedom, relief and development through Baptist World Aid, as well as mission and evangelism. An important focus of his has been unity among Baptists.

|AD|Among his notable achievements was the ability to garner substantial funding, more than $1.2 million (£ 629,194), for the current Living Water programme that includes a series of conferences to assist conventions, unions and regions to expand missionary work as well as to train leaders.

Lotz has been the voice and the face internationally in addressing issues of human rights violations and, in particular, the persecution of Christians. He was also instrumental in acquiring the new headquarters building for the BWA close to Washington, DC, in the United States, and will be leaving the organisation in a healthy financial position.

In addition, he has established good relations with the China Christian Council, having edited a book on the Church in China. Lotz' commitment to racial reconciliation was the catalyst for the formation of the BWA Special Commission of Baptists against Racism and Ethnic Conflict that produced the Harare Declaration in 1993. He instituted the BWA Decade for Racial Justice, which runs from 2000 to 2010.

He was chair of the Christian World Communions in 1997 and continues to represent the Baptist World Alliance in this body that includes other organisations similar to the BWA, such as the World Methodist Council and World Lutheran Federation. He is also president of the International Religious Liberty Association.

The new General Secretary is expected to take up the appointment in January 2008.


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[Source: BWA]