Future of Baptist Denomination Discussed at Centenary Congress

On Thursday 28 July, the future of the Baptist denomination was discussed at a Focus Group Seminar called ‘Where will Baptists Be After the Next 100 Years?’ Among some of the topics discussed were, Baptist history, Baptist identity, and Baptist possible futures at the international plenary discussion yesterday.

The conversation was opened by Nigel Wright, principal of Spurgeon’s College, who said that the structure of the Baptist family will change over the next century as it grows in tandem with other denominations and takes on aspects of these denominations that will help it to progress.

Wright added that there will be a recognisable Baptist family theology and practice, and that the Baptist global community will become larger and more diverse, with more people from the developing world taking leadership roles. "Interaction with other denominations will help us to adopt more beneficial structures and discard those that don’t work," he said. "Baptists are strong on vitality but weak on unity; Catholics are strong on connectedness, but sometimes that becomes a power game."

"We need to discuss who we are. We need to take the church back to its roots so that it becomes a movement again that has its boundaries but is not an institution; institutions often exist for themselves, movements exist for others," said Dr Gary Nelson of the Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, Canada.