New Baptist Covenant II confronts plight of prisoners, children and impoverished

New Baptist Covenant II confronts plight of prisoners, children and impoverished

By Patricia Heys, Greg Warner and Lance Wallace
New Baptist Covenant Communications

ATLANTA ‒ Luke 4:18-19 continued to be the focus on the second day of the New Baptist Covenant II, and former President Jimmy Carter addressed the crowd in Atlanta and at satellite locations across the country with his assessment of the progress toward the goals of the New Baptist Covenant.

In his concluding remarks Friday night, Carter said some of the goals had been reached, such as unifying Baptists in the name of Christ. While some important issues have been addressed and partnerships formed during the past three years, Carter said that other issues, such as the growing rate of poverty and incarceration have been identified. He said there is still work to be done.

“We have a great opportunity in the future,” he said. “With Christ and with the strength of God almighty, we can make the same kind of progress on these issues that Martin Luther King and other heroes made in overcoming what I grew up in was a segregated nation and now that’s past history.”

Carter stopped short of offering next steps for the New Baptist Covenant, but let the evening end with a challenge to do more together.

The evening worship session also included messages from Carroll Baltimore, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention; Marian Wright Edelman, founder of Children’s Defense Fund; and Tony Campolo, founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education.

Baltimore preached a sermon on the urgency of missions, calling Baptists to go and serve with the “favor of God.”

“We are here tonight because people are crying out for hope in a dark world,” he concluded. “If Baptists are afraid to go out into a dark world, we need to go out of business.”

While politicians in Washington are arguing about budget deficits, the more urgent issue for America is “the human-capital deficit ‒ the failure to invest in the children,” warned Edelman Friday night. She said how America addresses the deficit will determine if the country becomes “a blip or a beacon” in human history.

America has the highest poverty level it has had since 1959, with 46.2 million poor people, she said, including 20 million in extreme poverty.

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Quotes about the New Baptist Covenant 2

"Tony Campolo's message spoke directly to the frustrated young Baptists, like myself, that wish not just to talk about the Kingdom of God, but to create real change in the world. As the next generation of the baptist movement, we need to be shown and reminded that the Church can be our avenue of change."

Katherine Key, 19
Georgetown University student
Washington, DC
watched webstreaming


"The focus on the Luke 4 mandate at New Baptist Covenant II deliberately reminded me how much more effective Baptists can be when we work together."

Charles Smith, Pastor
Madison Baptist Church
Madison, Georgia


"The New Baptist Covenant II can be likened to a seed that has been planted; it carries great potential to grow. However, it still requires careful labor and consistent care to reach that potential. The seed is planted...now we need some laborers."

Rev. James Alexander, 26
Atlanta, GA

NBC II was a great opportunity to join with so many committed to an active, social and transformative movement within the community and without our Baptist walls. Now, our commitment must take on active hands and feet in our local communities.

Minister Robin Kay Monk
Youth Director / Associate Minister
First Baptist Church, Fayetteville, NC

New Baptist Covenant II confronts plight of prisoners, children and impoverished

By Patricia Heys, Greg Warner and Lance Wallace
New Baptist Covenant Communications

ATLANTA ‒ Luke 4:18-19 continued to be the focus on the second day of the New Baptist Covenant II, and former President Jimmy Carter addressed the crowd in Atlanta and at satellite locations across the country with his assessment of the progress toward the goals of the New Baptist Covenant.

In his concluding remarks Friday night, Carter said some of the goals had been reached, such as unifying Baptists in the name of Christ. While some important issues have been addressed and partnerships formed during the past three years, Carter said that other issues, such as the growing rate of poverty and incarceration have been identified. He said there is still work to be done.

“We have a great opportunity in the future,” he said. “With Christ and with the strength of God almighty, we can make the same kind of progress on these issues that Martin Luther King and other heroes made in overcoming what I grew up in was a segregated nation and now that’s past history.”

Carter stopped short of offering next steps for the New Baptist Covenant, but let the evening end with a challenge to do more together.

The evening worship session also included messages from Carroll Baltimore, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention; Marian Wright Edelman, founder of Children’s Defense Fund; and Tony Campolo, founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education.

Baltimore preached a sermon on the urgency of missions, calling Baptists to go and serve with the “favor of God.”

“We are here tonight because people are crying out for hope in a dark world,” he concluded. “If Baptists are afraid to go out into a dark world, we need to go out of business.”

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New Baptist Covenant II begins with call to unity, challenge to serve

ATLANTA – New Baptist Covenant II began Thursday night with a focus on unity following the touchstone passage from Luke 4 that was the basis for the first historic gathering in Atlanta in 2008.

Convened by former President Jimmy Carter, the second national gathering featured eight separate locations, all joined to the worship service in at Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta through streaming video on the Internet and satellite uplinks.

Carter, originator of the New Baptist Covenant, opened the event by pronouncing the New Baptist Covenant’s purpose is to offer “a positive, non-exclusive program of sharing the gospel of Christ, with an emphasis on freedom, traditional Baptist values and practical ways to fulfill our Christian duties.”

The Baptists are coming together “without any constraints caused by race, politics, geography or the legalistic interpretation of Scripture,” he declared.

While Baptists are often known for their divisions and differences, Carter said, the one thing that unites all Baptists is the bottom-line profession that they are “saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.” To replace that unity with any other issue would be “an abomination” that would divert the three-day gathering from its central truth, he said.

Thursday’s service featured messages from Ken Fong, senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles; Rosalynn Carter, former first lady of the United States; and Stephen Thurston, president of the National Baptist Convention of America Inc.

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On-Demand Videos Available

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New Baptist Covenant II to bring nation’s Baptists together again – personally and virtually

By Greg Warner
New Baptist Covenant Communications

ATLANTA – In about two months, Baptists of many stripes will gather simultaneously in dozens of cities across the country for a unique virtual meeting, during which they will not only worship and learn but spread out to work in their local communities.

The occasion is New Baptist Covenant II, a three-day gathering being planned by Baptists from a number of different denominations and ethnic backgrounds.

The Nov. 17-19 meeting is a follow-up to the first New Baptist Covenant, a historic 2008 meeting of 15,000 Baptists at a central location in Atlanta, which brought together Baptists from 40 different denominations and groups for the first time ever – Caucasians, Asians, African-Americans, Hispanics.

Rather than use air and ground transportation to bring the Baptists together this time, participants will rely on communication technology to traverse the miles. Most participants will gather at one of eight viewing locations that are linked by satellite feeds. Many more people will watch in smaller church-based gatherings via Internet video streaming.

As many as 30,000 to 35,000 Baptists could participate in the November event – more than twice as many as gathered in Atlanta in 2008, said Philadelphia pastor William Shaw, one of two national co-chairs for the event.

“It was challenging and affirming when we gathered in Atlanta a couple years ago to seek and affirm our common purpose in Jesus Christ,” said Shaw, former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA. “Now we want to do it again, not in one place but in many places, and those places are closer to home.”

The New Baptist Covenant is the brainchild of arguably the world’s most famous Baptist, former President Jimmy Carter. It is a loose-knit, grassroots effort to unite Baptists in North America around the mandate from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. In that passage, Jesus declared his ministry was to “bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

With more than 33 million adherents, scattered in about 70 denominations, Baptists are the largest Protestant group in the United States. One key objective of the New Baptist Covenant is to unite the disparate Baptist groups around a covenant of social and justice ministries, providing an alternative voice to more strident Baptist voices.

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The Movement Continues

We are pleased to announce the New Baptist Covenant will gather together November 17-19, 2011. What began four years ago with a small group of committed Baptist leaders has grown into a thriving grassroots movement. In 2011, this movement will bring NBC II closer to you through some of the latest technology as we continue to live into Jesus’ Luke 4 mandate to “bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
 
Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA will serve as NBCII’s anchor site, hosting worship services and breakout sessions that will be broadcast via satellite to various host cities across the nation. Host cities will provide additional programming and coordinate a day of local missions opportunities on November 19.
 
We hope you will join with us in celebrating this next phase of the New Baptist Covenant.

Specific host cities to be announced soon. Please subscribe to our email newsletter to receive updates.