BWA’s World Congress was a stirring week, and as I continue to process everything that I encountered as I participated in this event, I continue to come back to Baptist World Alliance’s call for the global Baptist family to commit to joining in the Acts 2 Movement. 

One of Dr. Elijah Brown’s recurring statements at the World Congress was that the church at its beginning was the church at her best, empowered by the Holy Spirit and emboldened for witness. As the 2000th anniversary of the church’s birth nears in 2033, Baptist World Alliance is calling on the global Baptist family to participate in the Acts 2 Movement which “is the mobilization of our Baptist family in prayerful pursuit of a global Pentecost that overflows in church renewal and holistic Gospel witness around the world.” 

Baptist World Alliance has named five pathways as part of this Acts 2 Movement: 

• The Witness Path – Baptists around the world sharing 450 million testimonies by 2033. 

• The Neighbor Path – Joining the global Baptist emphasis on being neighborhood chaplains who are committed to sharing the love, hope, hospitality, and healing of Christ with their neighbors. 

• The Bible Path – Praying and giving to support the translation of the Bible into the 1,159 languages that do not have copies of Scripture. 

• The Freedom Path – Obtaining 1,000,000 signatures on the Covenant of Religious Freedom. The Religious Freedom Path calls the global Baptist family to stand boldly for the right of every person to worship freely and live out their faith without fear. 

• The Care Path – In Acts 2, the early church didn’t just preach the Gospel—they lived it through radical compassion and selfless care. The Care Path invites the global Baptist family to follow in their footsteps by embodying the love of Christ through tangible action. Our bold prayer: to mobilize 1 billion intentional acts of service around the world by 2033. 

Our hope as an Engagement Ministry at First Baptist Arlington is that you will prayerfully consider how God is calling you to engage in this Acts 2 Movement.  

God is up to some incredible things in the global Baptist family, and we look forward to First Baptist Arlington’s increasing participation in these cooperative efforts.