Baptist World Alliance

The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is a big group of Baptists from all around the world. As of 2025, it includes about 53 million people who belong to 283 different groups in 138 countries and areas. The BWA is a place where Baptist churches come together as friends and partners. It is one of the bigger groups of Christians, being the seventh largest.

The BWA started in 1905 during a big meeting of Baptist churches in London. Today, its main office is located in Falls Church, Virginia, United States. The group is led by leaders such as general secretary and CEO Elijah M. Brown, Karl Johnson from the Jamaica Baptist Union, who is the Chair of the Alliance, and Lynn Green from the Baptist Union of Great Britain, who serves as Vice Chair. This alliance helps Baptist churches share ideas and support one another all over the world.

History

The Baptist World Alliance began in the 1600s when a Baptist leader named Thomas Grantham suggested a group for all Christians who were baptized in a certain way. Later, in 1904, editors of Baptist newspapers invited Baptists around the world to meet. This led to the first Baptist World Congress in London in July 1905, where the Baptist World Alliance was founded.

Since then, the Baptist World Alliance has held a big meeting every five years in different places. It is a way for Baptist churches to work together, but it does not control the churches. In 2025, Karl Johnson from the Jamaica Baptist Union became the leader of the Alliance.

List of members

As of June 2025, the Baptist World Alliance had 276 groups of Baptist churches as members. These groups together had about 53.9 million people who belong to them.

Statistics

According to a count from 2025, the Baptist World Alliance has 283 groups in 138 countries. These groups include 178,000 churches and about 53 million members who have joined through a special ceremony. Sometimes, the same church or person might be counted more than once if they are part of more than one Baptist group.

Beliefs

The Baptist World Alliance has a shared Baptist confession of faith. This means that the member churches agree on basic beliefs that guide their practices and teachings.

Structure

The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) has six regional groups: North American Baptist Fellowship, Caribbean Baptist Fellowship, Latin American Baptist Union, European Baptist Federation, Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, and All-Africa Baptist Fellowship. Each group has a leader called an Executive Secretary to help them.

At first, the BWA had two leaders for different areas. In 1928, they changed this to have just one main leader.

Baptist World Congress

Baptist World Congresses meet every few years, starting from 1905. These gatherings bring together Baptist churches from around the world to share ideas and support each other.

Affiliated organizations

The Baptist World Alliance works with several groups to support its activities. The Global Baptist Mission Network includes 23 member mission organizations that help spread the Baptist message around the world.

BWAid is a group that supports humanitarian aid projects, helping people in need. The BWA Forum for Aid and Development (BFAD) brings together 30 Baptist humanitarian agencies to work together on helping others.

Ecumenical relations

The Baptist World Alliance talks with other big church groups, like the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council. These talks happened between 1984 and 1988, led by two leaders. They made a report, but more talks didn’t happen because some people in the Baptist World Alliance didn’t agree. Later, from 2000 to 2003, they kept talking. Then, from 2006 to 2010, they had more formal meetings to discuss beliefs that differ between these groups. Today, the leaders of these talks are a professor from the University of Oxford and a bishop.