Greetings in the matchless name of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ!
From its inception, the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation has been composed of members from both the Asia and Pacific regions of the world, making us the largest regional body of the BWA. But rarely have we organized programmes in the Pacific, except when we had the 3rd APBF Congress at Sydney Australia in 1988 or when APBF officials have visited and organized events specific to the member convention in the Pacific.
Considering the great span of earth (mostly water) that the Pacific is composed of, and the fact that there are very few contact with Baptists and even other Christians in the nations of the Pacific islands, the APBF Executive Committee in its meeting at Jogjakarta, Indonesia on January 30 & 31, 2015 decided to hold its next meeting in 2016 at Fiji, and concurrently organize a conference to be named Pacific Baptist Forum, from February 1 -3, 2016 under the theme – ‘Strengthening the Pacific Church and motivating the churches to participate in God’s Mission’.
To this Forum were invited Baptist leaders from the various Island nations, for which assistance on locating them is being sought from Australian, New Zealand and Hawaii Baptists who have historic connections. This resulted in more than 150+ participants attending the Pacific Baptist forum from more than sixteen countries, including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and the USA, West Papua and Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India
What follows in this document is the compilation of the presentations, as well the feedback from the participants in the Forum as to the opportunities and way forward in strengthening the Pacific Church and motivating the churches to participate in God’s Mission.
We all came away from the Forum truly inspired and excited about what the God is already doing in the Pacific and the opportunities to participate in His mission, in all its forms, by sharing the good news of the Gospel to the peoples of the Pacific.
Rev. Dr. Ross Clifford Rev. Bonny Resu
President, APBF General Secretary, APBF
SECTION: Conference & Forum Material
