By Dr. Harry Kelm
Executive Director of the North American Baptist Conference
There is a quote posted in the Ellis Island Immigration Museum which goes, “I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things: First, the streets aren’t paved with gold. Second, they weren’t paved at all. Third, I was expected to pave them.” This quote could have described my German immigrant parents. Undaunted, they were committed to work hard and to embrace the life God was giving them. They had experienced war, revolution, famine, death, poverty, pain, and brokenness in the old country. They came to North America because they desired a better life for themselves and their sons. This same desire is still the hope of most immigrants.
Canada and the United States have been blessed to be a place where many immigrants have found a home. I once had a neighbor tell me, “We are all from somewhere.” The powerful message of the Gospel is not limited by the boundaries of countries, ethnicities, and cultures. The cross of Jesus Christ proclaims freedom and transformation to all people. The way of Jesus is where we value God’s image found in every person – no matter where they are from – and seek God’s best for them.
The North American Baptist Conference is a bi-national conference of churches founded by German immigrants to make disciples of Jesus, raise up leaders, train pastors, plant church, and send missionaries. My parents found a home in an NAB church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I grew up. I am German in heritage and bi-national by God’s leading. I have served the first half of my ministry in the United States and the second half in Canada. I have a deep love for both countries. At times, this is a challenge. There was a song in the late 1970s by Mary MacGregor that has a phrase in it that goes “lovin’ both of you is breakin’ all the rules.” I have felt this very acutely in the last few weeks.
These are turbulent times, when partners and allies look at each other with hostility and suspicion, and when threats are uttered and friends are treated as adversaries. Since our beginning in 1850, the NAB has existed in both the United States and Canada. What brought us together then was a sense of community found in a shared heritage, but most importantly our relationship to each other exists because of the redeeming and transforming relationship we have with God in Jesus. Our NAB forefathers lived out the words of Jesus in John 13:34–35, where it says, “‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’” (NIV). This love was lived out in a shared mission that involved serving God by serving others and making disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus.
God calls the people of the NAB to be a people of God. In 1 Peter 2:9, the people of God are described as chosen ones, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s special possession. As a people of God, we live on this earth as members of God’s Kingdom. How do we do this today? We do this as a people who have come to know and to share God’s peace in Jesu. Our hope must rest fully on who God is and who we are in him.
As the NAB, we seek to discover and embrace God’s mission. This is a time where we must live out God’s mission in our homes, neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, provinces, and countries. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:13–14, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In the face of division and antagonism, let us be a people of God’s unity, grace, and goodness. In the face of brokenness and harshness, let us be a people of God’s wholeness, peace, and hope.