By Dr. Harry Kelm
Executive Director of the North American Baptist Conference
We have been a bi-national conference since our very beginning in 1851. The North American Baptist Conference was initially comprised of churches of German immigrants from both Canada and the United States. Their reasons for immigrating into the US and Canada were much the same. Most came to escape religious persecution, political unrest, and economic hardship; many of them brought a deep, transforming, and abiding faith in Jesus Christ with them.
These German-speaking immigrants had often been persecuted by the civil and national authorities for not following the faith traditions that were a part of their countries of origin. They came to North America with a respect for those in authority but believed their ultimate commitment and loyalty belonged to God and to living in a way that honored and served God.
I, too, am bi-national. I have lived in both Canada and the United States. I had a friend ask me good naturedly how it was possible to live with loyalty, allegiance, and commitment to two countries. I responded that it is possible because my ultimate loyalty, allegiance, and commitment are to the Kingdom of God and to the Lord Jesus.
To live with a Kingdom allegiance above all is to have a respect for and promote the well-being of where we live and concurrently seek the righteousness of God’s Kingdom in the places where he has directed us. This also gives us the opportunity to show our world what it means to live under the reign of this Kingdom – to live with Jesus as our Lord and Savior as we live alongside others and in community with other Christians. John 13:34–35 tells us to love each other as we have been loved by Jesus. Our love will then be the evidence that we are followers of Jesus.
We live at a time where this is a challenge. Many have felt a deep concern and even offense as they have listened to the public statements of the elected leaders of the United States and Canada. These statements reflect hostility, anger, and antagonism, resulting in more hostility, anger, and offense. The sense of neighborliness and goodwill has been strained and fractured.
Without diminishing or disregarding these heartfelt responses, I believe God calls us as his people in the NAB to a different response, one of leaning into our relationship with God and subsequently our relationship with each other. I believe this is a call to live in a way that seeks God’s peace for our respective nations and the love we have for each other as a people of God’s Kingdom. Included in this is a commitment to pray for our countries and for their leaders. It is to pray for God’s Kingdom to come and his will to be done. It is to commit ourselves to keep investing in our relationships to one another and to engaging in God’s mission.
There are many opportunities to do this within the NAB. One of those opportunities is the NAB Triennial, July 15–17, 2027, at Heartland Community Church in Medina, Ohio. This gathering of the NAB community of churches happens every three years. It can be likened to a family reunion where we celebrate who God is and his mission in our world. Our theme is One Hope. We believe we are unified in knowing that the hope for a broken and fractured world is the redeeming answer of being transformed and formed in Jesus. It is a hope we have come to know and God commissions us to share with the world. I also believe the 2027 Triennial is an opportunity to show the world the way of Jesus. I invite you to come together as the NAB community of churches in Medina, Ohio, in July next year. May this be a celebration of who we are in God and of the hope found only in Jesus.