FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – July 10, 2025) Meeting in Brisbane, Australia, on July 9, the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Global Council unanimously approved 17 new members, bringing total membership of the BWA to 283 Baptist organizations in 138 countries and territories.
Baptist groups from North Macedonia, Senegal, Samoa, and Mongolia are the first BWA Member Partners from their respective countries. The Union of the Baptist Christians in the Republic of North Macedonia is an organization of 200 members in four churches; the Association of Baptist Churches of Senegal is a body of 760 members in eight churches; the Baptist Union of Samoa and International Ministries is a group of 300 members in five churches; and the Mongolian Baptist Convention represents 500 members in 14 churches.
The BWA also accepted new member conventions from India, Rwanda, Angola, and the USA. The Baptist Union of Tamil Nadu, an organization of 2,000 members in 50 churches, became the 25th BWA Member Partner in India; Seira Community Church, a group of 5,200 members in 11 churches, became the sixth BWA member in Rwanda; and the Baptist Evangelical Union in Angola, a body of 14,250 members in 260 churches, became the fourth member in Angola. In the USA, the Global Council approved the Kachin Baptist Churches USA, representing 2,700 members in 21 churches, and the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, comprising 42,520 members in 1,063 churches, increasing the total number of Member Partner conventions and unions in the country to 22.
“The Membership Committee was pleased to accept the challenge of 2020-2025 BWA President Tomas Mackey to increase the number of countries and territories where a Baptist body has membership in the BWA,” said Julie Justus Williams, BWA Director of Global Partnerships and Unity. “While we thank God when any group applies to officially join the global Baptist family, we rejoice that 14 new countries and territories were added to the BWA family during President Mackey’s presidency.”
While membership in the BWA was traditionally convention and union-style groups, in 2023 the BWA voted to extend membership eligibility to a broader scope of Baptist entities, including mission, education, aid, and other categories of Baptist organizations.
During the Brisbane meeting, the BWA General Council accepted eight organizations into membership from these expanded categories.
In the education focus area, the BWA welcomed Campbellsville University, a Christian institution serving 20,000 students in Kentucky, USA; Hardin-Simmons University, providing education enlightened by Christian faith and values to 1,665 students in Texas, USA; International Baptist Theological Study Centre, serving the European Baptist Federation and wider Baptist community as a theological research community and training network in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and No More Violence International, founded in 1997 in Argentina and based in Texas, USA, which trains individuals to be “Agents of Change,” living lives of peace and confronting expressions of violence in their communities.
One organization focused on aid and development and one focused on mission were also accepted as new members. Texans on Mission, founded in 1967 as Texas Baptist Men, is an aid group mobilizing Christian volunteers to respond to natural and human-caused disasters around the world. Baptist Mission Australia is a mission organization working in 17 countries with a vision of seeing more people experiencing and expressing the transforming love and hope of Jesus.
The Global Council also approved groups representing two new categories for the BWA, media and financial advising. The Alabama Baptist, Inc. (TAB Media Group), based in Alabama, USA, serves Baptists across the USA and offers an array of digital offerings and print publications. HighGround Advisors (Baptist Foundation of Texas), based in Texas, USA, is a financial advisor organization that encourages, receives, and manages charitable gifts for nonprofit organizations and charitably-minded individuals.
“It’s always a joy to be able to add new members to the global Baptist family,” said Karl Johnson, Chair of the Membership Committee for 2020-2025. “To be able to receive 17 new members and bring the total to 44 new members this quinquennium is an amazing moment.”
