Baptist World Alliance, BWA News Release

Baptist Youth Conference theme song released

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An original theme song for the 16th Baptist Youth World Conference has been released and is available on YouTube. Reach!, the title of the song, captures the theme of the youth conference that is to be held in Singapore from July 17-21.

Baptist youth are encouraged to learn the song ahead of arriving in Singapore. “As we sing the theme song, it is my hope that the message in the music will serve as an inspiration for renewal and revival,” said Baptist World Alliance® Youth Director Emmett Dunn.  “May the song be a reminder that we as Baptist young Christians are called to seize this moment and REACH our cities, communities and the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Lyrics of the song were written by Jeff Carter, a Canadian Baptist Ministry missionary to the European Baptist Federation based in Prague, Czech Republic, and Vesekhoyi Tetseo, a Baptist from Nagaland, India, who lives in Okinawa, Japan. Tetseo, who is president of the Asia Pacific Baptist Youth Fellowship and who will be the worship leader for the conference, did the musical composition and arrangement along with Liu Yonglun.

The chorus of the song reads:

Reach up higher (God reached out to us)
Reach to each other (coz’ He first loved us)
Reach out wider, wider, wider
Reach out to the nations
God, You reign!

The video and lyrics may be downloaded from the BWA website.

Baptist Youth World Conferences, normally held every five years, draw thousands of youth from some 100 countries.

Registration is currently open and may be done at www.bwanet.org.

The Baptist World Alliance, founded in 1905, is a fellowship of 266 conventions and unions in 134 countries and territories comprising 51 million baptized believers in 178,000 churches. For more than 100 years, the Baptist World Alliance has networked the Baptist family to impact the world for Christ with a commitment to strengthen worship, fellowship and unity; lead in mission and evangelism; respond to people in need through aid, relief, and community development; defend religious freedom, human rights, and justice; and advance theological reflection and leadership development.