January 26, 2000

DENTON LOTZ (right), general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, interviews a Nepal Baptist leader during the Baptist World Congress in Melbourne, Australia. Participants heard testimonies of Baptists from around the world. (Photo by Mark Wyatt)

New BWA president urges
Baptists to pray, pray, pray
___By Jack Hillhouse & Robert O'Brien
___BWA News Service
___MELBOURNE, Australia (ABP)--The newly elected president of the Baptist World Alliance offered three words of advice to Baptists around the world.
___"Prayer is my first advice," said South Korean pastor and broadcaster Billy Kim. "Prayer is my second suggestion. And prayer is my third suggestion."
___Kim, 64, is pastor of Central Baptist Church in Suwon, South Korea. He was elected

BAPTIST WORLD CONGRESS

Jan. 8 to a five-year presidential term, which begins in July, by delegates to the 18th Baptist World Congress in Melbourne, Australia.
___Denton Lotz, general secretary of the BWA, told reporters that Kim gets up at 4 a.m. every day to participate in a 5 a.m. prayer meeting at his church.
___Kim, who has been pastor of the 13,000-member Suwon church 40 years, said he wishes he had learned about the centrality of prayer earlier in his ministry.
___"If I had it all to do over, I would do more praying and less preaching," Kim said in a sermon to 6,100 delegates from around the world.

BILLY KIM, new president of the Baptist World Alliance, speaks to Baptists gathered in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Wyatt)

___Kim said pastors without a strong prayer life will falter in their ministry. "Lack of prayer is one of the evidences of a lack of spiritual power in our lives," he said. "There should be no 'day off' when it comes to prayer."
___"Prayer changes the life of the church," Kim added at a press conference. "I wasn't taught that in the American seminary. But corporate and individual prayer is essential."
___Other priorities cited by the new BWA president included global evangelization, concern for individuals in problem areas around the world and help for underdeveloped nations.
___"The Coca-Cola Co. has a goal and motto that it wants 6 billion people to taste its soft drink," Kim said at a news conference after his election to succeed Brazilian Pastor Nilson Fanini. "We Baptists have Living Water we can offer the world's people, and I want the entire world to taste that Living Water," Kim said, alluding to a metaphor for Jesus Christ from the Book of John.
___Besides his 40-year pastorate at the Suwon church, Kim is president of the Far East Broadcasting Company-Korea, director of Christian Service Inc. and chaplain of the Korean National Police.
___He also is founder of Suwon Central Christian Academy and Capital Bible College and Seminary in Korea and formerly was director of Youth for Christ, Korea, a BWA vice president and president of the Asian Baptist Federation.
___In 1993, Kim translated for Billy Graham in a crusade in which more than 1.1 million people attended a single service.
___

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