The Baptist Centenary Congress has gathered thousands of Christian leaders from the UK and from every corner of the globe. Approximately 13,000 delegates have gathered so far in Birmingham, UK for the event, and amid a hugely busy schedule, Rev Steve Chalke took time out between addressing thousands of attendees to speak passionately with Christian Today.

Rev Steve Chalke is the founder of Faithworks and Oasis Trust, and is the author of a number of Christian books, including ‘The Lost Message of Jesus’. The text of the interview is shown below:

Christian Today: What kind of impact do you hope that these four days of the Baptist World Centenary Congress will have?

Chalke: Well I think that around the world Baptist denominations and local Baptist churches are all distinctive; there’s no one size that fits all. Churches are different and they need to respond to their culture and their setting. But I think that there are certain basic principles that should guide every church and every Baptist church, and I hope that what will come out in these four days is that Christians will go back to their localities and communities around the world and live out principles that are taught here and do so in a culturally sensitive way.

Christian Today: The theme of this congress is ‘Jesus Christ Living Water’. Could you explain what you believe is the relevance of this to the Baptist denomination now and also to the other UK churches at this time in God’s history?

Chalke: I think that without a doubt we live in an age when people are spiritually past. There are no answers to all the hard questions that we face on a global scale. We live in a global society in a new way now, and are suddenly aware that we are actually one race of people – that we belong together. But there are no answers to the pressing problems, the moral problems, the social problems. So we are ‘past’, and so it is here where there is the life giving word of Jesus which is like water.

I honestly believe that the message of Jesus, the relevance of Jesus’ teaching is paramount today. If you look at the global war on terrorism and all of those issues, why is half the world angry with the other half? The world can easily split the religious line couldn’t it. The Christian West versus Islam. Only the words of Jesus and ethics of Jesus will save us on a planet that overheats where we all fry anyway. So I think if you look at any of the big issues, all the local issues, where there is loneliness, poverty, lack of hope and despair – the message of Jesus makes sense. He is living water.

I think that the words of Jesus and the passion that he brings to a person’s life in transforming men and liberating them, forgiving them and appointing them outside themselves – this is the hope for the world.

This is some research just done here in the UK by the Home Office, and it showed that if you are an active Christian, you are three times more likely than anyone else to engage in the affairs of your community beyond your own interests. Why is that? Because Jesus puts passion into your heart. It is written into the DNA of any followers of Jesus that they must be concerned of their brother – who is my neighbour? Everyone. Love God and love your neighbour.

I think its a pretty potent, energetic and powerful force, and as a Christian community filled with God’s spirit, I think we have a lot to do.

Christian Today: You founded Faithworks and you successfully brought in UK’s top political leaders to talk about faith in the run up to the General Elections, but in light of the recent London bombings, what do you think these leaders now have to do to reconcile the different faith groups?

Chalke: I think that the political leaders in London and beyond the big cities around the UK and around the western world are faced with a huge problem. Actually they need the church’s help and the other religious groups help to solve that problem. They can’t solve it on their own. There are issues that they can deal with but there are issues that they need us to deal with.

We need to ask the question, ‘Why is it that so often religion does lead to world and so often that religious leads to intolerance, fighting and negativity?’ We’ve got to address that issue as the Church. We have to look at the bible and look at our conditions and ask ourselves the question, why is it that at the extreme, Christians behave in this way? I think the Muslim community needs to ask itself the same question and perhaps even more urgently than the Christian community, though we have to admit there are many examples of Christians behaving intolerably.

We have to ask if Jesus is the ‘Prince of Peace’, how can we become a demonstration of that peace? If Jesus is the prince of inclusiveness, because that’s what he did – he worked with other religious groups himself. The centurion who worshipped pagan Gods but he came to Jesus and he said this man’s got great faith. But what did Jesus mean by that? And how do we engage as the church, without losing our distinctives, but actually working for peace across the religious and ethnic divides.

I think these are big questions. I think the politicians need our helping in achieving some answers.

Christian Today: Is there any ways that you think that the churches could pro-actively have a greater impact in society and the way it is run for church leaders to impose themselves more onto the political scene?

Chalke: I think the word ‘impose’ is a dangerous word for Christians as we’ve done quite a lot of imposing over the history, and we’re not good at it. No one’s good at it. But I do think that we can have and influence.

I think the more intimate we are with the message of Christ, and Christ himself, and the more involved we are in our communities, caring in Christ’s name; the more influence we will come to have. I just think it’s almost an inevitable spin-off of that commitment to communities.

I was here yesterday and unknown to me I was booked into have a meeting with leaders of this city (Birmingham). I was invited across the road and some of the leaders in the city have asked me if our teachings from Faithworks could help them think through some of these issues to do with terrorism and to do with inclusion, and to do with pulling the political faith groups together and to make the city work in a more joined up way. They’ve asked me already to set up conferences and to send workers into the locality.

I think all of that, the influence, comes from the involvement. We are intimate with Christ, involved in our communities, so we will gain influence. That’s what we need to be doing.




Interview conducted by Andrew Clark (Christian Today).