‘Living the Good News’: An Assessment of the Significance and Impact of the 23rd Baptist World Congress

Abstract

The twenty-third World Congress of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) took place on 7–12 July 2025 in Brisbane, Australia. The Congress theme was ‘Living the Good News’ (Luke 4:18–19), inviting participants to explore the following questions: How do we live the good news in today’s world? How can we effectively proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind? How can we set the oppressed free and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour? How can we work together to achieve this? What can we learn to take back to our own settings? This article explores the Congress’s programming and key themes, identifies new organisational developments and initiatives, and considers the significance of the event in light of the 120-year-old journey of the BWA. Although no new statements or resolutions were proposed or passed in Brisbane, attention is paid to how the Congress heard and applied the rich corpus of resolutions and statements that the BWA has adopted throughout its history.