BWA President Paul Msiza Visits DBU

Paul Msiza, current president of the Baptist World Alliance, visited DBU on Wednesday March 2, 2016, and spoke to students in chapel and faculty and staff afterwards at a luncheon.

Referencing John 9:13-17, Msiza shared with the students the importance of using our power appropriately. Msiza explained that the Pharisees in this passage viewed their power as a means of control rather than a means of service, but instead, believers are called to utilize whatever influence the Lord gives them to serve others for God's glory.

"When God gives us the opportunity and the space to exercise power," said Msiza, "we should be about service, not status."

He went on to say that this method is not the way the world we live in sees things, as societies across the planet revolve around self-serving power used, as the Pharisees did, to control and dictate rather than to encourage and build up.

"We may break the rules and standards of this world, but our Heavenly Father will be pleased, as we are here to serve and show God's love in all that we do," Msiza concluded.

After chapel, Msiza spoke at a special luncheon with DBU faculty and staff and shared about the work of the BWA.

"The BWA is the family of Baptists," Msiza remarked, "made up of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The thing that stands against the evils of this world is when Christians stand together in unity, and the BWA is one avenue of such unity."

In addition to his current role, Msiza has served in a variety of areas with the BWA, including vice president from 2010-2015. He is also the senior pastor of Peniel Salem Baptist Church in Pretoria, South Africa and has been a leader among Baptists in Africa for a number of years. He was elected to the presidency of the BWA in 2015 and will continue to serve in that role until 2020.

Paul and his wife, Sanna, reside in South Africa and have three sons.