700 attend dedication of first Baptist church in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (BP)-Nearly a year after U.S. troops began liberating Iraq, evangelicals in the fragile country are emerging with new boldness to take advantage of the newly granted religious freedom they lived so long without.

BP photo by Josh Booth

Bill Henard, pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., delivered Arabic New Testaments to Kurdish tribesmen in northern Iraq.

The first Baptist church ever established in Iraq was dedicated with more than 700 people in attendance. Leaders say the church, called the National Evangelical Baptist Church in Baghdad, is the cornerstone upon which future Baptist work in Iraq will be built.

Muthafar Yacoub, moderator of the Baptist Union of Iraq, said the response at the Jan. 16 dedication ceremony of the Baptist church exceeded expectations and was the first time in decades that Christians from a broad scope of evangelical backgrounds gathered openly in Iraq for a church service.

"We anticipated and originally planned for around 550 persons, figuring that this would show our Lord that we were serious about being a bold witness for Christ though we really didn't expect that many people to attend," Yacoub said. "About 15 minutes before the service started, all the chairs under the tent were taken, so we went next door to the headquarters of a local political party and asked to borrow more chairs.

"We took all 100 chairs they had and placed them in the back of the tent and around the sides," Yacoub said. "[When the service started] these chairs were also full. We counted more than 50 adults standing in the back of the tent during the service, not including any of the children."

Baptist leaders from Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon spoke during the dedication service, including Brian Barlow, general director of the Baptist School of Amman and special adviser to the Baptist Union of Iraq, who read letters of greetings from Baptists around the world. Representatives from the International Mission Board, the Brazilian Baptist Convention, the Jordan Baptist Convention and Campus Crusade for Christ were among those who attended.

BP photo by Josh Booth

A Kurdish man in northern Iraq helped unload a bag of the 2.4 million pounds of food donated by Southern Baptists.

More than 20 ordained pastors and deacons from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and the United States prayed over Nabil Sara, pastor of the new church. They asked God to grant him wisdom and courage as he leads the church through a crucial period of Iraqi history. While preaching from 2 Chronicles 7:1-11 on Solomon's dedication of the temple, Iraq-Jordan Task Force chairman Nabeeh Abbassi noted how God worked patiently through a war in Iraq to bring about the progress they celebrated that day.