Broadening my knowledge of the Baptist community.

I officially became the editor of Baptist History and Heritage in the summer of 2003 and have since coordinated four issues of the journal. Yet, this issue is, in many ways, my first. I have worked on it from start to finish, selecting the theme, soliciting the articles from writers, and editing and proofreading. Pulling this issue together has been an exciting process, and I have enjoyed it immensely.

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In my earliest months at the society, I had contact with Baptists from all over the world and with leaders from a number of Baptist denominations. I quickly learned that my Baptist vision was quite narrow. To remedy my own limited knowledge of the Baptist community (and perhaps that of some of our readers), I determined to use this issue of the journal to broaden my understanding of some of the smaller Baptist denominations and to learn more about Baptist work in the United States and around the world. To achieve my goal, I turned to Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. No other Baptist living today travels as widely, talking with, listening to, and worshipping with Baptists throughout the world as does Lotz. His article introduces the work of Baptist people in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America. For about a year, Brian Talbot, senior pastor of Cumbernauld Baptist Church, Scotland, and archivist of the Scottish Baptist History Archive in Glasgow, has been teaching me about the work of Scottish Baptists via e-mail, and his article, "Fellowship in the Gospel," further expanded my education about Scottish Baptists and their work with other Baptists during the early twentieth century.

My knowledge of the incredible history of African American Baptists has been vastly enhanced by Lawrence Williams, who provided me with a brief lesson on the beginning of the Progressive National Convention, and by William Booth, who introduced me to one of the great leaders of that convention, L. Venchael Booth. To gain insight into the history of Hispanic Baptists in Texas, I turned to Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas, and president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Reading his article brought back many fond memories. Reyes writes of the work of Baptists in Beeville, my hometown, and their work in Skidmore, the town in which as a college student I served as a youth minister. Rounding off this introductory exploration of various ethnic Baptist work is an excellent article by Tim Chang on the history of the Korean Baptist movement in the United States.

I was first introduced to the Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church in 1999 by one of my students at Campbell University Divinity School. That student, Elvin Butts, is a Pentecostal Free Will Baptist pastor and is a leader in his denomination, and I am grateful that he agreed to write yet one more history paper for me. I am also grateful to Don Sanford, who recently retired after eighteen years of serving as the historian for the Seventh Day Baptists, for his article on the early development of Seventh Day Baptist in the United States.

The final two articles were presented at our 2004 meeting. John Essick introduced our society to a little-known Baptist seminary that from 1921 to 1941 provided theological education for recent immigrants to the United States, and Bruce Gourley provided new insights about the views on slavery of a well-known Baptist leader, John Leland.

Overall, I believe I have been successful in this early attempt to broaden my Baptist horizons, and I look forward to learning more about other Baptist denominations and other Baptist work around the world.