Lausanne World Pulse – Communications among International Christian Leaders
By Phill Butler
The responses to the questionnaire, buttressed by a lifetime of mixing with Christian leaders around the world, suggests that consistent, intentional meeting and communicating with other leaders in similar areas of responsibility is, at best, occasional. Anecdotal connections seem to be the order of the day.
Parallels: Secular and Sacred
Having come up in the world of business and commercially-oriented international communications, I am acutely aware of how critical effective communication is among leaders. Sometimes personal and company fortunes rise and fall literally overnight. Effective communication is critical in these circumstances, within their company or direct area responsibility, of course. But with wider industry, real-time information is needed as well.
One response to this essential need in the leaders’ lives would be the links where face-to-face relationships can be built, information exchanged and alliances formed. To this end a wide variety of associations, networks and specifically orchestrated forums exist.
At the highest level, the United Nations and regional expressions like ASEAN provide a political forum. G7 and the World Economic Forum are high-level platforms where leaders can discuss global and regional economic issues. Moving to the business and scientific sectors, literally tens of thousands of specialized associations and networks are intersections where like-minded leaders can meet; some primarily serving technical and professional people, others, primarily senior leadership. (Google currently lists twenty-six trade associations just in the field of polymers. Another site lists seventy-six associations and societies that only deal with setting technical standards!) The world of education has similar entities—points at which like-minded leadership can connect.
The problem these days is if you are a brain surgeon, it is no longer good enough to just be part of the American Medical Association. You will need to be a member of The Neurological Society of America which, in turn, is part of the World Federation of Neurological Societies. In thousands of other professional and business sectors it is the same. It is a big, complicated world today—filled with innovation, competition and changes that affect you—especially if you are a leader in your field.
There are some Christian counterparts. In the West, groups like the Evangelical Alliance of Britain and the National Association of Evangelicals in the US often have retreats or conferences for leaders. The same would be true in parts of the non-Western world such as with the Evangelical Fellowship of India. And, the missionary counterparts of these groups, Global Connections in the UK, Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies and Interdenominational Federation of Mission Agencies in the US and the Indian Missions Association in India place an active emphasis on staging regular retreats or conferences for their leaders.
There are, of course, a wide range of more specialized yet regional or global communities. One only has to look at the Anabaptist, Reformed or Pentecostal sectors to see these expressions each providing a place where their respective leadership can meet.
Specialized geographic and functionally focused networks and regular meetings in the global Christian community serve much the same purpose as they do in the secular world. Some of these networks include: AERDO (Association of Relief & Development Organizations), the Forum of International Bible Agencies and The Refugee Highway. In the US, groups like the Mission America Coalition, Christian Management Association, National Religious Broadcasters and Christian Booksellers are examples of the growing number of specialized networks—placed where like-minded Christians can meet.
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