Lausanne World Pulse – World Pulse Archives – World Pulse Archives

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Missions Commission held its sixth triennial Global Leadership consultation on the campus of Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada from June 1 to 6. Over 230 delegates from 51 countries considered two primary themes:

1) the realities of globalization and its impact on mission, and 2) the Christian encounter with world religions.

The three daily plenary sessions followed the dual focus of the consultation. Each day started with a biblical presentation exploring one of the major religions of the world including Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and African traditional religions. The other two plenaries of the day focused on facets of globalization, including economics, cultural and regional issues, and pluralism.

Task forces on global missiological issues that were established in the previous WEA Missions Commission consultation (Iguassu, Brazil 1999) continued their work on issues ranging from member care to global missiology. Established groups such as the International Missionary Training Fellowship, Missionary Mobilization Network, Refugee Highway and Tentmakers Information Exchange also met to consider future steps. Two new task forces were established at the meeting—Strategy in Mission and Contextualization.

This consultation will provide ongoing momentum for the WEA Missions Commission as it brings together leaders from around the world as partners allied in the task of sharing Christ with a needy world.

A. Scott Moreau is editor of Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ) and chair of Missions and Intercultural Studies at Wheaton College Graduate School.