June 16 1997

ARTICLE TOOLS

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At its tenth general assembly, the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) announced a plan to develop fellowships in an additional 20 countries.

WEF leaders hope to establish the new national evangelical fellowships by the year 2000. The umbrella organization already represents about 150 million evangelicals in regional and national alliances in 112 countries.

Gathering at WEF's tenth general assembly in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, May 8-15, nearly 700 evangelical leaders from 93 countries met for the last time this century to discuss shared goals and strategies. (WEF holds its general assembly every five years.)

In a keynote address to the assembly, WEF international director Agustin B. Vencer, Jr., a Filipino pastor and lawyer, outlined the vision for the future, asserting that the world is at the brink of a "kairos moment" where evangelicals can play a strategic role to "transform nations for Jesus Christ." Such a role, Vencer said, depends on a "holistic" biblical view of mission that encompasses economic sufficiency, social peace, public justice, and national righteousness, as well as Christian presence.

"This is a total call to live out our faith in society, a total call for empowerment to get the job done, a total call for mobilization that the world may believe in Jesus," Vencer said.

Tokunboh Adeyemo, chair of WEF's International Council, said there are "more than enough evangelicals in the world today to change it."

Adeyemo, who is also general secretary of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa, noted that many sociologists believe it takes less than 2 percent of any society to provoke substantial social change. "If we were to put the world's population at 5 billion and the evangelicals linked to WEF at 150 ...