The World
A PUBLICATION OF THE WORLD EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE
Fall 2020
Pastors Emergency Fund: Relief for Pastors in the Global South
In May 2020, WEA launched Pastors Emergency Fund (PEF) to support pastors in the Global South,caught by a loss of income during the pandemic. Many pastors and their families struggled for even one meal a day. They were not able to have Sunday services which made collection of tithes for support almost impossible.
In India, Pastor Borkar and his family had no food and were praying for God’s intervention. They received a relief kit to last the family for almost 3 weeks. His wife was overcome when she saw the provision. They expressed how grateful they were to everyone who made it possible.
In collaboration with National Alliances in India, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, the WEA PEF continues to bring provisions to pastors in need.
Emergency Fund Help
New Regional General Secretary of African Evangelical Alliance
The Rev. Dr. Master Oboletswe Matlhaope has been appointed General Secretary for African Regional Alliance which serves 40 National Alliances. Born in Botswana he is the senior minister at the Pentecostal Protestant Church (PPC), has a PhD from North West University in South Africa and served as the president of the Botswana Evangelical Fellowship (BEF). We welcome Pastor Matlhaope to this strategic role and pray for wisdom and vitality to be his from the Lord, in the exercise of this most important overseer role in the continent of Africa.
WEA’s voice before the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland
The Festus and Helen Stacey Foundation has granted a one-year gift to strengthen WEA’s office of Global Advocacy in Geneva at the United Nations. In recent years, the world community has been alerted to Christians imprisoned or even killed for their faith. With its special consultancy status at the United Nations, WEA’s staff engage in facing countries who are in violation of human rights and freedoms. This grant allows the addition of a staff person for research and for increased engagement with National Alliances.
We saw early in our research that unless we can help leaders find solutions, all the great ideas in the world will not go far. In GIL we helpyounger leaders discover God’s enablement in their very own countries.
The Global Institute of Leadership: Up and Running
In 2019 The Harold C Smith Foundation provided a start-up grant to launch the Global Institute of Leadership (GIL). Designed to train by way of online seminars and mentoring, it enables National Alliances to learn from those with experience and with their peers.
Evangelical Voice at the UN in Bonn, Germany
Hosting the headquarters of many United Nations Agencies and Offices as well as international organizations, Bonn is a hub for global cooperation in sustainable development. WEA’s recently opened office right next to the UN campus offers opportunities to increase the engagement of evangelicals around the world with issues of environment and creation care by contributing a Biblical perspective to both public and private conversations taking place in Bonn.
New President: the National Association of Evangelicals
The National Association of Evangelicals in the United States inaugurated Dr. Walter Kim as its first minority president in March 2020. He is the pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia and ministered for 15 years at Boston’s historic Park Street Church, a congregation that played a key role in the NAE’s founding. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and is a licensed minister in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.
Evangelical Review of Theology Journal Now Available Free Online
The Evangelical Review of Theology (ERT), a quarterly journal of WEA’s Theological Commission since 1977, has moved online and is now available free of charge as a downloadable PDF version.
“The new ERT will be an invaluable resource to reach the body of Christ and our partners around the world with strategic, carefully prepared messages,” said Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher. “ERT’s new status will enable us to attract articles from some of the world’s most powerful Christian voices, as well as to communicate the insights of the WEA’s gifted leaders on a much broader platform.”
Towards the Decade of Disciple-Making
During the General Assembly 2019 WEA called the global church to a renewed commitment to holistic, intentional disciple-making. A team has been formed to help National Alliances focus on the following goals:
- Encouraging all leaders to practice disciple-making in their personal lives
- Providing regional and national alliances with collaborative platforms
- Giving every leader access to relevant models, tools and opportunities for training
WEA issues regular newsletters, conducts webinars and connects global, regional, and national leaders to help in furthering its impact. An Online Forum for Disciple-Making brings together leaders committed to personal renewal and societal transformation.
Spiritual Care Teams Reaching Out into the Neighborhoods
Inspired by their experience at the WEA’s General Assembly November in 2019, two Indonesian pastors responded
to the pandemic. Concerned that hard-to-reach church members would be left vulnerable during the shutdown, they arranged for care teams to visit members weekly, pray for them, ask about their needs and provide support. The program then expanded to their neighbors, which
led to hundreds of people accepting Christ as their Lord. COVID-19 looked like a hopeless situation, but it became an opportunity to reach out into the neighborhoods.
Every time that there was a period of tremendous upheaval, where it seemed like evangelicalism might be seeing its final days, there was a resurgence that saw God work in fresh ways. And I’m expecting that again.
WEA: A Vital Global Presence
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) formed in 1846. It is the largest global association of Evangelicals. Its prime voice and global association are serving in many areas, including issues of religious freedom, training of younger leaders and key in converging resources in times of regional and national crisis.
The rapid growth of Evangelicals increases the need for a vital global presence to lead and provide help in mission and caring for those under severe oppression. In 1960 there were 90 million Evangelicals, today there are over 600 million.
As the primary world association for Evangelicals, WEA’s reach is truly global and through its national alliances, it helps those on the ground in a number of ways: modeling governance, training younger leaders, mobilizing resources and being a voice of faith to civic society. Its genius is that its National Alliances are indigenous in leadership, organization and funding.
9 Regional Alliances | 135 National Alliances
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: WorldEA.org
- Phone: (212) 233-3046
- Address: P.O. Box 7099, Deerfield, IL 60015, USA
