Missions Mobilization: Early Streams

“2. The aims and purposes of the organization shall be in conformity with the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

“3. The organization shall undertake to support the work of the United Nations and to promote knowledge of its principles and activities, in accordance with its own aims and purposes and the nature and scope of its competence and activities.”

“25. Organizations to be accorded special consultative status because of their interest in the field of human rights should pursue the goals of promotion and protection of human rights in accordance with the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.”

Originally WEF's mission was viewed as being similar to that of the United Nations

– having the same vision of “unity and cooperation” as being the promoter of the annual Week of Prayer

WEF sponsors the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church** [IDOPPC] - Steve Haas

IDOPPC Advisory Board

WEF and the Roman Catholic Church

WEF participation: Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium [1994]

- WEF on drafting committee, representative Brian O'Connell

WEF has published:
“A Contemporary Evangelical Perspective on Roman Catholicism”
“The Nature and Mission of the Church: Conversations between the World”
Evangelical Fellowship and the Roman Catholic Church" [1999, WEF Theological Commission]

WEF at the Tantur Ecumenical Centre [Vatican-owned]

“In 1993 there was a first meeting in Venice (Italy) for conversations between Evangelical and Roman Catholic representatives, co-sponsored by the World Evangelical Fellowship and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The themes were Justification, Scripture and Tradition. As a follow up to it, a second meeting for conversations was held in the Ecumenical Institute of Tantur (Jerusalem), Oct. 12-19, 1997.”

WEF History & Leadership since 1951***

Prominent Leaders associated with WEF today:

• Peter Kuzmic - WEF Theological Commission

Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization

International Board of AD2000 and Beyond

Assemblies of God**

• Luis Palau

• Ravi Zacharias

WEF COMMISSIONS

WEF's Theology Commission [1973]***

How it relates to/ strategizes for the Association of Theological Schools [ATS] which accredits US schools of theology/ schools of divinity; developing a global curriculum.

WEF's Thelogical Leadership Development

Theological Training for Leaders of the Global Church

WEF's use of YWAM's Discipling the Nations [DNA]

WEF's Religious Liberty Commission

[partial]

John Langlois - Chairman

Samuel Ericsson- Christian Legal Society & Advocates International

Robert Seiple - World Vision & Institute for Global Engagement

WEF's Youth Commission

Paul Fleishmann, National Network of Youth Ministries [NNYM]

[see Mobilizing Churches for Prayer, NNYM]

WEF Commission on Women's Concerns

Executive Chair: Winnie Bartel - National Association of Evangelicals [NAE] board

[see NAE, above]

WEF's Global Celebration for Women*** [September 2001]

WEF Member Organizations

World Evangelical Fellowship is a global network of 120 national/regional evangelical church alliances, 104 organizational ministries and 6 specialized ministries serving the worldwide church through WEF.

[partial listing]

WEF Affiliates

* Dawn Ministries

* International Christian Media Commission (ICMC)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

WEF Associate Members (listed in alphabetical order)

* AD2000 and Beyond Movement**

* Campus Crusade for Christ International

* Chinese Coordinating Centre of World Evangelization

* Christian and Missionary Alliance

* Church of God World Missions

* Compassion International

* COMIBAM - Iberoamericana

* Evangelical Free Church Mission

* Every Home for Christ International

* Global Mapping International

* Global March for Jesus**

* InterDev [Brian O'Connell - also NAE Governmental Affairs, D.C.]

* International Bible Society

* Jews for Jesus

* Luis Palau Evangelistic Association

* Mission Aviation Fellowship

* Navigators

* OC International

* OMS International

* Operation Mobilisation

* Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada

* Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM)

* SIM

* The Sentinel Group**

* Trainers of Pastors International Coalition (TOPIC)

* United States Center for World Mission

* World Concern

* Youth for Christ International

WEF 11^th General Assembly 2001 ~ World Evangelical Fellowship

Speakers

Endorsements

Billy Graham

Youth for Christ – “founded…through Fuller Seminary** and BGEA [Billy Graham Evangelistic Association]”

- quoting Christianity Today's Executive Editor David Neff

Urbana [InterVarsity Christian Fellowship] - speaker

World Vision [1950s] - a spin-off org of Youth for Christ

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association [BGEA] - Wheaton College

“Professor Mark A. Noll is McManis Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of History at Wheaton College… As director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton, he has supervised several Pew grants over the years…”

Mark Noll is an Associate Member of the Currents in World Christianity Project/Cambridge University [UK].

Christianity Today [1956]

ECFA - Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability [1979]; founded by BGEA and World Vision

Lausanne Consultation on World Evangelization [LCWE], aka International Congress On World Evangelization [ICOWE] 1974

Amsterdam 2000 – also funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, see below

Lausanne and AD2000 & Beyond – a Brief History

1960 - Billy Graham convenes “select group from around the world to consider greater cooperation in world evangelism”-Montreux, Switzerland

1966 - World Congress on Evangelism - Berlin

1968 - World Congress on Evangelism - Bogota

1968 - World Congress on Evangelism - Singapore

1969 - World Congress on Evangelism - Minneapolis

1971 - World Congress on Evangelism - Amsterdam

1973 - Post Congress World Consultation - Atlanta, Georgia

Twenty leaders from around the world to consider if WEF could be the umbrella for Lausanne [1974] follow-up

Graham recommends that WEF be “revitalized and reorganized” to become the committee which serves to facilitate Lausanne.

1974 - International Congress On World Evangelization [ICOWE] – Lausanne I

Drafting of the Lausanne Covenant

Reverend John R. W. Stott, Rector of All Souls Church, England - Chairman of Drafting Committee

The Lausanne Covenant – A Binding Contract

Exposition & Commentary by John Stott

“The word ‘covenant’ is not used in its technical, biblical sense, but in the ordinary sense of a binding contract. For example, in seventeenth century Scotland there were the famous ‘Covenanters’ who bound themselves by a ‘solemn league and covenant’ to maintain the freedom of the church. The reason the expression ‘Lausanne Covenant’ was chosen in preference to ‘Lausanne Declaration’ is that we wanted to do more than find an agreed formula of words. We were determined not just to declare something, but to do something, namely to commit ourselves to the task of world evangelization…”

Evangelism vs. Evangelization

Anglican Bishop A. Jack Dain Executive Chairman of ICOWE: “Lausanne is a Congress on evangelization, not a Congress on evangelism. [The World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, held in 1966] was the first of many congresses on evangelism. But I think now the present thought in the minds of many leaders around the world is that we need not only to think of evangelism, that is, the proclamation of the Gospel, but the whole task given to us by the risen Christ. This, I think more aptly, is called evangelization…”

Evangelization = Social Gospel

Dr. Billy Graham, Honorary Chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization: “Since the Lausanne Congress in 1974, Christians increasingly have been called upon to provide leadership in areas where they were a small minority or almost did not exist before. Evangelism has taken on a new meaning. It is a time of great opportunity, but also a time of great responsibility. We are stewards of our Christian heritage. We must evangelize at all costs where there is yet time. World problems of poverty, overpopulation and the threat of nuclear war mount by the hour. The world is in desperate need of the gospel, now!”

The Lausanne Covenant

[selected Articles]

5. CHRISTIAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

“We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all men. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, colour, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited. Here too we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty.”

10. EVANGELISM AND CULTURE

“The gospel does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness, and insists on moral absolutes in every culture.”

13. FREEDOM AND PERSECUTION

“It is the God-appointed duty of every government to secure conditions of peace, justice and liberty in which the Church may obey God, serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and preach the gospel without interference. We therefore pray for the leaders of nations and call upon them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience, and freedom to practise and propagate religion in accordance with the will of God and as set forth in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” [UN Declaration of Human Rights]

Note: “Wholeness of the Gospel” = Socio-Political Involvement

“The new International [LCWE] Director, Tom Houston, went so far as to say, ‘The Lausanne Covenant is a precious gift from God with its Biblical emphasis not only on the primacy of evangelism but to the wholeness of the gospel. We need continually to use it as a basis on which to promote cooperation and health in evangelization…

“What must be remembered, however, is that it is the ecumenical, unbiblical concept of the ‘wholeness of the gospel’ that makes the Lausanne Covenant a springboard for all sorts of strange things - social action, feminist theology, ecumenism, charismatic confusion, compromised fellowships, unbalanced missions programs. All can find their supposed justification by quoting some portion of the Covenant....” [source: Fundamental Evangelistic Association, Lausanne II in Manila]

1989 - Global Consultation on World Evangelism*** (GCOWE) – Lausanne II

Jay Gary, Lausanne Movement Program Director

Manila Manifesto drafted by Rev. John Stott, Rector of All Souls Church, England

[Note: Stott also drafted the Lausanne Covenant]

Ecumenical Representation at Lausanne II in Manila:

“’OFFICIAL OBSERVERS AND SPECIAL GUESTS AT LAUSANNE II IN MANILA’ were identified as coming ‘from the Vatican of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome; from the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow; from the World Council of Churches in Geneva; from the Greek Orthodox Church in Athens; as well as special guests from many other churches, denominations, and para-church organizations which usually are not part of the Lausanne movement.’

“Dr. Leighton Ford, in the opening day’s press conference, responded to our question concerning Roman Catholic involvement in Lausanne II by noting that more Catholic participation would have been possible had it not been for conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in the local situation in Manila prior to the conference itself--misunderstandings which gave the local Roman Catholic bishops the false impression that the Lausanne evangelicals were in Manila to proselytize the local Roman Catholics.

“Pressure from Latin American participants upon those who were drafting the ‘Manila Manifesto’ resulted in there being no direct statements favoring working with Roman Catholics in joint evangelism programs. An Argentine reporter who attended the Latin American national meeting revealed that participants from Latin American countries would have walked out if cooperation with Roman Catholicism was favorably referred to in the Manifesto. They knew first-hand what Romanism was really like in their respective countries, and knew from first-hand experience that Roman Catholicism was certainly no friend to the cause of Christ.

“It was obvious that there was internal pressure by special groups such as those from Latin America which forced LCWE leaders to soft-pedal their proposed cooperation with Roman Catholics. Yet, it must be remembered that Catholics were scheduled to speak in conference tracts; a workshop dealing with evangelical/Roman Catholic dialogue was conducted; ‘Evangelization 2000,’ which is the Catholic program of worldwide evangelization, was presented as a viable model for evangelicals to consider; and many statements were made by evangelical leaders during the conference which clearly indicate that the majority of evangelicals are, indeed, favorable to working with Roman Catholics more and more in the days to come...”

Jay Gary: “GCOWE 2000…was deliberately inclusive. Great Commission leaders came from Anglican, ecumenical, evangelical, Roman Catholic, charismatic, Third World indigenous, and Pentecostal networks…”

1990 - AD2000 & Beyond Movement launched at Lausanne II

2000 - Amsterdam 2000 [Billy Graham Evangelistic Association]

Funded by Pew Charitable Trusts [Sun Oil/ Pew also funds Council on Foreign Relations/CFR]

US $40 million in sponsorship from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association [BGEA]

Billy Graham Invited Alpha Course to Amsterdam 2000***

The Amsterdam Declaration: Article #11. Social Responsibility and Evangelism

“…when our evangelism is linked with concern to alleviate poverty, uphold justice, oppose abuses of secular and economic power, stand against racism, and advance responsible stewardship of the global environment, it reflects the compassion of Christ and may gain an acceptance it would not otherwise receive. We pledge ourselves to follow the way of justice in our family and social life, and to keep personal, social and environmental values in view as we evangelize.”

Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism [LCJE]**

Mandatory signing of the Lausanne Covenant

“Joining the LCJE entitles you to receive the LCJE bulletin, participate in the North American and International LCJE consultations, and to be a part of a world-wide network of Jewish missions. To join you need to agree to the Lausanne Covenant (a broadly evangelical statement of basic doctrine and belief to preach the gospel)…”

Ascendance of Messianic Judaism over Hebrew Christianity

[Jewish converts to ‘Yeshua’ retain Judaism/ reject assimilation within Christian Church]

Messianic Jews lead Jewish Revival and Kingdom Restoration

Ask the Rabbi! – Exaltation of Rabbinic writings over New Testament

Hebraic Roots of Christianity**

Denial of Divine Inspiration of Greek New Testament

Return to the Mosaic Law and Jewish Commentaries

Introduction of Jewish Mysticism/Kabbalah

[See: Messianic & Discernment Ministries Facilitating the Transition to Lausanne]

Kaleidoscopic Global Action Plan/ KGAP, 1990 [Jay Gary & Vinson Synan]

[KGAP framers included: Jay Gary, Vinson Synan - See profiles in next section]

Need for More Data:

Global Evangelism Movement [Vinson Synan]

Global Mapping International

TIMELINE: NAE/ WEF/ Lausanne Movement*** [database link]

The Global Prayer & Missions Movement Database: Current Streams of the Global Missions Movement