This is an article from the March-April 1997 issue: Countdown to AD2000

GCOWE ’97 Mission Executives Consultation Pretoria, South Africa, June 30—July 5, 1997

What Do 500 Mission Executives Hope to Accomplish? An Interview with Avery Willis Co-Chairman

GCOWE ’97 Mission Executives Consultation Pretoria, South Africa, June 30—July 5, 1997

For only the second time since 1910, mission agency leaders will be meeting on a global level to discuss cooperation and coordination of their efforts in World Evangelization. They will be meeting as part of GCOWE '97 in Pretoria, South Africa. On the eve of this meeting, we sat down with Avery T. Willis Jr., co-chairman of the mission leaders meeting with George Verwer of Operation Mobilization, to get his thoughts and hopes for this meeting.Willis is the Senior Vice President for Overseas Operations of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board which has 4,200 career missionaries serving in 124 countries and targeting 369 unreached people groups. Willis served as a missionary in Indonesia for 12 years and is the author of MasterLife, a discipleship training program that has been translated into 52 languages.

MF: How did you and George Verwer become co-chairmen of the missions executive track?

AW: Within the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, I chair the Denominational Track and George chairs the Mobilizing New Missionaries Track. Since I represent a denominational constituency and George, as founder of Operation Mobilization, represents a para-church constituency, I think Luis Bush hoped that together we could pull together mission executives from both perspectives.

MF: Why has the International Mission Board become so involved in the AD2000 Movement in recent years?

AW: First, Luis appointed me as the Chair of the Denominational Track recognizing, in part, that the AD2000 movement was primarily comprised of interdenominational mission agencies or para-church organizations. Since many local churches are part of a denomination or a network of like-minded congregations, the denominational track is intended to represent churches. This track recognizes that local churches fuel mission agencies with people, prayer and resources and that the work of mission organizations results in and assists indigenous churches on the mission fields.

Second, at GCOWE '95 in South Korea, I was asked to present a case study of what one denomination had done to try to carry out the Great Commission. My response was, "I don't want to talk about what we've done but what we've learned." We did have the goal to get the Gospel to everybody in the world by the year 2000.

We learned we shouldn't set man-made goals but God-given goals. In South Korea, I also apologized on behalf of Southern Baptists because we have tried to do what only the whole body of Christ can do. We have been too isolationist and too independent in trying to reach the world. I confessed that and acknowledged that we want to work together with other Christians to carry out the Great Commission.

This recognition has been a growing process for us over a number of years. Once we began to address the fact that it's going to take the whole body of Christ to get the Gospel to all peoples, and not just our denomination, our involvement in the AD2000 movement naturally evolved.

MF: What's the reason for the Mission Executives Track at this GCOWE gathering when there wasn't a similar track during the GCOWE '95 meeting in South Korea?

AW: Many of us have been talking about calling such a meeting for some time. Some of the impetus came from Ralph Winter who had talked about the Edinburgh 1910 and 1980 gatherings of mission executives. Winter said, "Let's don't just have popular meetings about completing the missionary task; let's get together the people who have the resources, the authority, and the position to follow through on specific suggestions and initiatives." With mission executives, you

have people who can commit personnel and resources to unreached people groups as well as go back to their constituencies and bring specific focus to the task. Luis Bush then proposed this track for South Africa.

MF: For this meeting, what is the definition of "mission executives"?

AW: The focus is the executive leadership from significant mission organizations, both western and non-western, because there needs to be greater cross-fertilization and cooperation. Also, there will be representatives from larger churches who essentially have their own missions organization.

MF: How have you prepared for this meeting?

AW: One of the interesting features of this consultation is that it has been done with only one pre-meeting. The balance of the preparation has been done by conference calls with people from several continents talking at the same time along with a substantial amount of E-mails.

MF: What are the objectives of the mission executive's track?

AW: We wanted to get the missions executives into an arena where we could discuss what God is doing. We want these mission agency leaders to share what they're doing, especially among unreached people groups.

A major objective for the mission executives track is having agencies take responsibility for engaging the 700 of 1,739 unreached people groups on the Joshua Project list that are unassigned. Specifically, we will ask "How can we strategically work to get to these peoples?"

We also want time for the missions from the newer sending countries to have an opportunity to interface with those agencies who have had more experience. Conversely, those of us representing the older sending countries want to learn more from the newer ones who have some different ways of doing things.

MF: What are the particular issues that will be addressed in the mission executive's track?

AW: One, we want to begin with talking about unity in diversity because there is a great deal of diversity among us, and we want to emphasize unity. In some places we haven't had the unity that would effectively make that happen. Second is mobilization. Obviously, all mission organizations need to mobilize both personnel and resources to help complete the missionary task. Third, we also want to create a forum for networking and partnership among mission agencies that would be forming a team or partnership to focus on a specific people or related people groups.

Another thing we are going to talk about, though I don't think it was our original intent, is how do mission organizations face or deal with the activity of God and the changing world.

MF: What caused you to add this topic to the consultation?

AW: One reason results from the ongoing restructuring within the agency I represent, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. After 150 years-plus as an agency, we realized the need to look afresh to see what God is doing because we cannot keep up with the pace at which He is moving. Thus, we said "What needs to change about our organization and culture to make that possible?" This same kind of review is happening in many groups, and so that's the reason for a planned panel discussion addressing this issue. There will also be time given to the question that Ralph Winter, the track's honorary chair, raised in the September/October issue of Mission Frontiers which was part of a larger discussion of the de-westernization of the Gospel: "why is more than half the human race still not Christian?"

MF: What are the motivations for addressing this subject?

AW: The issue he raised is so pertinent that we felt it had to be put on the agenda.

MF: What other topics will be discussed?

AW: One of the issues we felt ought to be addressed is "How is mission work best financed?" both from the American context and the mission world context, as well as, the whole concept of indigeneity.

We will also have emphasis on the strategic role of prayer. There will be a great deal of emphasis, with many different kinds of interaction, on the Joshua Project, a major focus of the entire track. There will also be an emphasis on "How do you establish a church growth movement among an unreached people?" because that is really what we are looking for when we are looking at these unassigned 700 unreached groups.

MF: Is the issue of dependence a part of that as well?

AW: Very much a part of that, because when you develop churches that are dependent on the sending body, they cannot become sending bodies in the same sense. Until they develop their independent faith in God and learn that God is sufficient to supply their needs, it's hard for them to send out missionaries to do the same thing.

Another key issue for mission-sending groups is attrition. This is especially relevant to many of the younger missions from Africa, Latin America and Asia because they are experiencing very high attrition rates. Bill Taylor, chair of the World Evangelical Fellowship Missions Commission, will report on a global attrition study that has been completed. We believe that mission training is part of the answer to the attrition problem.

MF: How will the track's structure encourage the interaction you have discussed?

AW: Most presentations will only be 20 minutes followed by small groups or a dialogue time for another 20 minutes. There will also be many times for prayer in small groups. So, we're really trying to focus on letting people exchange ideas.

MF: Is the missions executive track in South Africa an event or a part of a larger process? If it is part of a larger process, what are the next steps that may develop beyond this gathering?

AW: One of the interesting things about the AD2000 Movement is that it's a grass-roots movement. Rather than being formed from above, it's formed from the people who are involved and their interests. They pay their own way and this fosters an indigenous approach from most of the people involved. There have been some that have been helped with scholarships, but not a large number. We're hoping at this consultation to talk about what needs to be our next step, or if we need to formalize other steps for mission executives together at other times to deal with these very significant issues.

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