August 01, 1983 by Ralph D. Winter

Wheaton, June 20-July 1

An international gathering of Christian leaders is always exciting, and even more so when such leaders gather from widely different traditions. Wheaton '83, June 20 July 1. was no exception. About 325 people from 55 nations met around the theme:

I will Build My Church Each delegate was assigned to one of three tracks: I the nature and mission of the church in the local setting, II the nature and mission of the church in new frontiers, and ill the nature and mission of the church in response to human need.

Tracks I end lit took off furiously and were able to assemble timely, first class papers on their discussions. In an age when the church is sometimes accused of being only a western movement and Insensitive to human need, these tracks were able to resolutely state and demonstrate the opposite God's church is global and is concerned with taking the whole gospel to the whole person.

Participants in Track It (on frontiers) shared in common not so much a knowledge of frontier missions as simply their great desire to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. During the conference, then, these leaders eagerly studied statistics and the strategic Biblical concept of a "nation" or "people group." All finally agreed in e written statement that the task of the church is to complete the job of making Christ the Lord of all nations (or peoples).Gordon Aeschliman World Christian Inc.

Editor's note: USCWM people were exceedingly interested in this consultation, especially Track It on frontiers. We count it significant that three of the original five members of the steering committee for Track II were previously delegates to the 1980 Edinburgh Consultation on Frontier Missions. Your editor was asked to give one of the Track II plenary papers. Note, however, that the final 5 page "letter to the churches." a composite from the three tracks, gave only nine lines to the Track II consultation on frontiers

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Vancouver, July-August

Reports on the activities of the World Council of Churches (WCC) do not normally come up in this bulletin. However, the editor happened to be teaching for a week at Regent College in Vancouver, lust a few hundred feet from this large meeting lies, than 700 voting delegates but close to 3,000 observers, visitors, press, etc.). Here are some of his reflections:

Despite my heavy teaching schedule, I was able to get away one evening to hear the evangelical Anglican bishop, Facto Kivengeri, who has roots in the East African revival, paired off on she platform with Allan Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. After Kivengeri spoke, emphasizing both the spiritual and physical needs of the world. Boesak got up and in a fiery message talked as though Kivengeri had not mentioned any physical needs at all, claiming that the gospel must not be "just words hanging in the air."

Faiths brief, mild reply at the end was simply that food and clothing do not prevent people from committing suicide nor allow them to go to their deaths setting. The major difference between the two was probably their backgrounds: while Boesak's baukground in South Africa prompted him to focus on oppression by whites, Kivengeri's background in Uganda under oppression by blacks suggested that the problem is not racial so much as spiritual.

Mixed in with the total number of participants  whether delegates or visitors or whatever were actually a fairly large number of key evangelicals. Meeting together, they felt that this assembly of the World Council "marked significant progress over the last two assemblies (Uppsata 1958 and Nairobi 1975)." Altogether it had more emphasis on Biblical and spiritual dimensions.

A group of about 40 of these evangelicals gathered together end decided to draft a statement. As it turned out, Arthur Glasser of Fuller Seminary was the principal drafter assisted by several others, ranging from Paul Schotenboer of the Reformed Evangelical Synod to Peter Kuemic, an international Pentecostal loader from Yugoslavia. Robert Youngblood of the World Evangelical Fellowship and Richard Lovelace, who is a one man force for evangelical renewal within U.S. mainline denominations. A copy of this document is available for 50 cents on the order form on page 32. The statement appreciates certain improvements in tone and meaning but noted that "no plenary address made reference even to the WCC's own statement on mission and evangelism."

As editor of Mission Frontiers my own comments would be to put all this in context. Almost all scholars agree that the greatest Impetus to unity (of which the World Council boasts) was produced by the wide ranging fellowship back in 1910 around the challenge to mission frontiers that was the theme of the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. That was a meeting of mission executives rather then nonmissionary church leaders. Even the World Council's "Commission on Mission and Evangelism," which last met at Melbourne In 1980. failed to properly highlight the mission structures of Christendom, whether denominational or interdenominational.My own detailed analysis of the differences between, say, the Melbourne 1980 meeting lust mentioned and the Edinburgh 3980 meeting, which deliberately restaged the focus and structure of the 1930 meeting, is found as an article In the International Journal on Frontier Missions (see p. 29). That article also comments extensively on the structural characteristics of the Wheaton '83 meeting mentioned on p. 16.

Amsterdam July 12-21

In striking contrast to the sophisticated leaders who gathered in Vancouver, 3,871 relatively poor "itinerant evangelists" from all over the globe gathered July 12 to 21 in Amsterdam, at the invitation of Billy Graham, for the International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists.

Never before in history has there appeared in any one place such a rich end authentic display of the true vitality at the grass roots level of the world church.

It was not just another meeting. A long time friend of mine who has been to many world level gatherings summarized. "I have never in my life been to a conference with greater spiritual impact."

No one at Amsterdam corresponded to the Russian archbishop at the Vancouver meeting who had to rent an armored car in which his bejeweled vestments could be kept safely. In fact, an archbishop from the Protestant Church of South India landed at the Amsterdam airport with only $9 in hand and no place to sleep!

Thus, there have been many world level gatherings of church leaders, but by any account the meeting in Amsterdam was certainly unprecedented. Never before had local evangelists convened on the world level (over 90% of the 3.871 attending had never been to a world level conference). Day after day profound spiritual experiences gripped the delegates as their very specific practical and spiritual tasks were considered in the light of God's word and in reference to the power of His Spirit.

Billy Graham himself declared that he had never before been in a gathering like this. Who knows what the future holds for a world movement which at the very grass roots is as vital as the evidences the world saw at Amsterdam?

However, as editor of Mission Frontiers I have one very specific observation: This conference was truly great event and reassures us mightily about the validity of past mission work. But it may possibly have little contribution toward the evangelization of those who are not part of the same "peoples" among whom these wonderful evangelists now minister.Even before the meeting, it was evident that this was to be a conference of what could be called "local" evangelists. They also qualify as "itinerant" workers. In almost all cases that means that while they do indeed circulate around, their ministry is almost totally among their own people.

I wrote to Billy Graham before the meeting and enclosed a photocopy of a paragraph from his own landmark opening address at the 1974 Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization:

While some people can be evangelized by their neighbors, others and greater multitudes are cut off from their Christian neighbors by deep linguistic, political, and cultural chasms. They will never be reached by "near neighbor" evangelism. To build our evangelistic policies on 'near neighbor" evangelism alone it to shut out at least a billion from any possibility of knowing the Savior.

Clearly, 36,750 people groups will remain unreached if workers are not sent beyond their own peoples. Soon before the conference began, Billy Graham wrote back to me, assuring me that this concern would continue to be voiced, and it was several times voiced at Amsterdam, although press releases made no reference to it. In other words. the very concept of cross-cultural missions or even "Third World" missions was almost total missing from reports to the public. Nevertheless, we can rejoice in what God accomplished at this conference, and we can pray that a growing concern for evangelism will be accompanied by new efforts in cross-cultural missions.