Published: June 17, 2008
Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, head of the World Evangelical Alliance, says an integral mission is "foundational" to the church's response to some of the biggest challenges facing the world today.
While addressing the Christian Management Australia conference at Bondi Beach last week, Tunnicliffe said that an increasing amount of secularism and post-modernism were just some of the "major" challenges to global stability.
Tunnicliffe said that for many people, evangelicalism had become synonymous with a narrow social agenda, while faith communities in western countries were being "pushed to the edge" of society by radical secularism.
He also noted that some other challenges were the impact of climate change and the current food crisis, changes in immigration, the HIV and AIDS pandemic across Africa and India, and the growing number of children at risk from human trafficking for labor or sexual purposes.
"It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other," says Tunnicliffe, "but rather it's that through integral mission our proclamation of the Gospel has social consequences as we call people to repent in all areas of life."
"Our social involvement has evangelistic consequences in that we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ," Tunnicliffe adds.
According to Tunnicliffe, leaders who are modeled on Christian world changers like William Wilberforce, who helped lead the abolition of the slave trade, are key to fulfilling a vision of integral mission.
"Here is the model of a Christian and a powerful demonstration of how a Christian engaged in culture," he said. "I think we can actually use some of the principles of William Wilberforce to guide societies around the world."
The WEA leader highlighted that transforming societies had to begin with a broken heart.
"Wilberforce's heart was broken by the slave trade. What breaks our heart today?" he asked. "I think as we look at the needs of the world, that's where we have to start."
Tunnicliffe encouraged Christians not to become discouraged by the challenges of the world, but rather be inspired by Wilberforce's stand against the social norms of his day.
"The reality is that as Christians in society, Tunnicliffe says, "sometimes we feel that we are a small minority."
"But I believe that there are resources within our community that can transform the world."
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