wfn.org | Evangelicals Can Transform Nations

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21-May-1997 
97212                             
 
         Evangelicals Can Transform Nations, Leader Tells 
              World Evangelical Fellowship Assembly 
 
                 by Ecumenical News International 
 
ABBOTSFORD, Canada--Jun Vencer, international director of the World 
Evangelical Fellowship (WEF), has called on the world's 150 million 
evangelical Christians to transform their nations and to evangelize the 
world. 
 
     Vencer, a Filipino lawyer and management consultant, told 700 
delegates from 93 nations attending WEF's 10th General Assembly in 
Abbotsford that he believed in the "strategic" role of evangelicals in the 
betterment of the world and that attitudes, not programs, were the keys to 
action. 
 
     "This is a total call to live out our faith in  society, a total call 
for empowerment to get the job done, a total call for mobilization that the 
world may believe in  Jesus.  It is a total call to evangelism, church 
planting and missions." 
 
     In his May 12 speech, Vencer addressed the issues of economic 
sufficiency, social peace, public justice, national righteousness and 
Christian witness. Each concern was, he said, one facet of a holistic view 
of ministry. The Bible pointed the way to emergency relief, avoidance of 
excessive interest rates, dismantling of oppressive structures and trust in 
the provisions of God.  
 
     He added that a balanced view recognized that in a fallen world 
poverty could be self-caused or imposed or a result of religious error or 
natural calamity.  
 
     "Clearly, the solution is not just relief, but transformation of 
personal values and structural evils," Vencer said.  He added that 
political advocacy was "a vital ministry for evangelicals, to ensure that 
just and favorable structures and systems are in place in the country, to 
participate in the process of development." 
 
     But Vencer said that the people of God were also called to be 
peacemakers. Reconciliation, he added, often began in the church.  
 
     Speaking of South Africa, he said that with the collapse of apartheid 
"evangelicals have to decide whether they will remain divided or take the 
bold step of faith to dismantle their own multiple structures and be 
united," a reference to the fact that many churches in South Africa were 
divided along race lines in the apartheid era. 
 
     More than any other group within a nation, he suggested, evangelicals 
have a decisive advantage in the ministry of reconciliation. "Truth and 
justice must be factored into the process," he said. The biblical 
foundation for peace was justice, which Vencer described as "not just 
legislation, but remedies." 
 
     "This means developing networks with other groups to stand up for 
justice," he said. "This means not leaving the function of governance or 
business to evil men. The public square is a legitimate area for Christian 
ministry. At the heart of public justice is religious liberty."  
 
          The WEF, which represents evangelical Christians in 113 
countries, holds an assembly every five years. 

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