History - Alliance World Fellowship

The Alliance World Fellowship (AWF) unites churches and ministries related to the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). God used Dr. Albert Benjamin Simpson (picture right) to start this movement in the 1880’s, which developed into a mission-minded denomination with partners in many nations under a variety of names.

National leaders from all over the world were brought together for the first time in Nyack, New York, in 1975. That meeting resulted in the official formation of the AWF as a fellowship that would meet once every four years with the following specific purposes:

To affirm our commitment to the Bible, God’s Word, as His complete and authoritative written revelation to man.
To bear testimony to the particular truths of the Fourfold Gospel: Christ our Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King.
To support and encourage one another in the task of Mission and Evangelism which we understand to be the special calling of the church.
To provide opportunity and encourage expression of fellowship among members of the Alliance World Fellowship.
To provide a non-legislative means of consultation and cooperation among the world community of the member churches.
To share our mutual concerns and insights relating to the various crucial spiritual and temporal issues of the church.
To promote ministerial and missionary education.
To uphold one another in prayer and administer relief in times of crisis.
To advance unity of theological and moral standards among the members of the Alliance World Fellowship.
To promote the exchange of personnel in special areas of ministry.

These were enshrined in a Constitution which provided for an Executive Committee to be responsible for its functions with a President as the Chief Executive Officer.

As the years went by the executive began to develop a bigger vision sparked by many expressions of desire from different national churches that the AWF should become a ‘stronger’ and ‘more active’ organization. In 1995 at the Seoul Quadrennial the following Mission Statement was adopted:

The mission of the AWF is to facilitate cooperation amongst its member churches as they work for the fulfilment of the Great Commission.

In 1991 Dr. Ben de Jesus from the Philippines was appointed as Executive Director, in which position he served till the year 2000. In that year the AWF members met in Hong Kong for their Quadrennial Assembly. It was decided to strengthen the emphasis on missions by expanding into a global strategy. The main thrust is to provide assistance to the national churches in dealing with the issues of the day from a theological standpoint and to facilitate the development of missions with particular reference to bringing together potential partners in specific missionary endeavours. This resulted in the creation of a Global Mission Fund in order to reserve finances to channel to AWF members to enable them to initiate projects serving to reach those who have not had a clear introduction to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Regional Conferences were to play a more important role in the implementation of the AWF’s mission. Regional Coordinators were elected to represent the world regions on the Executive Committee which they form together with the President and Treasurer.