Mobilizing a Formidable Force of Six Million for Missions

A prayerful group of 800 people being filled by the Holy Spirit to cooperate to fulfil the Great Commission with boldness and creativity. This is what we are expecting for the next AWF Quadrennial Convocation.

Jesus told his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit to come (Acts 1:4). So they did, together, prayerfully. But when the Holy Spirit came upon then, that quiet group of around 500 became an explosive multitude impossible to contain. The number of people was multiplied by six and their impact was multiplied by six million. This is what we earnestly hope for the next AWF Quadrennial Convocation: a prayerful group of hundreds of people filled by the Holy Spirit to spread the fire to the other six million Alliance members to mobilize all for deeper life and missions.

In the 9th AWF Quadrennial Convocation in Chile, the Santiago Declaration stated that we would focus our missionary effort in the 6th Region, which represents countries in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. They have the majority of the unreached peoples’ groups in the world. The problem for those unreached people groups is that many of them are also unengaged, meaning that no missionary effort has been made to reach them for Christ. The Alliance movement grew from a half million members when the AWF was formed to more than 6 million today. We have a much more formidable force to expand the missionary work and reach those who do not have a missionary presence yet.

The task before us is equally formidable. We need a breakthrough in the way we do missions in the same way the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement was a breakthrough as A.B. Simpson mobilized a lot of people for missions in a very short period of time. This is what we are looking for.

The theme of the 12th AWF Quadrennial Convocation is “Going Deeper and Going Beyond.”

Going Deeper means going deeper into Jesus, focusing on Him and Him alone. This is what the Fourfold Gospel is all about: Jesus Christ Himself. How can we live a life centered in Jesus Christ? How can we be transformed day-by-day through the fullness of the Holy Spirit? How can we fulfill our destiny as disciples of Jesus Christ, as a global family united by the common root of the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement?

Going Beyond means going beyond geographical, cultural and ethnic borders to proclaim Christ to all people. The growth of radicalism and extremism has created new barriers that must be overcome to make Jesus Christ known personally. We need to use all opportunities and modern means to creatively proclaim the message of Jesus Christ and let people hear His Voice.

This theme will be covered during three morning sessions and three evening sessions at the AWF Quadrennial Convocation.

The speaker for the topic “Deeper Life in the Post-Modern Times” is Walter Pérez Doglio. Walter has an interesting background as someone deeply involved in pastoral ministry and theological education. He has a unique view of the world around him. He is pastor of a growing church in Buenos Aires and teaches theology at the Buenos Aires Bible Seminary and Latin America Alliance Graduate School of Theology. At the same time, he is a professional lawyer. He is a student and a practitioner of the Deeper Life and will bring a unique perspective about how the Deeper Life should be taught relevantly in this post-modern world.

The topic “Deeper Life and Missional Mind” will be developed by Noël N’Guessan. Noel has been the pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of Ivory Coast for more than two decades and has been its President since last year. Noel also teaches theology at the University of the Christian Alliance of Abidjan (UACA) and is a specialist in prevention, management, and conflict resolution. In fact, he participated in several peace and reconciliation missions in the Ivorian territory. This will bring a very interesting perspective on how Deeper Life can be connected to a missional mindset, something A.B. Simpson emphasized.

Charbel Malak is the speaker for the topic “Deeper Life and Missionary Heart.” Charbel is the Academic Dean of the Christian Alliance Institute of Theology (CAIT) in Lebanon and is a pastor of a church in nearby Beirut. In fact, CAIT has been instrumental in training many pastors and leaders in the Arab speaking world. Charbel is passionate about the Alliance and will certainly bring his missionary vision and passion when talking about Deeper Life and Missions.

The speaker for “Going Beyond – Marketplace Missions: Professionals at His Service” is Ryan Graham. Ryan is Vice President of Nurture for the C&MA in Canada. Ryan served in Envision Canada for many years and has an entrepreneurial vision. He has a great interest in engaging young professionals for global missions. He gets very excited when he speaks about this. With his speech, I believe he will bring a fresh perspective on missions.

Stanley John will be the speaker for the topic “Going Beyond – People on the Move and Diaspora Missions.” Stanley has a Ph.D. on the topic of diaspora missiology and is a member of the Lausanne Global Diaspora Network. He has an Indian heritage, was raised in Kuwait, teaches Intercultural Studies at the Alliance Theological Seminary, and is a preaching pastor of a multi-ethnic church in New York. He is the perfect speaker for this topic. On top of that, what I like most is that he is very young, which can bring a fresh take on the subject.

The topic “Going Beyond – Alliance Missiology in the 21st Century” will be carried by Peter Laughlin. Peter is the next Dean of the Australian College of Ministries and is also the chair of the AWF International Commission of Theological Education. He is a passionate Alliance scholar and deep theological thinker, so we can expect a proposal of an Alliance Missiology that is both biblically robust and relevant for the present time.

The Quadrennial Convocation is not only about Missions. It is also about connecting as a Global Family. The last Quadrennial Convocation was held in Bangkok in 2016. At that time, we were all praying for our brothers and sisters in Syria who were faithfully serving the Lord amid the bombing, destruction and death caused by the war. A small delegation from Syria, led by Pastor Edward Awabdeh, attended the Quadrennial Convocation. It was very moving to see so many people coming around them to say they were praying for them and happy to meet them personally. In a plenary session, Pastor Edward shared about the situation in Syria and all the attendees stood up to pray for them. After four years, the situation is not much better. Our brothers and sisters in Syria and now in Iraq face a very challenging situation that requires our earnest prayers. This is true in other places too. Our brothers in Venezuela are fighting social meltdown, the churches in the Philippines and Indonesia are suffering the consequences of natural disaster, and missionaries around the globe are living under constant threat.

The Quadrennial Convocation is a place for us to meet, share, pray and ultimately worship our Lord together.

The next AWF Quadrennial Convocation will also emphasize building and strengthening ministry networks across the worldwide Alliance. An example of these networks is the AWF Global Network of Mission Leaders that was formed in 2017 to share resources and strategies, develop partnerships, and build a road map to reach common goals for the Alliance missions. This network is conducting vision trips, mission consultations and missionary training schools in different parts of the world.

Besides that, we are working to form similar networks to bring synergy and strength to the different ministries that support our vision. One of the networks is for the leaders and practitioners of Compassion and Justice ministries. We have been conducting monthly meetings to discuss how we will take advantage of the Quadrennial to strengthen and encourage the people working in this very important ministry.

Diaspora Missions and Marketplace Ministries are also very important topics for missions nowadays. We have two plenary lectures on these topics. Through the networks, we hope we can discuss creative ways to expand our missionary effort, especially focusing on unreached and unengaged people groups. There are already many encouraging initiatives from churches such as the C&MA of Chile, with very creative business models that can be used to generate revenue, support a legitimate Christian presence in restricted access countries and apply the profits to bless traditional missionary work.

AWF Network of Alliance Theological Institutions (NATI) was created to advance Alliance theological education and promote cooperation among Alliance Bible colleges and seminaries. There are already some joint pastoral training projects between Alliance theological institutions worldwide such as the initiatives involving the United States and Vietnam, Peru and Central America, and Brazil and Angola. All Alliance theological education institutions are encouraged to be part of this network.

There will be networking opportunities for Alliance women. We have regional Alliance Women Conferences in Africa, Asia, and Latin-America and it would be wonderful for them to connect at the global level for sharing experiences and encouraging each other.

Another important networking opportunity present will be for young emerging leaders. We would like to provide opportunities for them to come together for mutual encouragement and to also contribute to our understanding of the world.

One more very interesting initiative for this Quadrennial is the AWF Theology Award. The award will be selected on the basis of an original research paper devoted to the history, theology or the missionary and ecclesial practices of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

I am particularly excited about this coming Quadrennial Convocation. If you are passionate about Jesus Christ and eager to use your talents, skills and spiritual gifts to make Christ known in a very creative way to all nations of the world, then this convocation is for you. I hope to meet you in Guayaquil. God bless you.

Jura Yanagihara
President of the Alliance World Fellowship