WEA Secretary General Accepts Top Position for Churches Together
Less than a month after announcing his early resignation, the Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has accepted the position of Executive Director of Churches Together.
Less than a month after announcing his early resignation, the Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has accepted the position of Executive Director of Churches Together.
Gary Edmonds, the incumbent Secretary General of the largest alliance of evangelicals in the world, will be joining a separate alliance of North American churches, Churches Together, beginning February 1, 2005 – the same day he will officially leave his post at the WEA.
In a statement released on January 24, Edmonds said he has high hopes for the future of Churches Together.
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This combines “[my] passion for functional partnership of the Body of Christ and extending the Church of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. Local churches are the sustaining instruments of God for wholistic transformation of communities and nations. I am excited and hopeful as we look to the future,” said Edmonds. “The Lord is doing a new thing in the church in which I want to participate”.
Churches Together, a group established two years ago, partnership or alliance of Churches from North America who are committed to work together with each other and with churches in Africa.
“Churches Together is responding to God’s call to North American churches to join African churches in action that transforms lives and communities devastated by HIV/AIDS through a wholistic expression of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” the group’s statement reads.
Edmonds, who served as the WEA Secretary General since July 2002, had earlier stressed the importance of grassroots movements among evangelical churches in the issue of AIDS relief.
“On the AIDS issue, it’s very interesting what’s happening right now in our world and in the US,” said Edmonds, during an interview with the Christian Post last week. “What we need to see with HIV/AIDS is that this is like having a tsunami taking place every week on a continual basis. The latest statistics said that by the year 2025, 25% of the world’s population will be infected. So this could be one of those issues where the world will wake up and say we need to address this is a multi faced way.”
“I believe that biblically we have been given a mandate,” continued Edmonds. “I’m convinced that the church, evangelicals and followers of Christ, are called to be Jesus’ instruments of reconciliation and restoration. The followers are called to bring life, not just spiritually, but in all aspects of life. The best way for this to happen is for churches to begin at the grassroots and by nation.”
Meanwhile, Churches Together co-chairpersons, Tom Correll, Wooddale Church in Minneapolis area, and Tim Neet, Perimeter Church in Atlanta area, said they are thankful to work with Edmonds.
“We are pleased that God has led someone of Gary’s caliber and experience to Churches Together; it’s another sign among many that God in His mercy and justice is raising a collaborative movement of churches in North American and Africa to address the AIDS pandemic,” the two said.
“The selection of Edmonds for the Executive Director position is a strategic key to the development of Churches Together and links to the expansion of its North American church base. The expansion is based on a platform of developing North American-African church based AIDS ministry models with scheduled metropolitan and regional mobilization meetings,” the group said in a statement.
Board member Geoff Tunnicliffe, of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, who is also on the North American board of the WEA, said, “while this is a loss for the WEA, it allows Gary to pursue his life mission of leading transformation through churches working together“
