News
The General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), a mission agency of The United Methodist Church, hosted representatives from the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism this week for a meeting to plan a Conference on World Mission and Evangelism scheduled for March 2018.
The meeting, held at GBGM’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), kicked off planning for the conference, which will be held in Arusha, Tanzania with a theme of “Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship.”
More than 700 delegates from churches worldwide are expected to gather for the World Mission Conference, which will be hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. The conference is the first to be held in Africa since 1958, when it was hosted in Ghana.The first World Mission Conference was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910. A series of conferences has followed at approximately 10-year intervals.
The theme for the 2018 World Mission Conference is a reflection of the WCC statement, “Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes,” which emphasizes “mission from the margins.”
Reflecting on the WCC statement, the planning group discussed issues such as growing conflicts and divisions caused by radical inequalities and the re-emergence of racism and gender discrimination; migration, refugees and modern slavery; obsessive, addictive and abusive use of technology; religious extremism and terrorism; the importance of a revival in spirituality; positive and negative impacts of secularization; why the missionary movement thrives in one part of the world while declining in other parts; growing influence of the ‘prosperity gospel’; and creation care as a responsibility God gave human beings.
General Board of Global Ministries 12 January news release about World Mission Conference planning
More on WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism
Global Ministries and WCC host a lecture on "Mission from the Margins"
