Evangelical Unity for Kingdom Advance

By Geoff Tunnicliffe

It is not the job of the National Alliances around the world to unite the Church. This is already both a theological and spiritual reality. National Alliances are tasked to provide the arena and the means to express this unity in visible, tangible and transforming ways.

Leaders of our Evangelical associations enjoy the unique challenge of guiding their constituencies into a national reflection of unity that impacts their country, transforms their nation and brings glory to God. It is the Leadership Institute’s desire to increase the skills and qualities needed to give this vibrant expression of unity to the Church.

The flagship course of the Leadership Institute is a module entitled: Evangelical Unity for Kingdom Advance. This course is like the hub of a spoked wheel. It gives structural integrity to all other parts of the whole. No other course makes any sense in the context of our National Alliances, without a functional concept of the unity of the Church.

The module provides a theological construct of unity and how that powerfully shapes our ability to influence the world for Kingdom transformation. The nature of the Church, and its role and function in the world will be explored along with the issues that make this task challenging. Positive examples of Evangelical unity will be highlighted.

Through this course, each National Alliance leader should begin to see unity in a different light. This module is not about rallying the Church in support of the National Alliance. The course strikes at the heart of how an effective National Alliance unites the Church by casting a vision much bigger than any individual part would be capable of doing. The mission given to the Church is so vast that none can achieve it alone. The task of world evangelization is one example of how working together on meta challenges unites the Church. Working through our National Alliances we can mount significant attacks on the roots of poverty worldwide, the global crisis of HIV/AIDS, the heinous injustices of human trafficking, the crimes of religious intolerance, and other mega issues.

The course first lays the foundation of the Oneness of the Body of Christ as the theological construct for unified action. Course participants will be expected to articulate a biblical theology of unity and to be conversant with the history of the Evangelical movement and thought in their country and region. They will also become more proficient in articulating the Evangelical distinctive.

The second part of the course, the Struggle for Unity, will help the participant to appreciate Evangelical diversity and work to bridge differences for the greater good. Participants will demonstrate a commitment to the local expression of the Church and will learn to navigate diverse constituencies in ways that do not offend, nor compromise each other’s convictions. An essential component of this section is to develop skills and qualities that serve to maintain unity in the face of such diversity.

A final area of this course is the Power of Unity: using our unity for Kingdom advance. Participants will give evidence of commitment to the mission of the Church as they learn to discern between core and peripheral issues, and to identify and act on Kingdom priorities.

We are excited about the potential of this module—the first of ten that the Leadership Institute is developing. This theme is so central to the vision and mission of the World Evangelical Alliance, that this module will most likely serve as a pre-requisite to all other courses.