EVANGELICAL PRESENCE AT THE SALVADOR CONFERENCE – A PERSPECTIVE FROM LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

Called to One Hope: Gospel in Diverse Cultures is a potentially divisive theme for evangelicals. What is the nature of the Christian hope and the essential content of the gospel, and do gospel and culture have equal weight on the scales of evangelization? Remembering the fallout after the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Canberra assembly (1991), we wondered what would be the contribution and reaction to the Salvador conference. Any discussion of the role of evangelicals at the eleventh Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), in Salvador, Brazil (November-December 1996), should begin with a terminological clarification. What do we mean by evangelicals? As Marlin VanElderen points out, The word `evangelical' has no precise agreed-upon definition. There are a large number of people within the WCC member churches and organizations who consider themselves evangelical. identification of Protestant and evangelical are virtually synonymous in some languages and traditions (including in Spanish and Portuguese). More than one-fourth of the WCC member churches have the word `evangelical' in their name. Discussion of WCC relations with evangelicals, however, generally refers to contacts with independent groups who emphasize the authority of the Bible, the need for an individual experience of conversion, the call to a personal life of growth in holiness and a passion for the evangelization of the world by calling individuals to faith in Jesus Christ.(1) Having said this, it must be recognized that the movement covers a wide spectrum of people and organizations for whom the above core definition may be the be all and end all of their Christian commitment and those for whom it is the point of departure for various levels of involvement in the world. evangelicals who attended the Salvador CWME would represent various shadings of the latter. Evangelical presence at the Salvador conference Evangelicals, in all of the senses defined above, have always been present and involved in WCC mission conferences. Salvador conference was no exception. A sustained effort was made to include evangelicals in the conference preparatory process and during the conference, at every level. Evangelical advisors contributed their perspectives at meetings of the Conference Planning Committee (CPC), where concerns were already well represented.(2) Along with evangelicals from local WCC member churches, the National Host Committee (NHC) in Brazil made it a point to include two and pentecostal representatives. conference participants included delegated observers from several agencies, mission societies and nonmember churches.(3) They joined evangelicals who were nominated by WCC member churches as official representatives. A number of evangelicals also came to Salvador as accredited visitors. historical context presence of evangelicals at the Salvador conference needs to be considered in its long-term historical context, as well as in its immediate setting, Latin America and Brazil. Mexico City (1963) was the first world missionary conference to be held after the International Missionary Council was integrated into the WCC (at New Delhi, 1961). It was also the first conference to be held in Latin America. It made hardly a ripple in the region. Protestants were a small minority in most of Latin America. Among the majority of churches and mission agencies in Latin America, anticommunism was the watchword and ecumenism was still a pejorative word. Three decades later, a sea change has taken place. Today, numerically strong and theologically more mature, churches in Latin America are facing the same issues that the WCC seeks to confront -- massive impoverishment, violence, injustice, unfettered capitalism. Yet the responses of historical churches and of evangelicals to these challenges are both similar and yet different. …