Peirong Lin, a deputy secretary at the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), likes to joke that evangelical is the most polarizing word in the world.
“Yet that is exactly what we are trying to unite around,” she told Christianity Today, “the euangelion, the Good News, the gospel, and what it looks like in different countries and contexts.”
Now the global organization of national and regional alliances representing 600 million evangelicals is looking for one person to help bring everybody together. The international council that oversees the WEA is stressing the need for unity as the search for a new secretary general gets underway.
“The Good News expresses itself in different ways around the world … and our responsibility as the WEA is to take a ‘world’ understanding to the gospel, not just a particular context,” Lin said. “The question for us going forward is how we can best represent everyone and work together.”
The search began 11 months after the resignation of secretary general Thomas Schirrmacher, who stepped down for health reasons amid ongoing controversies about the WEA’s participation in interfaith dialogue with Catholics. A plan for a quick search for a new replacement—one press release promised new leadership in six months—was scuttled. WEA leadership said it needed more time to review its organizational structure and consult more evangelical leaders about the strengths, weaknesses, and long-term direction of the alliance.
Goodwill Shana, the interim head of the WEA, said in an email that the appointment of a new leader will be a “very significant step for the WEA” and everyone wants to find “the person of God’s choice to lead us into the future.”
The WEA hopes to announce the name of the new secretary general at the upcoming General Assembly in October.
Plans for the October assembly have been one point of contention in recent days. One thousand evangelical leaders affiliated with Hapdong, Korea’s largest Presbyterian denomination, would not participate in the General Assembly. The letter challenged the WEA’s views of Scripture and the organization’s commitment to working on social issues, including Christian persecution, in collaboration with mainline Protestants and Catholics.
“The WEA’s theological stance is inconsistent with reformed and conservative evangelical doctrine, and our denomination should sever ties with the WEA due to its misalignment in faith and practice,” said the letter, which was published in a Korean church newspaper founded by Yoido Full Gospel Church, a 580,000-member megachurch led by Younghoon Lee, who is on the WEA’s official organizing committee.
The Christian Council of Korea (CCK), which was formerly affiliated with the WEA and represents 65 denominations, also voiced concerns about what it called the WEA’s “theological ambiguities.” The group’s former president, Seo-young Jeong, called for the General Assembly to be postponed until there was “verification” of the global organization’s orthodoxy.
CCK’s new president, Kyung-hwan Ko, has taken a harder line against the WEA, saying, “The gospel it preaches is not the gospel of the Bible.” In February, he announced plans to organize a forum of theologians to report on the WEA’s “apostate actions.”
The WEA declined to comment on specifics and reiterated its commitment to “unite the global church.”
The organization has also faced sharp criticism from the evangelical alliances in Italy and Spain, which said that the group crossed a line when the general secretary met with Pope Francis.
“We, evangelicals, do not bow our heads before the pope,” the Spanish group said. “We consider it necessary that we publicly express our resounding rejection of [Schirrmacher’s] participation in that event.”
Conflicts over the alliance’s association with Catholicism are not new, either. National evangelical associations in Italy, Spain, and Malta penned an open letter critiquing the WEA for not holding the line against Catholicism in 2018, and Italy, Spain, France, and Poland raised deep concerns about overlooked theological differences in 2013.
The next head of the WEA will be expected to navigate the disagreements and overcome the distrust.
According to Lin, the WEA is looking for “someone who can bring different people together to speak the Good News to all people in these troubled times.”
The next secretary general will also be expected to lead the alliance through substantial organizational updates, bringing the WEA into the 21st century. Making the organization more efficient and effective is a top priority.
“With Christians connected through the internet and global communications technologies, we don’t need alliances the way we did in 1846,” Lin said. “How can we [make changes] so it better serves our purposes in different countries and regions?”
Interviews of potential candidates are expected to start in June.
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