At the invitation of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) a 'Strategic Business Consultation' took place on 28th-29th of August in Amsterdam, where a deeper strategic cooperation between business leaders, churches and business ministries was agreed.
Participants from New Zealand, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and several other countries were unanimously of the opinion that especially in a post-Christian and post-modern time, the importance of the business world for the spread of the Gospel and for a vivid discipleship in a hostile environment will increase significantly. In terms of a holistic and integral understanding of mission different concepts from "Business for Mission" through "Business as Mission" to "Business is Mission" were discussed.
To ensure a permanent exchange on a global level and to develop strategically focused initiatives, a "WEA Business Coalition" was founded. This coalition of representatives of various ministries and associations is planning next to an informational and promotional web portal the development of a strategic process to leverage the evangelical impact in business, finance and economy. Furthermore it shall be considered how to connect ministries with funding organizations, how to develop a platform for transactions of value-based businesses and how to create an evangelical contribution towards global institutions like the World Economic Forum, IMF or World Bank.
Led by the evangelical theologian Timo Plutschinski a core team with Dr. Arleen Westerhof,
Dr. Michael Schluter and Christoph Jakob will orchestrate the upcoming measures until a next Strategic Business Consultation in September 2016.
The World Evangelical Alliance is a network of churches in 129 nations that have each formed an evangelical alliance and over 100 international organizations joining together to give a world-wide identity, voice, and platform to more than 600 million evangelical Christians.
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