To refocus the twentieth-century Church’s sight on the great commission of Jesus Christ, more than a thousand Christian leaders will be meeting in Berlin for prayer, panels, and planning sessions in the famous Congress Hall October 26 to November 4. Delegates to the World Congress on Evangelism include evangelistically concerned clergy and laymen from all races and from around the globe, from modern frontier tribes and from Christendom’s most ancient churches. The Auca Indians of Ecuador, whose tiny band of believers sprang from the blood of recent missionary martyrs, are represented, as is the Mar Thoma Church in India, which ascribes its origin to the first-century apostle Thomas.
The congress theme is “One Race, One Gospel, One Task.” Proceedings will be simultaneously translated into English, French, German, and Spanish. A few special-interest sub-sections will be conducted only in Japanese.
Many delegates consider the gathering the most significant opportunity for evangelistic planning in the modern era, and they fervently hope it will light the fuse for a worldwide evangelistic explosion. In the first century the Jerusalem Council thrust the gospel witness beyond the Jewish world to the Gentiles; in this century, the Berlin Congress will consider global evangelism in the context of a nuclear, space, and mass-communications era.
In contrast to previous world missionary conferences held in the forepart of this century, the World Congress on Evangelism brings together nationals who themselves carry the burden of evangelism on home terrains around the earth.
Unlike other recent major religious gatherings—such as the Vatican Council, World Council of Churches assemblies, Faith and Order conferences, or Church and Society conferences—the World Congress on Evangelism has one overarching aim: to see the fragmented world in relation to the universal need for the New Testament Gospel and Christ’s unrescinded command to evangelize the earth. The congress is not oriented to any one ecclesiastical agency; participants have been invited without regard for ecumenical position. The congress does not claim to speak for any grouping of contemporary churches; rather, it is a platform that makes visible the devout determination of multitudes of evangelical Christians to proclaim the Gospel to their contemporaries.
The theme of Christian witness to God’s saving grace will be uppermost in the minds of the participants, from the morning prayer meetings and Bible hours throughout the day into the evening addresses by leading evangelists from five continents. An hour of group discussion, to be held in six different meeting rooms simultaneously, is part of the daily program.
As background for this discussion, involving all the delegates, distinguished evangelical spokesmen are presenting panel position papers (published in this issue on pages 4–39) on “The Authority for Evangelism” (Prof. Johannes Schneider, formerly of the faculty of Humboldt University, East Berlin); “The Theology of Evangelism” (Dr. Harold John Ockenga, minister of Park Street Church, Boston, Massachusetts); “The Hindrances to Evangelism in the Church” (Dr. Walter Künneth, professor of systematic theology, Erlangen University, Germany); “The Obstacles to Evangelism in the World” (Dr. Harold B. Kuhn, professor of philosophy of religion, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky); “The Methods of Personal Evangelism” (Dr. Richard C. Halverson of Washington, D. C., executive director of International Christian Leadership); and “The Methods of Group Evangelism” (Bishop A. W. Goodwin Hudson, of London).
These six papers will prepare the way for thirty-six panels (each with four participants) on special facets of interest. An hour of open discussion will follow each panel.
On the following pages, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, which is sponsoring the World Congress on Evangelism as its tenth-anniversary project, shares the panel position papers with its readers to anticipate the drive and drama of the congress. If Christians around the world heed the plea of the congress to unite in a bold and winsome presentation of the Good News, the twentieth-century world will be spectacularly confronted with a prospect of peace and hope and joy that men and women of all races and lands may share.
