The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) appointed Botrus Mansour as the global body’s new secretary general and CEO last week. It is the first time an Arab Christian will lead the WEA, a global organization of national and regional alliances representing 600 million evangelicals.
The role has been open since former secretary general Thomas Schirrmacher resigned due to medical reasons in March last year. Peirong Lin, deputy secretary of the WEA, told CT in April that the organization was seeking a leader who could unite global evangelicals amid wars and political divisions. Meanwhile, the WEA has also faced critiques about its “theological ambiguities” and its collaboration with mainline Protestants and Catholics.
A trained lawyer, Mansour serves as the operational director of Nazareth Baptist School, an elder and cofounder of Local Baptist Church in Nazareth, and CT’s Arabic translator. He has held other leadership positions in churches and parachurch groups, including the Convention of Evangelical Churches in Israel, the Alliance of Evangelical Conventions in Jordan and the Holy Land, Christian Schools in Israel, Advocates International, and the Lausanne Initiative for Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine.
Mansour, who lives in Nazareth, Israel, with his wife and three adult children, believes his background as an Israeli Arab evangelical—a background he described as “a minority in a minority in a minority”—has equipped him with the experience needed to take on this new role in a time of division. He will officially assume the role during the WEA’s General Assembly in October.
CT interviewed Mansour about his upbringing, his work in reconciliation between Arab Christians and Messianic Jews, and his plans to tackle the challenges facing the WEA. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Could you tell us about your background?
I was born to a Greek Catholic father and a Greek Orthodox mother. My parents weren’t religious, although my mother graduated from Nazareth Baptist School and became a teacher there. My father only finished 7th grade, but he went on to study Hebrew in a kibbutz and later became the first Arab Palestinian to work for an Israeli Hebrew newspaper, first at HaOlam HaZeh and then for 30 years at Haaretz.
I was born in Nazareth in 1965, but when the Six-Day War broke out two years later, the newspaper told my dad they needed an Arabic-speaking journalist to cover the West Bank and East Jerusalem, so my family moved to Jerusalem.
After four years in Jerusalem, my father got a scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, so we moved to Oxford, where I attended first and second grade. In 1973, we returned to Nazareth, and my mother insisted that my siblings and I attend Nazareth Baptist School, where she had studied and taught.
How did you become a Christian?
When I was 11, my Bible teacher knew that my classmates and I loved to play soccer, so he told us that we could play soccer at the field after school on the condition that we attended the revival meetings at a nearby church. We agreed. That night, the American preacher expounded on how the grace of God was not something you earned but something you received. I went forward during the altar call for the first time. But I was young, so I don’t think I was really committed.
Three years later, a Lebanese American preacher came to preach at another revival meeting. His style was to frighten people into the kingdom: He would tell Hitchcockian stories of people who refused to accept Jesus and then died in an accident. I committed my life to Jesus at that meeting in 1979. From there, I joined my high school’s youth group. There have been ups and downs, but praise God, I’m still walking with the Lord.
After high school, you studied law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem—where you met your wife, A’bir—and got involved with the student ministry Fellowship of Christian Students in Israel (FCSI). How did befriending people of different backgrounds help you see the importance of Christian reconciliation?
I think it’s unbiblical and impractical to say, “Oh, I’ll just meet with people from my type.” We live in this country where there is this divide, this conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. But at the same time, the body of Christ consists of Arab Palestinians and Messianic Jews and expats who live in the country. One of the good things about FCSI is that it has groups for Arab Christians and for Messianic Jews, as well as joint conferences. They’ve had some conflicts now and then, but in general, it’s a good model of partnership.
Because my dad worked among Jewish people at the newspaper, we had Jews coming into our home growing up. I did not have the suspicion or hostility toward Jews that persists among Arabs because of the ongoing conflict. It was natural for me. We don’t have any other choice but to live together as Arabs and Jews in this country. Among believers, it’s even more important to live this testimony out.
This kind of work isn’t always smooth. In times of war, each group often clings to nationalistic attitudes, and believers also tend to adopt the mindset. You feel the burden and the bitterness even as you enjoy sweet relationships.
In 2016, the Lausanne Initiative for Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine—which you cochaired—hosted a conference that gathered 30 Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews to write and sign the Larnaca Statement affirming their unity as believers. Do you consider this and other attempts at reconciliation successful?
The Lausanne gathering went well. Some people left saying, “We didn’t go anywhere.” At times, the discussions became a bit difficult and sharp as we argued and discussed the statement. But it was helpful.
In the past, we have held several conferences bringing together Arabs and Jews to talk openly and share our narratives, our dreams, our hopes, and our fears. Sometimes you just fear the other party and think they are monsters. But every person is created in the image of God.
At the end of the day, nobody should feel hurt or take it personally. We’re talking about a difficult issue, so naturally it’s going to be difficult. I love my Palestinian people, and I ache over what’s happening in Gaza, but that doesn’t mean I cannot talk to my Messianic Jewish brother or sister and try to understand their convictions.
How has working on your own country’s divisions helped prepare you for your new role as the head of the WEA?
Living in Israel, the Lord prepared me to love, as well as be sensitive and open to different people. I have Muslim students in my school, as well as Muslim friends and neighbors. I work with other Christians, including those from nonevangelical churches, and with Jews.
The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). If you have the love of Christ, you have the confidence to talk with other people, even if they’re a Muslim or an ultra-Orthodox Jew. That opens the door for us to come closer and understand each other.
As an evangelical, I am a minority among Arab Christians, Arab Christians are a minority among Arabs, and Arabs are a minority in Israel. Each of my identities—evangelical, Christian, Arab, Palestinian—can contradict with the others because of its political, social, and theological implications. But my identity in Christ overcomes them all and brings harmony in the midst of the contradictions. It motivates me to bring peace between people and God, as well as among believers.
What role should the WEA play when there are conflicts between different national alliances, such as Israel and Palestine or Russia and Ukraine?
We must be tolerant in accepting our brothers and sisters who have different views than we do, because we have something greater in common: our faith, our love for Jesus, our love for the Bible, and our desire for people to know Jesus.
Jesus sat with the Samaritan woman at the well—with her baggage and history—and with the tax collectors. If that was how Jesus treated nonbelievers, how much better should we treat fellow believers? Can’t we be a little more open, a little bit more tolerant toward one another on issues that are secondary?
Jesus said people will know you by your love for one another (John 13:35). If we can differ on politics or theology and still love each other, it will be a great testimony for people outside the evangelical camp.
Some evangelicals have disagreed with the WEA’s involvement in interfaith efforts or collaboration with nonevangelical Christian groups. What do you see as the WEA’s role in that work?
Interfaith dialogue is good, but it shouldn’t be the WEA’s focus. The focus should be on working with our regional and national alliances.
It does not harm us to dialogue with Catholics or with the World Council of Churches. This doesn’t mean that we’re becoming like them or they’re becoming like us, but at least we can open a channel to dialogue with them. The same goes with other religious groups.
This is important for evangelicals who live in countries where they are the minority. Interfaith is not a bad word. It doesn’t mean that we’re talking with them in order to become one unified faith. We have different faiths. Our convictions are strong. We believe in the Bible; we believe in Jesus. If we can be a blessing and open channels of cooperation, that’s not a bad thing.
Why is the WEA still relevant today?
It’s the representative of hundreds of millions of evangelicals around the world. With the counsel of many people wiser than me, I will try to bring the voice of the vast majority of evangelicals on issues like religious freedom, sanctity of life, peace, and justice.
The challenges that evangelicals in America or China or Israel or Angola face are very different from each other. I will leave it to the national alliance in every country to identify their challenges and try to face them, but we will encourage them and, if we can, support them.
In countries where evangelicals are minorities, many face religious freedom restrictions. We can help, perhaps by talking with government officials or getting another country’s alliance to help. We can also rally evangelicals around the world to pray.
How can believers be praying for you as you take on this new position?
I would love it if people would pray that I can do the job well. It’s a very sensitive and important role. If I can contribute to helping the church, encouraging the church, and bringing believers, churches, and alliances together, that would be great.
It will include a lot of travel, so pray for my physical health. I will also face a lot of psychological and spiritual pressures.
I want to do the Lord’s will. I can say confidently that he opened this door for me in an amazing way and for a reason that is still unfolding before me. I’d like to do the job that he has put me in in the best way possible in order to further the kingdom.
