This is a sample article featured in the January 2005 issue of Quadrant

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The 2004 Forum for World Evangelization was the culmination of a year of work in which hundreds of people had addressed 31 issues which impact evangelism. Over 1,600 were part of these Issue Groups at the event in Thailand, plus others involved in organising all that happened. They came from nearly 130 countries, spoke 58 languages and were almost equally representative of the developed and developing world. They were spread across all age groups, with 70% being under the age of 50, and a quarter were women.

The aim of the Forum was to provide an up-to-date understanding of the issues and practical outcomes which would be relevant to and helpful for church leaders around the world. The issues covered were wide ranging, reflecting the Forum’s slogan, “The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world.” Topics included Globalization, At Risk People, Holistic Mission, Future Leadership, Media and Technology, Religious Nationalism and Bio-ethics.
The actual work was done in groups of between 30 and 70 people, many of whom had been working together by email for months before the event. Each group spent some 20 hours across 3 days working together to thrash out the key factors relating to their topic, and wrestling with what could be done about them. Most groups worked extremely well, though one or two were much larger (over 100) and did not function as easily as others.
Plenary Bible Readings each morning helped to keep delegates spiritually on track and these were followed by progress reports from groups. The middle evenings were devoted to raising awareness of particular topics, and during the Saturday evening there was an impassioned plea from Patrick McDonald of Viva Network that the church worldwide must take the issues of children seriously. For some of his stark statistics, see the box. There was an Issue Group devoted to The Evangelisation of Children, which summarised some of it’s key concerns under the headings:

• Imagine a world where .... for example, every child had the opportunity to hear the gospel in a relevant way.

• Imagine a church where ... for example, every child felt accepted and valued by the whole congregation.

• Imagine if we don’t evangelise children ... including, there will be no future for the church.

The original idea for the event was proposed by Dr Peter Brierley in 1999, and the research to identify the issues was undertaken by Christian Research. He was on the Admin Committee which planned the Forum and spent much of his time in Thailand going from group to group to hear how things were going. He was also involved in the publication of the daily bulletin as well as other involvement with the media. Heather Wraight attended “The Evangelisation of Children”, primarily to ensure that the work on Reaching and Keeping Tweenagers was reflected in that group’s findings.

 

Source: Children - the Great Omission, Viva Network


 

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