PATTAYA, Thailand – Leaders at the World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly have commissioned Joel Edwards as the new international director of the faith-based Micah Challenge.

Evangelical leaders laid hands on Edwards, former head of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK, during his commissioning on the first full day of the General Assembly in Pattaya, Thailand, on Sunday.

Edwards said the new appointment was a “big shift” from his role as General Director of the EA, which he stepped down from in September after 11 years in office. more >>

PATTAYA, Thailand – Hundreds of evangelical leaders from dozens of countries spent Sunday in a half-day fast and full-day prayer for the challenges facing the Church in different regions of the world.

Under the theme of “One Lord, One Body, One Voice,” participants of the 2008 World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly devoted their first full day of the conference to prayer with the focus of “One Lord.”

Delegates were asked to pray for the financial crisis, which exposed the “moral bankruptcy of godless systems” and for the effects it will have on churches and ministries worldwide. more >>

PATTAYA, Thailand – More than 500 evangelical Christians from over 100 nations took part in a colorful and ethnically festive opening ceremony for the World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly in Thailand Saturday night.

National flags of delegates were paraded into the main conference hall and Thai dance and music were featured at the event that kicked off the weeklong gathering being held at the beach resort city of Pattaya.

The Rev. Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, WEA international director, set the tone of the Assembly – the first in seven years – by telling delegates that the gathering will be a time to refresh their vision for integral mission. more >>

The world’s largest evangelical body will open its highly-anticipated general assembly – the first in seven years – on Saturday night with invited Christian leaders from some of the most prominent Christian organizations in the world.

More than 500 leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance’s national and regional evangelical alliances, commissions, global partners and associates will convene at the beach resort city of Pattaya in Thailand from Oct. 25 to 30.

During the weeklong general assembly, participants will help form a new shared vision for WEA and a 5-year roadmap to achieve the vision. They will also be informed about some of the most pressing global issues and the Evangelical responses to them, receive practical training to help national alliances become more effective, and network to build a stronger Christian body. more >>

Governments need to acknowledge Christians and the faith community as partners in overcoming religious fundamentalism, said the international director of the World Evangelical Alliance at the conclusion of his Australia tour last month.

Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe was in Australia to meet with key Christian, political and business leaders during a three-week visit.

“Governments need to acknowledge the fact that there is a clash of worldviews going on and that not all diplomatic practices necessarily fit the climate at present, or even perhaps the future climate,” he said on June 21. more >>

Integral mission is “foundational” to the church’s response to some of the biggest challenges facing the world today, said the head of the World Evangelical Alliance, Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe.

Addressing the Christian Management Australia conference at Bondi Beach last week, Tunnicliffe said that a clash of world views, increasing secularism and post-modernism were just some of the “major” challenges to global stability.

He acknowledged that evangelicalism had for many people around the world become synonymous with a narrow social agenda and in some cases U.S. foreign policy, while faith communities in some western countries were being “pushed to the edge” of society by the torchbearers of radical secularism. more >>