A New Centre for the World’s Evangelicals

Networks

The Church

Friday, 07 January 2011 14:46

The World Evangelical Alliance has dedicated a brand new conference and training centerre it hopes will unify evangelical leaders from around the world in strategic service for God's Kingdom.

The Evangelical Center is a multipurpose facility spread over 64,000 sq ft and set within leafy upstate New York, close to Binghamton.

The facility houses the offices of the WEA and its training arm, the WEA Leadership Institute, as well as a spacious conference hall, library and R&D center.

Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe said: "This center is a historic first for the global evangelical community. We now have a place where evangelicals from around the world can come together to pray, share their vision, strategise and be trained and equipped in their service for the Kingdom. We hope the many conferences and meetings here in the years to come will prove to be the starting point for significant advances in the fulfilment of the Great Commission."

The center has been fully funded by WEA ministry partners and was formally opened on December 9, 2010, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony joined by senior leaders of the World Evangelical Alliance.

In a sermon during the dedication service, Dr Tunnicliffe said the center's most important function would be as a place of prayer.

"In all the activities that we will be engaged in this place, that will become the most strategic because that's what Jesus asked us to do - pray for his Kingdom to come," he said.

The director of the WEA Leadership Institute Dr Rob Brynjolfson said he hoped the center would be a place to train Kingdom leaders for the global church and "encourage and model Christian leadership".

The facility will serve as a base for some of WEA's Global Partners, including the World Olivet Assembly, a global gathering of evangelical churches and para-church organisations, and Olivet University, an evangelical Christian university based in San Francisco and education partner of the WEA's Leadership Institute.

Dr Ray Tallman, World Olivet Assembly Chair, welcomed the new center.

He said: "We now represent with one voice the movement of the most important voice that needs to be heard, the voice of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."