World Congress and 2000 Celebration Taking Shape

January 2, 2000:News:Pentecostal Evangel

Assemblies of God leaders from more than 100 countries are expected to gather in Indianapolis, Aug. 7,8, 2000, for the third triennial World Assemblies of God Congress. This international event marks the first time the United States will host a World Congress. In 1994, more than 1 million A/G leaders and laity assembled in Seoul, South Korea. In 1997, more than 1.2 million believers met in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The third triennial meeting will be held in conjunction with the Aug. 8-10, 2000 Celebration gathering that calls together leaders from U.S. as well as A/G congregations around the globe. Celebration meetings will be held in the RCA Dome.

Some leaders in the Fellowship see these sacred gatherings as the most important since the Assemblies of God formed in 1914. Such a gathering of foreign missionaries, ministers and laypeople has never been attempted in this country.

"The Assemblies of God in the United States has cast its bread upon the water for 86 years," says John Bueno, executive director of Assemblies of God Foreign Missions. "As A/G Fellowships from more than 100 countries gather in the U.S. for the first time, it is as though the blessing is now coming back to us."

The gathering is especially significant because the Assemblies of God overseas membership has nearly doubled to more than 28 million people in the past 10 years.

"As our great Fellowship seeks the Lord for vision for the 21st century, we will hear dynamic A/G leaders from other countries who have experienced exponential growth in the past decade," Bueno says.

Some international speakers on the 2000 Celebration roster will include Lazarus Chakwera, general superintendent of the A/G in Malawi, East Africa; David Mohan, A/G pastor from Madras, India; and David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the worldÕs largest church in Seoul, South Korea.

Chakwera has overseen the A/G in Malawi in the 1990s as it has grown from 150 to 1,300 congregations. Mohan is founder and pastor of New Life Assembly of God that has grown to 15,000 people and has planted 125 congregations. Cho, chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, has 760,000 members in his Yoido Full Gospel Church.

"A major key to the phenomenal growth in so many countries has been the commitment of American A/G missionaries to the principles of the indigenous church," Bueno says. "As churches have been established, national leaders have been encouraged to seek the Holy SpiritÕs direction for outreach in their own countries. We are now seeing consistent fruit of the effectiveness of this all over the world."

By John W. Kennedy, news editor for the Missions World Evangel.

Reprinted by permission of the Pentecostal Evangel