Anglican Christians have either neglected or failed to prioritize bringing the Good News to the lost, according to presenters this week at a major gathering of traditionalist Anglicans. That inattention has eternal consequences, they insisted.
“The [Church of England] leadership has shown that they don’t believe what the Bible says about hell,” the Rev. Rico Tice of All Souls Langham Place in London shared on a panel at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). “What are we doing with our time that doesn’t prioritize the lost?”
Evangelistic witness has been at the center of the conference meeting April 17-21 in Kigali, Rwanda, themed “To whom shall we go?” Early in the week, conference MCs led the more than 1,300 participants in responding, “We go to Christ, through his unchanging Word, then with Christ, to the whole world.”
Tice taught a plenary session on the third day of the conference alongside Word One to One founder Richard Borgonon.
“Where is our confidence – is it in ourselves and our efforts – or is it in God and his Word?” Borgonon asked conference attendees. Borgonon’s program was among the tools featured to help Christians share the Gospel with friends, not as teachers or preachers, but as fellow “loving page-turners” with the scriptures themselves captivating readers.
As the author of the Christianity Explored curriculum, Tice emphasized the urgency of the Christian life in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a world in need.
“Wherever we go in the world – Mark’s gospel is about identity – who is Jesus, mission – why did he come, and call – what does it mean to follow him?”
The priority of Evangelism and Christian discipleship was directly addressed by top officials with the conference.
“If there is any reason for GAFCON, this is it: bring Christ to the world,” declared GAFCON Secretary Ben Kwashi, Archbishop of Jos, Nigeria.
Kwashi called for a formal decade of evangelism and discipleship from 2023-2033. While past calls for a “Decade of Evangelism” in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church had little measurable result, the GAFCON secretary’s Anglican province, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has experienced more numerical success and is among the largest provinces within the worldwide family of churches.
That numerical success has accompanied transformed lives.
“Scripture is far too accurate for us to always be comfortable,” Sydney Archbishop Kanishka Raffel told conference participants in a study about the identity of the Church.
“Jesus is not a supplement or addition, he is all,” preached Bishop Jay Behan of the Confessing Anglican Church of New Zealand. “Jesus is not just the messenger; he is the message.”
