The World Congress on Evangelism,
Berlin, West Germany
October 25 through November 1, 1966
Audio Recordings, Texts, Photographs

Conference name

World Congress on Evangelism

Conference venue

Kongress Halle, Berlin, Germany

Conference dates

October 26- November 4, 1966 (October 25 was a "Day of Preparation")

Conference theme

One Race, One Gospel, One Task

Conference background

Billy Graham, Carl Henry and other American Protestant Evangelicals desired to provide a forum for the growing Evangelical Protestant movement worldwide. The congress was intended as a spiritual successor of the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the meeting, many Evangelicals leaders were in touch with each other for the first time. The meeting was overwhelmingly American planned, led and financed, and was sponsored by Christianity Today magazine, with heavy support from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The reports and papers at the congress helped to illustrate the shift of Christianity's center of gravity from Europe and North America to Africa, Asia and Latin America. The 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland was a successor to this conference.

Conference purpose

1   To define and clarify Biblical evangelism for our day.

2   To establish beyond any doubt its relevance to the modern world.

3   To underline its urgency in the present situation.

4   To explore new forms of witness now in use throughout the world and new ways of reaching contemporary man.

5   To deal frankly with problems of resistance to the Gospel.

6   To challenge the church to renew its own life through an intensified proclamation of the historic faith.

7   To show the world in a fresh and dramatic way that God is in truth Lord of all, and that He saves men through His Son.

Attendance figures

1,200 invited delegates from most Protestant denominations and Roman Catholic, Jewish and ecumenical observers (700 delegates, 300 observers, 100 newsman)

Conference figures

Honorary Chairman

Dr. Billy Graham

Chairman

Dr. Carl F. H. Henry

Coordinating Director

Dr. W. Stanley Mooneyham

Chairman, Planning Committee

Dr. Clyde W. Taylor

Chairman, Program Committee

Dr. Robert Evans

Chairman, Finance

Robert C. Van Kampen

Treasurer

Dr. George Wilson

Executive Committee

Robert Evans, Carl F. H. Henry, W. Stanley Mooneyham, Walter Smyth, Clyde W. Taylor, Robert Van Kampen, George Wilson

Financial support

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Christianity Today

Post-conference resources

Publication of two volumes, One Race, One Gospel, One Task: Official Reference Volumes: Papers and Reports, edited by Carl F.H. Henry and W. Stanley Mooneyham, 1967