Billy Graham Center Archives
The Wheaton Declaration, 1966
In the 1960s conservative Protestant Evangelical church leaders in the United States, including mission
executives, missiologists, pastors and denominational leaders, felt a need for a
missions congress. Its purpose would be to restate and reaffirm the Evangelical
understanding of the meaning of proclaiming the Gospel to the world, particularly 1) in response to current issues and problems and 2) in comparison to the positions of the liberal ecumenical movement represented by the World Council of Churches.
The meeting, sponsored by the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association and the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association, was held in Wheaton, Illinois from April 9 to 16, 1966. Its official name was the Congress on the Church's World Wide Mission. 938 delegates attended from 258 mission boards active in 71 countries.
One of the end results of the Congress was a statement of theological principles
called The Wheaton Declaration. This was initially drafted by Arthur Glasser,
with assistance from others. It was revised during the congress by the delegates
and reached its finally form in time to be approved at the end of the meeting.
Click
to see the preliminary draft of the Declaration
Click
to see the final Declaration as published.
Click
to see the guide to the BGC Archives' Collection 21, the records of the Congress.
Return to BGC Archives Home Page
Last Revised: 6/5/02
Last Revised: 1/5/05
Expiration: indefinite
© Wheaton College 2005