Evangelicals of the World 2000

The global spread of Evangelicalism can be traced to the missionary movements of the 19th century, when European and American evangelicals travelled to Africa and Asia to spread the word. In 1951 evangelicals formed the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF), and more than 110 regional and national organizations are now affiliated with WEF, which is headquartered in Singapore. In 1974, spearheaded by the American Baptist preacher Billy Graham, nearly 2,500 Protestant evangelical leaders from over 150 countries and 135 denominations came together in Lausanne, Switzerland, to agree on their strategies to spread their message. Many representatives of the global south were present, bringing with them their own stories of poverty, inequality and injustice. Billy Graham recognized that the future of his religion did not live with only white Americans and embraced “the black world, the white world, the yellow world, the rich world, the poor world”. The future of the Evangelical movement continues to live in the global south, shifting the world’s religious axis.