After a short video presentation from former MC Executive Director, Dr Bill Taylor, Jamie presented the following to the WEA General Assembly to commemorate 50 years of the Mission Commission’s service to the global Church.
Ko te hōnore me te korōria ki a koe e Pā i te rangi. Whakamoemititia tou ingoa tapu — pō te ao, ao te pō. Ko Ngāti Rakaiwhakairi tōku hapu, nō Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa tōku iwi. Ko Jamie Mātenga tōku ingoa.
In my native tongue, Māori, I just said:
All honour and glory to you, Father in heaven. Praise be to your holy name at all times. My name is Jamie Mātenga. I also provided my Māori tribal affiliations on my father’s side.
It is my honour to be standing before you all today as a representative of my people and my ancestors, and the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission.
Jamie Mātenga 2025 WEA General Assembly
Again, praise be to our God and Father, who through the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit brings us together in this place in loving unity.
For this is the end purpose of missions: that we be unified in Christ (e.g. John 17:18-23) and through that unity we co-create God’s New Creation with one another and with God (e.g. Romans 8:27-30), wherever the Spirit of God leads us to dwell, for the betterment of all humans, the nurture of our environments, the increase of our number, and the glory of God—not necessarily in that order. The gospel we go into the world to declare and demonstrate speaks to that outcome.
This is the focus of the Mission Commission and our worldwide network of reflective missions practitioners who remain enthusiastically supportive of the Commission’s role for that purpose. Like Dr Bill Taylor who resigned leadership sixteen years ago, but continues to cheer us and the WEA on.
The Mission Commission began 50 years ago in 1975 with a conviction that Evangelicals needed an entity to bring the rapidly growing Majority World missions force together with the 180 year-old Western missionary movement. In this regard, at that time, the Mission Commission was born of prophetic insight.
Prophetic insight influenced the decision to prove our conviction by appointing a female missionary from South Korea, Dr Chun Chae Ok as our very first Executive Director, a decade before the explosion of missionary zeal out of South Korea. In 1980 there were just 100 foreign missionaries from Korea, yet by 2013 there were at least 20,000! According to Korean missions research, today that number stands at around 21,600.
Key leaders from the Korean missionary movement always have and continue to make a positive contribution to the Mission Commission and our common objectives.
Dr Theodore Williams from India succeeded Dr Ok in 1979 and led the Commission for seven years.
From the 1980’s Majority World missions engagement continued to flourish in Africa and Asia, as did the Latin American movement which eventually become COMIBAM in 1987, with the help of the Mission Commission.
The Commission stabilized and grew most between 1986 and 2006, under the leadership of Dr Bill Taylor from the USA. He was followed by Dr Bertil Ekström, a missionary to Brazil from Sweden, 2006 to 2016; David Ruíz from Guatemala 2017-2019; and now myself, a Māori from Aotearoa New Zealand since 2020.
Many other esteemed missions leaders, far too many to name in this short time, have sacrificially invested in the Mission Commission, establishing it as a respected influencer of global missions practice worldwide.
Over the past 50 years, the Mission Commission has hosted global consultations, leadership roundtables, and other gatherings; published papers, magazines, and books in numerous languages, all related to critical issues in contemporary missions—all aimed at strengthening the global Evangelical movement’s participation in the global purposes of God.
Together with Dr Ruth Wall, Chair of the Mission Commission’s Global Leadership Council, and our governing and operational leaders, I want to thank you all for your contribution to God’s global purposes. We are all in this together: seeking first His Kingdom and its justice, inviting people to join us in God’s grace, through belief in Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Spirit to actively make this world a better place for all.
From this point on, the Mission Commission is restructuring in anticipation of another 50 years of blessing to the global Evangelical movement and its growth.
We aim to work more closely with Regional and National Evangelical Alliances to help your members to fulfil the purposes of God within your contexts and beyond.
To see local outreach and disciple-making flourishing, together with global partners nourishing—the Majority World and the West coming together in co-creating God’s New Creation where the gospel is least represented and churches are few.
God bless you all as you follow the Spirit’s leading for the role your people have to play in God’s global purposes. The Mission Commission will continue to find ways to help you do that effectively for God’s glory.
Thank you, and ngā manaakitanga ki a tātou (every blessing on us all).