I think what is important in a disaster to understand is this: there is a mechanism in place at the grassroots level, the church, that can respond, but the church can only do so much. You need the professionalism of the relief and development community, because the professional response is absolutely essential to do it properly.
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So what we have done on our Web site is to list the agencies that are partnering with us who have a long term involvement in Haiti.
The danger is that some people are in a church in the United States and they see the quake on TV and they think, “What should I do?” Sometimes the inclination is let’s collect clothes, let’s get on an airplane to help. Sometimes that is not the best thing to do. In the midst of the confusion it only adds to the struggle.
Churches can work with trusted organizations and partners and use them as vehicle for organization.
I got an e-mail last night for our evangelical fellowship in Thailand. They said they want to send a gift of finances to Haiti. They went through the tsunami five years ago and their church now wants to work through WEA partners in Haiti. So we got the church in Thailand now helping the work in Haiti, and that is how the body of Christ should work.
CP: Is there anything you want to add?
Tunnicliffe: WEA is launching a new leadership institute this year. It’s going to do several things. It’s going to help Christians, hopefully, be able to work together more effectively through building unity, collaboration and association. One of the courses we are launching is in the area of public square engagement.
We believe that there is a great need within the evangelical community worldwide to be theologically equipped to be engaged in the public square, whether in public or in the media. A commitment to, for instance, to be non-partisan and to engage in dialogue. Sometimes as evangelicals, we look for enemies. That is one strategy. If there is an enemy out there we can see it and go after it. And we see that in many places in the public square.
The other alternative is saying that we may not agree fully or a lot with a particular structure, but are we willing to be in conversation and in dialogue in order to bring influence. Do we want to shout from the sideline or engage from within? And I think that we need to be equipping ourselves in ways where we can work together with partners that we may have difference of opinions with for a number of issues but on one particular issue we may find the same commitment.
Part of what we want to see around the world is for WEA to strengthen the engagement of Christians in order to facilitate transformation. That’s not to say we are looking for theocracies around the world. So that is what we’ll do as we move into the future.
