Olivet University has entered the Bethany University campus and opened its arms and doors to a worldwide alliance that equips Christian leaders in 128 nations.
The World Evangelical Alliance will place its leadership training and information technology centers at the corner of Vine Hill Road and Scotts Valley Drive, the former location of Bethany’s counseling center and master’s-level teaching headquarters.
The organization, founded in 1846, is headquartered in New York, but it has seven regional centers and constituent churches in 128 countries. Leaders claim it represents 600 million evangelical Christians.
“The vast majority (of our members) — about 92 percent — live outside the United States,” said Geoff Tunnicliffe, the WEA secretary general, after a Dec. 15 dedication ceremony in Scotts Valley.
Tunnicliffe said the organization has more than 40,000 member churches, including 104 member associations. It focuses on nation building, reconciliation and peace work, among other goals.
WEA needed a place to train leaders and provide technical support and Silicon Valley seemed like the logical place, said Rob Brynjolfson, the director of the WEA’s leadership institute. Brynjolfson will oversee the new center with regular visits from his New York office.
Olivet formed its relationship with the organization about six years ago, said Tunnicliffe. The relationship has grown — Olivet, for one, accredits the WEA’s leadership institute — and the university offered the office space at no charge.
Brynjolfson said the Scotts Valley center will be used as a place for workshops, classes and senior leadership meetings.
“We want to learn about ourselves and our members’ needs and how to serve them,” Brynjolfson said.
It will also be a hub for all manner of information technology. The organization provides books, articles and audio and video recordings to its constituents in many languages, but Brynjolfson said the staff at the center will work on delivering those resources via the Web.
The Dec. 15 dedication ceremony brought to the forefront images of WEA’s global mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ across the globe.
“We hope our leaders who serve in WEA will be global Christians,” Tunnicliffe said while addressing the 30 people in attendance.
A representative from Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center, Alden Johansen, was among the group, as were Olivet President William Wagner and Ray Tallman, the chairman of the World Evangelical Theological Institute Association.
Since Olivet purchased Bethany University from the Assemblies of God Northern California and Nevada District in August, the campus has been occupied by students from around the world — the majority from China — who are studying business, information technology and theology at the undergraduate level. The school also offers master’s degrees in business administration, information technology and divinity.
“The one thing we know about Olivet,” Tunnicliffe said to the audience during the ceremony, “they have a big vision, and they move fast.”
At a glance
– Evangelical Christians — including the members of the World Evangelical Alliance — emphasize salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and aim to spread the gospel to all nations as Jesus exemplified it in the Bible.
