|PIC1|More than 500 senior evangelical leaders renewed their commitment to taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth after five days of intensive meetings and vision setting in Pattaya, Thailand.

The World Evangelical Alliance drew to a close on Thursday with the release of six major resolutions, expressing the concerns of 128 national Evangelical Alliance leaders on issues related to religious liberty, peace-making, the global financial crisis, HIV and Aids, poverty, and creation care.

"As we think about the global reality of the world in which we live, [there are] immense challenges but also immense opportunities," said Dr Tunnicliffe, the international director of the World Evangelical Alliance.

During this year's general assembly - the first in seven years - participants have been helping to form a new shared vision for WEA and a five-year roadmap to achieve the vision. They have also been informed about some of the most pressing global issues and the Evangelical responses to them, received practical training to help national alliances become more effective, and networked to build a stronger Christian body.

Dr Tunnicliffe said the WEA's forward strategy would be undergirded by an understanding of integral mission and holistic transformation, "a proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel", he said.

"It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are done alongside of each other but rather in integral mission proclamation has social consequences. We call people to love and repentance in all areas of life."

Dr Tunnicliffe insisted that engagement in social issues would not compromise the WEA's commitment to bringing people to Christ.

"If anyone tells you that we've gone soft on world evangelisation you can tell them that we are totally committed to world evangelisation because it is only Jesus Christ that changes people's lives," he said.