The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has announced TOPIC (Trainers of Pastors International Coalition) as its new 'Global Partner' to work closely together for their common commitment to the pastoral ministry.

Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, the head of WEA, warmly welcomed TOPIC and explained the meaning that this new partnership holds.

"The local church is God's instrument of transformation in a community," said Dr Tunnicliffe. "Obviously, pastors are the key in helping churches fulfill this vision. Training is needed but not often times available.

"That is why I am thrilled that TOPIC has become a global partner of WEA. Their creative delivery for training is made available to thousands of pastors who would not otherwise receive the equipping they need.

"It is my hope our deeper partnership with TOPIC will help WEA in its desire to more effectively serve the three million local churches in our global network."

TOPIC is an international coalition of pastoral training organisations accelerating pastoral training where the church is growing. This is achieved by equipping and increasing the effectiveness of trainers of pastoral leaders, and building the capacity of pastoral training organisations.

"The delight of becoming WEA's Global Partner would be strengthening the commitment that both of us have, which is strongly centered in the word and the local church," said TOPIC International Director Rev J Paul Landrey. "The desire we've had since forming TOPIC as a network of networks is working strongly with those churches that are aligned with what is known today as WEA.

"Every time we have a training event or workshop to equip pastoral ministry, the effort is to see if we can work together as closely as possible with the existing evangelical alliance to form pastoral leaders that reflect the nature of Jesus Christ."

Global Partner membership is given to international organisations that specialise in a field that contributes to the WEA's mission and objectives. There are currently nine other Global Partners serving the WEA constituency.

The World Evangelical Alliance is made up of 128 national evangelical alliances located in seven regions and 104 associate member organisations. The vision of WEA is to extend the Kingdom of God by making disciples of all nations and by Christ-centered transformation within society. WEA exists to foster Christian unity, to provide an identity, voice and platform for the 420 million evangelical Christians worldwide.