BQ 876 – 56/2025
“In the WEA, National Alliances should be able to regain a sense of ownership and responsibility”

17. September 2025

An interview by Joel Forster (Evangelical Focus) with the Secretary General of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance

(Bonn, 17.09.2025) The Spanish Alliance is one of many national Evangelical Alliances that will travel to South Korea to participate in the World Evangelical Alliance’s general assembly in Seoul from 27 to 31 October. This is the first in-person meeting of all the national alliances since 2019, when the last assembly was held by the body that aims to represent some 600 million evangelical Christians worldwide.

For Xesús Manuel Suárez, general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE), the WEA would be stronger in its mission if it were characterised by more internal democracy. The Spanish representative believes that in order to “build the World Evangelical Alliance together”, more participation in decisions, more accountability and more meetings are needed. All of this would generate a greater sense of “family and belonging”.

In an interview with Evangelical Focus, Suárez listed the proposals he will take to Seoul, particularly those related to improving the function of the International Council (IC), the governing body that oversees the WEA on most issues.

Question. What is your first message to Botrus Mansour as the new general secretary of the WEA?

Answer. First of all, we are at his disposal to collaborate in advancing the Kingdom.

A. We want him to be the general secretary of all of us. In this sense, it would have been better if he had been elected directly by the constituency, because that would give him greater closeness and recognition. But in any case we are at his disposal to push forward together.

We think it is positive that he is a person who bridges communities; as he says, he is part of a minority within a minority within another minority. In that sense, he will be willing to listen to all perspectives within the WEA, to get down to the ground and build consensus, not just impose decisions.

As you know, throughout Latin America and in southern European countries, we are concerned about the time and energy spent by the WEA on ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic Church. We are pleased to see that this activity is not a priority for Butros, who is clear that we are not going to change our theological criteria and that this does not prevent dialogue with that church.

Our message to brother Butros is that the relationship with the Catholic Church should not be a cause of internal disunity within the WEA and that it will cease to be so when that relationship is limited to practical initiatives of co-belligerence in situations such as the defence of persecuted Christians, the defence of freedom of conscience, the fight against authoritarian dogmatic secularism, etc.

Q. What value does the Spanish Evangelical Alliance see in being part of the global World Evangelical Alliance family?

A. We are one of the oldest National Alliances in the world and we want to maintain the spirit of brotherhood and convergence that led to the founding of the WEA. We must therefore maintain a sense of family, camaraderie, mutual recognition and belonging.

The Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE) has a deep sense of belonging to the WEA. We do not consider the WEA to be an organisation that we join, but rather that we are part of the WEA. The WEA is built on National Alliances, not superstructures. These should help to coordinate the work of the various Alliances, but they are not the identity of the WEA; this identity is defined by the National Alliances.

Q. From the Spanish Evangelical Alliance’s point of view, what challenges and opportunities does the WEA face in the coming years?

A. As Gina Zurlo and Jason Mandryk recently pointed out, evangelicals are the fastest-growing religious group in the world. We face the challenge of translating this growth into influence in our societies. At the AEE, we encourage evangelicals to lose their minority complex and decisively assume the role that we have as instruments of transformation in the hands of the Lord.

Gina and Jason also showed us the well-known heterogeneity of the evangelical movement. We do not have to apologise for this; it is a sign of our freedom, but we cannot afford the price of disunity, because it undermines our capacity for influence. We must identify the core of what we share definitively and irrevocably and all push in the same direction. The WEA must be the engine of this unity in diversity, and that requires forging skills to ask questions, listen, understand, analyse, identify connections, generate and promote consensus, and spread enthusiasm for a common task.

If we build the WEA in this way, the opportunities are immense. Let us remember Acts 7 to discover that, contrary to the Marxist perspective, history has not usually been transformed by large majorities, but by minorities like ours, often dissidents, deeply aware of the Lord’s call and with a clear vision of our identity and our mission.

Q. For years, the AEE has sought to improve the internal democratic culture at the WEA level. What practical changes are needed?

A. If someone from outside were to enter our WEA home and learn about its usual operating mechanisms, it would become evident that our internal democracy is clearly in need of improvement. We operate with a considerable degree of verticality, which contrasts with our evangelical ethos, which is so democratically horizontal.

We have lost – surely in the pursuit of greater efficiency – the sense of family in which different members with different perspectives, but with the solid common foundation of the Gospel, Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, engage in open and constant dialogue to build the WEA together. The WEA is precisely an alliance, a meeting of peers who regard each other with brotherly love and mutual respect. But we have been building vertical structures and ways of doing things, with little and infrequent accountability.

Western democracy has its foundations in the biblical worldview that our ancestors in Northern Europe and North America translated into social and political activity, forming the first democracies of the West. We must recover that application of the biblical worldview to our structures of government. We must therefore return to decentralisation of government, checks and balances, frequent renewal of positions, frequent and detailed accountability, reduction of the distance between governing bodies and those they represent, etc.

In light of these criteria, we still have work to do in the WEA.

Q. Are there gaps in the WEA that could hinder its mission? Specifically, there has been criticism of the role of the International Council. What can be done to reform that body?

A. At the Spanish Evangelical Alliance, we do not raise this in terms of pure and simple criticism; we do not want to tear down, but to build up. I confess that I have turned down some interviews with very important media outlets (although Evangelical Focus is certainly important) to avoid presenting the image that we are here to conspire and decapitate. At the AEE, we are here to offer a renewed vision, which in reality is a return to our roots as the WEA.

There is a notable difference between decision-making power (potestas) and authority (auctoritas). The IC has enormous decision-making power, but it must regain its authority: there are no statutorily defined mechanisms to facilitate feedback between the IC and the rank and the constituency, the National Alliances. Here we have a notable weakness.

The IC functions as a distant entity, alien and unknown to most Alliances; the grassroots members do not know what is decided, why it is decided and who decides in the IC. And what is most worrying is that this has led to a progressive disinterest on the part of the National Alliances in the activities and decisions of the IC. A descriptive example: the IC recently convened an interesting online meeting to gauge the feelings of the National Alliances; two meetings were organised, with 40 Alliances expected to attend each; however, at the one I attended, there were only 10 of us.

There are no established mechanisms for conveying the views of the National Alliances to the IC, and as far as I know, the members of the IC do not communicate regularly with the National Alliances, nor do they convey the initiatives of the National Alliances to the IC or are accountable to them regularly – as in any democratic and biblically based organisation – but only every few years, on the occasion of the General Assembly.

Between one General Assembly and the next, the National Alliances are silent guests in the decision-making bodies of the WEA. This is worrying, because the IC should not be a body that is given the keys and opens and closes everything according to its own decisions, but rather the body that represents the General Assembly of members between one General Assembly and the next, and in order to represent it, it must listen regularly to its members and report to them frequently.

It is not in our interest to unleash a revolution that would shake the WEA’s International Council, among other things because we believe that all IC members act with the best interests of the National Alliances and the WEA in mind. At the AEE, we certainly want to improve the functioning of the IC and promote two things.

First, to give the IC more authority, and that authority is not developed by increasing power, but by placing oneself below, in the terms of Matthew 20:24–28. When it places itself above, listens little, and decides on its own, it can be very effective and have a lot of power, but it has little authority. When one exercises authority in biblical terms, one puts oneself below, asks questions, listens, and is accountable, thereby gaining authority. We want to give the IC more authority.

Second, a vicious circle has been established in which the National Alliances do not have a very deep sense of ownership in the WEA because they do not have effective instruments for active participation; those who should be their representatives in the IC do not directly gather initiatives from the National Alliances nor do they are accountable to them regularly. As a result, National Alliances have lost much of their interest in the overall activity of the WEA; they do not feel that it is theirs and do not feel responsible for it.

We want the National Alliances to regain a sense of ownership and responsibility, and to do so we need to establish mechanisms that facilitate their active participation and improve their feedback to the IC. In the words of Goodwill Shana, we must promote mechanisms that encourage the active participation of the National Alliances as co-creators.

Q. The WEA assembly in South Korea is a good opportunity to generate helpful discussions. What are the priorities that the Spanish Evangelical Alliance wants to bring to the table?

A. At the AEE, we do not limit ourselves to pointing out what is not working well, but, out of a deep sense of responsibility, we offer proposals for improvement. That is why we are going to present to the next General Assembly a proposal to amend the statutes to facilitate the better implementation of biblical criteria of governance and the improvement of internal democracy. This amendment proposes, for example:

The International Council of the WEA should be composed of representatives appointed by the Regional Alliances; other persons of significant stature may constitute an Advisory Council.
The representatives of the Regional Alliances in the International Council should regularly inform the National Alliances of the IC’s lines of work, convey the proposals of the National Alliances to the IC, and are accountable to them regularly.
The General Secretary of the WEA should be elected directly by the General Assembly and should present his report at each General Assembly.
The IC should not have the prerogative to suspend an Alliance’s membership at its own discretion without further discussion.
The IC should not have the prerogative to co-opt new members to that body, which is the exclusive prerogative of the General Assembly.
There is a long time between one General Assembly and the next. It is useful to have an intermediate meeting via teleconference. Similarly, the IC should meet more frequently using teleconferencing to save costs.
Translation into the most widely spoken languages should be provided at the General Assembly and other relevant activities.
Intercommunication between National Alliances should be facilitated by simple measures such as sharing a list of their representatives’ email addresses.

When Jesus met Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52), he did not decide to heal him directly, even though he had come to know his needs better than anyone else. First he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He asked and listened before taking the initiative to heal him. At the AEE, we encourage the WEA leadership to ask more questions and listen more.

We should not be an organisation with a strong vertical hierarchy, but a broad and complex entity with a deep emphasis on grassroots leadership. This is our identity; let us be faithful to it.