I still remember the fascination I felt when, as a very young student leader, I first encountered John Stott’s idea of ‘double-listening’. It was as if a new horizon had suddenly opened. 

“We listen to the Word with humble reverence, anxious to understand it, and resolved to believe and obey what we come to understand. We listen to the world with critical alertness, anxious to understand it too, and resolved not necessarily to believe and obey it, but to sympathize with it and to seek grace to discover how the gospel relates to it.”¹ 

This vision of Stott’s captures precisely what we want Word and World to be: a place where complex issues are explored, discussed, even debated with this kind of double listening. Because, as it is now common to say, the world is deeply polarised. Yet, we believe and trust in the One in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17 :28). 

The issue of the articulation of our mission with that of local churches has kept the minds of IFES and student workers busy for many years throughout our history. The world changes rapidly, student generations, trends, fears and dreams also. But the Word does not change, and God still wants to call students to be his followers in today’s world. How can IFES remain faithful yet humbly audacious in this context? 

This challenge spans generations, which is why this issue offers a blend of older and newer reflections on a topic that each generation of IFES has to make their own. We’re happy to share, for the first time outside of the French language, the late Daniel Bourdanné‘s reflections on our mission. Long before he became IFES General Secretary, Daniel loved writing and writers, he was also a deep thinker. This is a homage to him and the depths of his thinking. 

Marc Debanné, former General Secretary of GBU Québec, also shares with us new thoughts on how to demystify the church-parachurch relationship. Barry Chueng, General Secretary of FES Hong Kong, sheds light on how the theory can be applied in unique contexts by sharing the outworkings of partnerships between IFES and the local churches in Hong Kong’s socio-political reality. Bishop David Zac Niringye takes a diachronic approach to his reflections thirty-five years ago on the ‘parachurch’ and the mission of the Church in the student world, mirrored against his observations of the current times. Finally, we hope to take you beyond the journal by sharing book reviews that can enrich your understanding of or deepen your research into each topic.  

We hope that you’ll not only enjoy reading this new issue but also dive back into previous issues – perhaps even share the journal with friends and colleagues. Let it be a place for IFES to reflect on its mission and the many contexts in which it unfolds. 

I also want to thank Jasmine Foo who has joined our team as volunteer editor: keep on the lookout for the next issue in the works! 

Would you pray with me that this and the next issues of Word and World would help us thrive together in the mission with which God has entrusted us? 

Timothée Joset
Editor, Word & World

timothee.joset@ifesworld.org
wordandworld@ifesworld.org