Bonner Querschnitte 07/2023 Ausgabe 750 (eng)

(Bonn, 19.05.2023) The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Rev. Samuel E. Chiang as the new Deputy Secretary General for Ministries. Together with Secretary General Bishop Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher and Deputy Secretary General for Operations Dr. Peirong Lin, the three leaders form the Office of the Secretary General that oversees the day-to-day work of the WEA as it serves its global constituency of some 600 million evangelicals in more than 140 countries.

The appointment by the Secretary General followed a months-long search process that included the senior leaders in the WEA.

Announcing the decision, Schirrmacher commented: “It gives me great pleasure and comfort to inform you about the appointment of Reverend Samuel E. Chiang, originally from Taiwan and ordained with the People’s Church in Toronto, as my new Deputy Secretary General of Ministries. Samuel has been building up and heading up the Global Evangelism Network within the Global Witness Department and comes with the unanimous endorsement of his department head and the whole Senior Leadership Team who have gotten to know him over the past months.”

“Samuel comes with the gift of networking and a deep love for all cultures, languages, and especially oral cultures, as helping to launch Bible translation and facilitating the orality network of the Lausanne movement have covered quite some time of his life. Being born in Taiwan and having worked in Hong Kong for a long time, as well as his education in Canada and work in the United States gives him a special access to the multi-ethnical teams that are so typical for our work in the WEA,” Schirrmacher said, and added: “Samuel, Peirong and I are three quite differently gifted and experienced people, and it is our hope that our close working relationship will bear fruit for our global family of brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.”

Upon his appointment, Rev. Chiang expressed that he is “very humbled to steward this role, with utter dependence on our Heavenly Father, and looking forward to meeting the larger family uniting in prayer, uniting in voice, and uniting in advocacy.”

While he assumes additional responsibilities in his role as deputy, Rev. Chiang will continue to serve as Executive Director of the Global Evangelism Network, which he was appointed to last year. Highlighting evangelism as a heartbeat of WEA, he said: “I am grateful to also steward the Global Evangelism Network portfolio with a team of trusted partners.”

About Rev. Samuel E. Chiang

Born in Taiwan and educated in Canada, Samuel first worked with Ernst & Young before graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary, where he currently serves on the board. Samuel lived with his family in Hong Kong for 25 years, where he served the Church in China and later the global Church. He has traveled to 90 countries, teaching, coaching, and consulting in nearly 40 of them. He has written extensively on orality and published widely across multiple disciplines. He has been instrumental in co-founding 16 different companies ranging from artificial insemination to artificial intelligence, and he previously served as the CEO of Seed Company.

Certified in Systemic Team Coaching and also as Lego Serious Play facilitator, Samuel focuses on tending generously to senior leadership teams and executives, coaching them in the areas of collaboration, leadership, negotiation, systemic processes, and conflict management. He is cofounder of Global Centre for Giftedness and has since last year served as the inaugural Executive Director of the WEA’s Global Evangelism Network.

Samuel is married to Robbi and together they have three grown children, two wonderful daughters-in-law, and two lovely grandchildren.

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• Photo: Rev. Samuel E. Chiang © WEA