[Note: In the Arrangment section, the notation “folder 2-5" means “Box 2, Folder 5"]

Subseries: A. William Shoemaker’s files

Arrangement: Alphabetical

Date Range: 1982-1983

Volume: .8 cubic feet

Boxes: 1-2

Geographic coverage: United States, India

Type of documents: Letters, reports, memos

Correspondents: Kathy Boyadgis, Ed Dayton, Bruce Nicholls, John Thompson

Subjects: Planning of the Wheaton ‘83 conference, status and leaders of Evangelical Protestantism around the world

Notes: Shoemaker was the chairman of the conference and one of the chief planners and facilitators in terms of program. The records in this section reflect his participation and also the attempts of the executive committee and staff to develop a workable methodology and a participant list that would reflect include a true world wide cross section of current Evangelical thought and practice.

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Subseries: B. Conference Preparation Files

Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title

Date Range: 1978-1983

Volume: 1.6825 cubic feet

Boxes: 3-7

Geographic coverage: United States, with some material from other parts of the world

Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, budgets, lists, audio tapes of meetings.

Correspondents: Kathy Boyadgis, Edward Dayton, John Thompson, William Shoemaker, Tom Sine

Subjects: Documents are concerned largely with the putting together of the program of the conference, the methodology, the physical arrangements.

Notes: These files are by and large those of John Thompson, Shoemaker’s chief assistant. They cover events from the early planning stages up to the actual beginning of the conference. Included are the minutes of several meetings of the executive committee. Much of the material in this and other sections is concerned with adequate case studies for the purposes of the three consultations and the fitness of the case study method to work of the conference.

Exceptional items: Tapes T1 through T19 contain tapes of various executive committee meetings, consultations and staff meetings on different aspects of the conference and its three tracks. They provide an informal and human picture of the concerns of the conference planners and the personalities involved and fill in many information gaps from the written record.

Folder 3-6 contains the booklet sent out to the organizations that were being asked to sponsor the conference. It described the purpose and goals of the three consultations

Folder 3-7 contains minutes and other documents from the November 1981 planning session, convened by WEF at the Billy Graham Center, that set the basic goals and methods of the conference. Folder 6-3 contains a basic reference book on the conference, apparently used by staff. It includes lists of staff and committee members, minutes of planning meetings, news releases, etc. Folder 6-6 contains regular updates on the plans for the consultation on the Christian Response to Human Need. Box 7 consists of a card file with the names and addresses of individuals, churches and organizations that were sponsors or potential sponsors of the conference financially or otherwise, as well as members of the executive committee and others involved in the planning of the meeting.

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Subseries: C. Participant files

Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title

Date Range: 1981-1983

Volume: 1.4 cubic feet

Boxes: 8-10

Geographic coverage: World wide

Type of documents: Questionnaires, lists, correspondence

Correspondents: Arthur Beals, Kathy Boyadgis, Wayne Bragg, Edward Dayton, Bruce Nicholls, Tom Sine. Peter Stam, John Thompson

Subjects: Life and ministry summaries for a global cross section of Evangelical leaders

Notes: These files include the staff files on the selection of participants for the conference and the assigning of them to one of the three different tracks. There is a great deal of biographical data, especially from questionnaires filled out by the participants themselves, as well statistic on staff efforts to get a balanced representation geographically.

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Subseries: D. Consultation III Files

Arrangement: Correspondence of members of the steering committee and staff is in a group, arranged alphabetically by individual’s names, followed by a group of files relating to the case studies, arranged alphabetically by title

Date Range: 1975-1983

Volume: 1 cubic foot

Boxes: 11-14

Geographic coverage: World wide, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Papaya New Guinea, Sudan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States

Type of documents: Reports, correspondence papers, clippings, address lists, questionnaires, annual reports,

Correspondents: Neville P. Anderson, Art Beals, Kathy Boyadgis, Wayne Bragg, Dave Chambers, Wade Coggins, Edward Dayton, Patricia Harrison, Siman Ibrahim, Israel Katoke, Andrew Kirk, Ron Mathews, Bruce Nichols, Rene Padilla, Gustavo Parajon, Dean Rogers, Vinay Samuel, Michael Schluter, William Shoemaker, Ronald Sider, Tom Sine, Patrick Sookhdeo, John Thompson, Jun Vencer

Subjects: Planning and purpose of the conference, fund-raising, the relation between Christian witness and the Church’s responsibility for justice and mercy in the contemporary world, documents on the experience of various Christian churches and organizations on meeting spiritual and social needs in different countries and regions, impact of militarism upon development

Notes: Consultation III was perhaps the most active of the three and had the most detailed plans for continuation after the consultation. These files reflect the work of the consultation’s office in the state of Washington and its coordination with the Wheaton office of the congress.

Exceptional items: Among the organizations and churches for which there are reports or case studies are Christoffel Blindemission, Christian nationals Evangelism Commission, Christian Hope Indian Eskimo Fellowship (CHIEF), Committee for Justice and Liberty, Grace Ministries, Haiti Agriculture Mission, Harvest, International Missionary Advance, International Needs-India, John Deere and Company, Lutheran Evangelical Relief, Mennonite Central Committee, National Association of Evangelicals of Ghana, Operation L.O.R.D., Prison Fellowship, Reformed Evangelical Synod, Rural Development Consultancy for Christian Churches in Africa (RURCON), Tear Fund, Unitas of Jamaica, United Church (Papua New Guinea), We Care Community Services, World Evangelical Fellowship, World Relief, World Vision,

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Subseries: E. Conference files

Arrangement: Alphabetical by title

Date Range: 1983

Volume: .8 cubic feet

Boxes: 14-16

Geographic coverage: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Germany, India, Kenya, Korea, Nigeria, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia

Type of documents: handouts, lists, news releases, participant evaluation forms, participant notebooks, prayer calendar, programs, publications, questionnaires, registration forms, reports,

Subjects: The organization and daily activities of the Wheaton ‘83 and its final reports

Notes: These files are concerned with the actual running of the conference and the immediate aftermath. They describe the physical arrangements, the registration process, the evaluation of the meeting by the participants, the final news release, and the final or draft reports of the three consultations that made up the conference.

Exceptional items: The participants notebook in folder 15-3 contains the best material for the understanding of the purpose and method of the conference. The views of individual participants can be found in the evaluation forms in folders 15-4 through 15-8. The reports of the three consultations are in folders 14-20 through 14-22. The main document of the conference, “Letter to the Churches,’ can be found in folder 14-25. Folder 15-1 contains reports, brochures, newsletters and other publications from Evangelical organizations around the world. They provide a good snapshot of Evangelical evangelism and social ministry in 1983,

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Subseries: F. Papers and Publications

Arrangement: Files are arranged by type of material, then alphabetically by author’s name

Date Range: 1983

Volume: .8 cubic feet

Boxes: 16-18

Geographic coverage: Argentina, Brazil, China, England, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia (Java), Kenya, Korea, Nicaragua, Nepal, Niger, Philippines, United States

Type of documents: Copies of papers given at the conference, including in some cases early drafts of the papers

Subjects: history of the Evangelical meetings that preceded Wheaton ‘83, Christian social responsibility; development, social transformation and the gospel; contemporary evangelism; the situation of particular churches in different parts of the world; persecution of Christians; the place of the local congregation in the work of the church; methods of presenting the Gospel across physical, cultural, and other barriers; the impact of technology on Christian witness;

Notes: This series contains the paper copies of presentations made at the conference, including a historical study of the precedences to Wheaton ‘83, a workbook for developing an evangelism strategy for a particular group of people, Bible studies on the church in different situations described in the New Testament, and the case studies and papers presented at the three consultations. With the papers for Consultation I, evaluations or responses to a particular paper are in the same folder as the paper.

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Subseries: G. Follow-on Files

Arrangement: Alphabetical by title

Date Range: 1982-1984

Volume: 1.4 cubic feet

Boxes: 18-21

Geographic coverage: Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany, India, Kenya, Netherlands, Philippines, United Kingdom, United States among other countries

Type of documents: Budgets, correspondence, evaluations of the conference, financial statements, minutes of meetings, newsletters, questionnaire, transcripts,

Correspondents: Kathy Boyadgis, Brenda Buchweitz, Ed Dayton, Siman Ibrahim, Israel Katoke, M. R. Matthews, Bob Moffitt, Rene Padilla, Vinay Samuel, Tom Sine Chris Sugden, John Thompson, William Shoemaker

Subjects: Evaluation of the conference and distribution of its publications, Evangelical Protestantism’s efforts for community development and humanitarian relief

Notes: The files in this series deal with the work of the steering committee that continued on after the conference to distribute its publications and otherwise continue its work. Besides many evaluations of the congress, the files contain information on fund-raising for the committee, plans to develop a curriculum on the teaching of social ethics and social development, and reports on related activities in various parts of the world.

Exceptional items: Folders 18-26 and 21-14 contains plans for curriculums in social ethics and social development. Folder 19-5 contains many pages of transcripts of interviews with people like Edward Dayton, Arthur Glasser, Bruce Nichols, Vinay Samuel, Bill Shoemaker, Tom Sine, Patrick Sookhdeo, Theodore Srinivasagam, and other participants in which they talk about their experiences at the conference and their expectations. (See also folder 20-5). Folder 20-2 contains minutes of the steering committee of the Followon work, describing some of the projects that grew out of the conference. The progress reports of the steering committee are in folder 21-6.