General Superintendent Gustavo A. Crocker spoke this week on the 500th anniversary of Reformation Day at a celebration in Germany. The event brought together more than 700 leaders from all over the world, representing a vast majority of denominations that make up the World Evangelical Alliance.

Crocker was invited to speak about the value and role of denominations in the eve of the Reformation.

"The Church is the vehicle to proclaim the New Covenant," Crocker said in his presentation. Quoting 1 Peter 2:9, one of the verses that Martin Luther often referred to, Crocker said that "as the chosen people, royal priesthood, and holy nation, God has entrusted denominations as the new tribes in the new covenant, and each of us has a purpose and identity that we need to embrace. Each of us — tribes of the new nation — need to embrace and strengthen our identity, embrace and strengthen the doctrine that God has called us to proclaim, and honor it as we participate together with other tribes in fulfilling the Great Commission."

On Tuesday, Crocker received the Martin Luther Leadership Award, along with nine other global Evangelical leaders. Crocker described the experienced as "a very humbling moment."

The Reformation Celebration took place in Berlin and Wittenberg, Germany, and ended 1 November with a launching of the new century at the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

Related: "The Reformation(s) of the Church" (via Holiness Today)