By David F. Dawes

THE LAUSANNE CONGRESS, held late last year in Cape Town, South Africa, was accounted a great success. It has been touted by its organizers as “perhaps the widest and most diverse gathering of Christians ever held in the history of the church.”

The event had one central purpose: to give a global boost to the ‘Great Commission’ – the resurrected Christ’s command that his followers make disciples of “all nations.” Canadian participation in the congress was significant.

Worldwide audience

According to Lausanne.org, Cape Town 2010 “drew 4,000 selected participants from 198 nations.” Additionally, “the Congress extended to an estimated audience around the world of a further 100,000 people through its GlobaLink sites . . . and drew 100,000 unique visits to its website from 185 countries.”

The Lausanne Movement originated in 1974, with a gathering of some 2,700 Christians in Lausanne, Switzerland. The event was convened by evangelist Billy Graham. The second Congress took place in the Philippines in 1989. The October 16-25 Cape Town gathering was the third such event – and, because of technological advances, had an immediate worldwide impact.

In addition to assessing the current state of the Great Commission, Lausanne III emphasized the importance of planning for new initiatives.

Admonitions in advance

One notable Canadian evangelical leader made a key contribution to laying the groundwork for dialogue among Lausanne participants. David Wells, general superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, co-authored (with noted author Os Guinness) an Advance Paper entitled ‘Global Gospel, Global Era: Christian discipleship and mission in the age of globalization.’

The paper featured a stern admonition: “Whenever individual Christians and local churches have become worldly through falling captive to their surrounding culture and especially to the spirit and systems of the modern world, they represent a ‘plausibility crisis’ for the gospel at best, and ‘hypocrisy’ at worst.”

Wells and Guinness warned of “the lethal effect of secularization,” citing Christ’s famous response to Satan during the temptation in the desert. “’Man does not live by bread alone,’ Jesus said, but thanks to the brilliance and power of modern insights and techniques, no generation has come closer to the illusion of being able to do so – including the ability to grow churches and conduct effective outreach on the strength of human ingenuity alone, and without any genuine need for God at all.”

Unity and prayer

For the most part, Cape Town 2010 was an exemplar of Christian unity. The spirited opening to the event was captured by British blogger Krish Kandiah, executive director of Churches in Mission.

“The lights were dimmed and a hush fell on the 4,200 guests who were gathered around tables with six international guests each. On my table, I sat with a young pentecostal student from southern Sudan, the head of the Bible society in Jamaica, the leader of an ecumenical mission agency in Norway and a young Indian entrepreneur.

“The five huge screens show the panoramic views of the African landscapes, with jumping impala, galloping giraffes and smiling children – while flag carriers and drummers and a choir sing welcome to the gathered thousands. It’s an impressive visual feast. ‘Welcome to Africa’ is the take home message.”

Chinese blockade

One troubling absence had a palpable effect on those in attendance. The Chinese government refused to allow more than 200 invited Christian leaders to leave their home country for the event. The Lausanne website noted that the same thing had happened to the Chinese Christians who had hoped to attend the 1989 gathering in Manila.

The thwarting of the Chinese initiative was greeted with eloquent sorrow by Ugandan archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, honorary chair of the African Host Committee, who stated: “Our African leadership was looking forward to developing closer ties, friendship and mutual understanding with our Chinese brothers and sisters in a spirit of love, humility, fraternity and support. Not having them here is like not having Brazil at the World Cup – it is unimaginable. We want them to know that this community reflecting the worldwide body of Christ stands with them as they gather in spirit with us here.”

According to Lausanne.org, the Chinese still managed to participate, after a fashion.

“The leader of the Chinese group . . . sent a note, confirming they had accepted their government’s decision restricting travel to the Congress – quietly and with hope. He thanked those in attendance for their prayers, and assured prayers from their group for the meetings. In addition, the note contained scripture passages from brothers and sisters in China, which an East Asian woman read from the platform.

“These included Philippians 1:29, ‘For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also suffer for his sake.’ Others focused on enduring hardships sorrowfully, but with rejoicing; being slow to anger; and experiencing comfort in the midst of pain, knowing they have not been denied the truth found in the word of God.”

Further, the Chinese had provided a song, ‘The Lord’s Love for China.’ They had hoped to perform it in Cape Town; instead, the song was sung by all of those in attendance.

Lausanne.org concluded: “As in 1989 when Chinese invitees were disallowed from attending the Second Lausanne Congress in Manila, three East Asian leaders then led in special prayers for their Chinese brothers and sisters, as attendees rose and stood behind their empty chairs, symbolically gesturing that there are places at the table for each of them – and many more.”

Believers & reconciliation

Varying forms of reconciliation were key themes at the conference.

Speaking on the topic of ‘Reconciliation with Creation,’ Sir John Houghton – co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – emphasized that the rising of sea levels might displace many of the world’s poor in some countries. Global warming, he contended, “is a Christian issue because it’s affecting the world, the ecosystem, God’s creation – and because it affects the poor more than anything.”

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‘Reconciliation with the Poor’ was addressed by Ajith Fernando, national director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka. He encouraged participants to re-evaluate their view of the effects of poverty, observing: “One of the things we found as soon as the poor started coming to Christ was that we encountered strong anger within them – because they suddenly realized that they were equal in Christ, but they had not been treated as equal all these years.”

‘Reconciliation between Peoples’ provided a dramatic pairing of speakers from two often opposed factions.

Shadia Qubti, a Palestinian Christian, works with Musalaha, a ministry dedicated to bringing together Palestinian and Jewish people who believe in Jesus. “As a Palestinian, it’s very difficult to reach out to my enemy,” he noted, adding: “But as a Christian Palestinian, I have the ability to do that. Because Jesus gives me the eyes to see them as he sees me, Jesus gives me the confidence to go against my society; he gives me the power to embrace them.”

Sharing the platform with him was Daniel Sered, director of Jews for Jesus in Israel. “When Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs can say to one another, ‘I love you in Jesus’ name,’ the world will see the powerful reconciliation work of the good news,” he said, emphasizing: “The only hope for peace for the Middle East is truly Jesus.”

Blessed are the persecuted

The persecution of Christians was a topic which resonated with many in attendance, as noted by an InterVarsity blog written by York Moore.

Western Christians, he noted, “often read and hear about the persecuted church; but here at Lausanne 2010, the persecuted church has faces and names. While most nearly all Chinese delegates to Lausanne were denied departure from China and some detained, a handful of Chinese Christians are here in Cape Town for the Congress.

“While speaking to one of them at length today, I asked him why he would risk arrest and persecution for coming to Lausanne. His words moved me to tears. ‘How can I decline this invitation? How can I fail to be here and receive what this event has to offer me and my people? How can I be silent about Jesus? I must come and I must speak!’

“These words were repeated over many times from the platform and around tables, as women and men from Serbia, from India, from the Middle East, shared stories of suffering and persecution for the gospel.”

Uplifting gathering

One of this country’s pre-eminent Christian leaders considered Cape Town 2010 a very valuable experience for the Canadians in attendance. “Canada had 50 participants and almost on equal number of support staff present during the Congress,” Bruce Clemenger told BCCN. The president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada found the experience “a stimulating and uplifting gathering,” and noted several highlights.

“The theme verse was ‘God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself,’ from 2 Corinthians 5:19. Amidst the music, drama and excellent speakers, everyone was assigned to a table . . . where each morning we studied the letter of Ephesians and prayed together.

“My table had older leaders from Europe and younger leaders from India, including an observer from the World Council of Churches. It was a wonderful experience to study and learn together . . . The plenary sessions, panels and workshops manifested the amazing diversity of evangelical expression in loving God, doing justice and making disciples.”

Challenge of discipleship

In his Executive Summary of Observations, David Wells noted that “the challenge of moving people from conversion to whole-life discipleship was a consistent theme” of the gathering. Further, “the global concern regarding the spread of the ‘prosperity gospel’ – as a theological integrity issue – was raised in a number of sessions.”

Cape Town 2010, he declared, “continued to address what it looks like for the global church to both proclaim and practice the truth, to be like our Lord – full of grace and truth. It was clear the organizers are concerned about ‘truth drift.’”

Wells concluded: “There continues to be a strong call and multiple resources available, to participate in the shared endeavours of reaching the unreached and eradicating both biblical and physical poverty. There is an expectation of follow-up actions – such as each missional agency identifying what part it will continue to play in engaging unreached people groups.”

New motivation

Fresh motivation for the furthering of world evangelization was the theme of the Cape Town Commitment, a major summation from the Lausanne organizers.

The document declared: “The biblical covenants, old and new, are the expression of God’s redeeming love and grace reaching out to lost humanity and spoiled creation. They call for our love in return.”

The statement then affirmed three key points:

“Our love for the whole gospel, as God’s glorious good news in Christ, for every dimension of his creation – for it has all been ravaged by sin and evil.

“Our love for the whole church, as God’s people, redeemed by Christ from every nation on earth and every age of history, to share God’s mission in this age and glorify him forever in the age to come.

“Our love for the whole world, so far from God but so close to his heart, the world that God so loved that he gave his only Son for its salvation.

“In the grip of that three-fold love, we commit ourselves afresh to be the whole church, to believe, obey, and share the whole gospel, and to go to the whole world to make disciples of all nations.”

In his concluding thoughts on his trip to Cape Town, David Wells stressed the “immense impact” made by “the sharing of those who have endured unbelievable persecution and sorrow. The sessions where the 18 year old from North Korea shared regarding her father’s martyrdom and her plans to return there; or the widow of one the medical people murdered in Afghanistan this past summer, sharing regarding her husband’s last message from the bloodied sheets of paper found on his body . . . well, what can you say?”

He ended on a very personal note: “I was robbed at knife point in Cape Town. But more importantly, those sessions robbed me of my Western view of an easy Christianity – for which I am grateful.”

January 2011