Lausanne World Pulse – “A Northstar for Evangelization Strategy”: Looking Toward Cape Town 2010
By Paul Eshleman
As we look toward the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2010, we need to wrestle with both the theological and the strategic issues facing the Church at this time in its history. During a recent meeting of the Lausanne Strategy Working Group, an in-depth proposal was put forward outlining the critical needs today in world evangelization. Here is a summary of some of those thoughts.
1. The State of World Evangelization
On one hand, we are living in one of the greatest times of harvest in the history of the Church. More people are coming to Christ than ever before. People groups never before touched by the gospel are responding to God’s message. Churches are being planted in some of the most resistant cultures in the world.
On the other hand, there is some weariness with the “triumphalism” that seemingly does not recognize the woeful state of the Church in many parts of the world. Surveys show little difference between the lifestyles of believers and non-believers. There is sin in the world—and sometimes there is sin in the Church. But there is hope!
2. The Need of Leaders—A Clear Direction
For pastors and Christian organizational leaders, for lay leaders and kingdom investors, for anyone who cares passionately about the fulfillment of the Great Commission, there is a need for a directional focus. We need some ideas based on scripture that take us back to the simplicity of Christ’s commands and puts them into a twenty-first century framework where we can each find our own contribution to the plan that God is working on this earth.
It would, of course, be arrogant for anyone to think that he or she had the whole mind of God in any directional challenge. However, our heavenly Father has not left us adrift. He has left us examples of evangelization in the scripture and expects us to use our God-given gifts to help us all serve the Body of Christ. How can we do that? Where should the Church be going? What should our priorities be?
3. The Biblical Foundation
Scripture says that God has given us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3-4). Therefore, as we seek God’s will for influencing the direction of the Church in the coming decade, we believe that the mega-themes of the Bible must be our guide. What has become clear in many strategic discussions is that world evangelization is not so much about materials, tools and techniques. It is about love, compassion, prayer, holiness and obedience.
World evangelization begins with God and his love for us. We care about world evangelization because God—the one we love—cares about it. He longs for all persons to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). He does not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He wants every family in every nation to be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3) until all the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).
It is his love for the lost—which we once were—that is the foundational motivation for our commitment to the task of world evangelization. Scripture has a great deal to say about what kind of people we should be and how we should reach out. Here are just a few examples:
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Paul Eshleman is chairman of the Lausanne Strategy Working Group and vice president of Campus Crusade for Christ. He also founded and directed the JESUS Film Project (JFP). During his twenty-five years of directing the JFP, the film was translated into nearly nine hundred languages and shown in 236 countries. |
