Lausanne World Pulse – A Theology of Evangelism in the Global South
By Samuel Escobar
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As we consider the missionary pattern modeled by Jesus, and the meaning of his death and resurrection, we face the uniqueness of his person and work. |
The Lausanne movement that started after the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization (Lausanne I) had a significant impact on the practice of mission around the world. One could trace back a great number of evangelistic and missionary efforts that have flourished in the past thirty-five years to the inspiration of Lausanne 1974. However, the genius of the Lausanne movement was to promote mission activity and also theological reflection on that activity in light of God´s Word. Liberated by its missionary thrust from the bonds of sterile fundamentalism, evangelicalism was again able to rediscover the holistic dimensions of Christian mission clearly presented in the Bible.
The Lausanne movement has restated theological convictions characteristic of evangelicalism; however, it has also deepened evangelicals’ understanding by responding to contemporary questions. This is evident, for instance, in the selection of documents edited by John Stott under the title Making Christ Known,1 which offers an account of the years between 1974 and 1989. The nine lengthy documents that start with the Lausanne Covenant are a good record of the points of agreement of missionaries, evangelists, and theologians about burning issues related to evangelism.
Almost all of these documents strike a balance between the theological foundations and the pragmatic consequences. The lists of participants in this reflection include evangelicals from every region of the world. Thirty years later, the massive three-volume work A New Vision, A New Heart, A Renewed Call2 gives an idea of this process of practice and reflection currenty going on around the world. It is a series of Lausanne Occasional Papers produced during the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization that took place in Pattaya, Thailand, 29 September 2004 to 5 October 2004. There are currently sixty-one papers which record the global process of missiological reflection that is carried on by new generations of practitioners and theologians.3
By the time the Lausanne Congress took place in 1974, a process of developing a theology of evangelism had already started in the Global South. After the Second World War, to the Protestant missionary work of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (which had always had an evangelical ethos) was added the evangelical missionary activism of the post-war period, especially from North America.
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Samuel Escobar was born in Peru and ministered in Latin America under the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. He was chair of missiology at Palmer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, USA. He spoke at Lausanne 1974 and was a member of the committee that drafted the Lausanne Covenant. Presently he lives and teaches in Spain. |