Lausanne World Pulse – Beyond Basic Evangelism: Pentecostals and a Broadened Lausanne Evangelistic Agenda, Part Two

By Grant McClung
June / July 2010

Over the years, after discussing Osei-Mensah’s categories with seminary students, local pastors and laity, and church leaders in various cultural settings, I have suggested a fifth option: Social action in evangelism—evangelism in and of itself as an action and process is social action.

Another way to express this is to turn it around and formulate it as, “Evangelism is social action.” This is the conclusion of evangelist Luis Palau and the title of an article in World Vision magazine:

The people of this world create the problems of this world. If we can lead them to Christ, we will create a climate for other positive, practical changes to take place…Conversion leads to the greatest social action. As people’s lives are changed, they are different in their families, in their jobs, and in society…. I am proud to preach the gospel, which is the power of God, because nothing helps people more than introducing them to Jesus Christ. Evangelism saves people not only from dying without Christ, but also from living without him. As they live with him, and for him, they become salt and light in a world lost in sorrow, injustice, violence, hunger, and disease.²

The biblical integration of evangelism and social responsibility is extensively discussed in The Lausanne Covenant (Section 5, “Christian Social Responsibility”). The Manila Manifesto expresses “a continuing commitment to social action (i.e., an affirmation of the Lausanne statements), but adds a new and unique line of its own that deplores “…all forms of exploitation of people and of the earth” (Section 4, “The Gospel and Social Responsibility”).

Evangelistic proclamation creates new church plants and a growing “critical mass” of Christ followers who exert influence in policies of social justice and responsible care of the environment. Although urging social responsibility, The Manila Manifesto explains that, “Our continuing commitment to social action is not a confusion of the Kingdom of God with a Christianized society.” It calls, however, for a proclamation of “…the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all of life, private and public, local and global” (Section 4, “The Gospel and Social Responsibility”).

7. Evangelism is egalitarian in recruitment and leadership. Note the recognition of ministry partnerships and equal involvement of women and men, laity and vocational clergy, youth and children, and all races and cultures in Affirmations 13 and 14 of The Manila Manifesto:

13. We affirm that we who claim to be members of the Body of Christ must transcend within our fellowship the barriers of race, gender, and class.

14. We affirm that the gifts of the Spirit are distributed to all God’s people, women and men, and that their partnership in evangelization must be welcomed for the common good.

In Pentecostal/Charismatic history, experience, and evangelistic expression we have been marked by our recognition of human equality and interdependence. From the outset at Azusa Street and for the past one hundred years, media observers and researchers have noted the flattening demographic effect of Pentecostalism. Pentecostal adherents, especially in the South, have come not from the ranks of the privileged, but from the powerless.

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Dr. Grant McClung, president of Missions Resource Group, is a member of the U.S. Lausanne Advisory Committee and missiological advisor to the World Mission Commission of the Pentecostal World Fellowship.