Lausanne World Pulse – Imperative of Transformational Discipleship in the Global Church Pursuit of the Great Commission

April 2008

By U. Obed

Africa’s incommensurate growth of spirituality has been described as “one mile wide and one inch deep.”

In Operation World: 21st Century Edition (2001), Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk reported that the twentieth century global Church was very successful in her pursuit of evangelizing the world. In that period of time, Christianity was judged to have been the fastest growing religion. This was occasioned by the spirited efforts of such bodies as the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE), the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), the AD2000 Movement, and others. These all produced a combined thrust which drove evangelism beyond its traditional limits.

The Great Commission as Missions
A rallying feature of most of the Christian bodies mentioned above is their commitment to the Great Commission. In the last four or five decades particularly, this has brought a powerful renewal of focus and emphasis on evangelism, especially reaching the unreached people groups.

I recall, for example, that at the 1997 Global Consultation on World Evangelization (GCOWE) in Pretoria, South Africa, a heavenly fire ignited in the hearts of many church leaders. There were new commitments to winning the lost. Follow-up consultations and strategizing in different nations helped to realize the massive turning of people to the Church. The GCOWE made two impressions on me.

1. My local church should do more in reaching the unreached people groups in my country. After returning home, I consulted with my church leaders. We immediately adopted three unreached people groups. Our local church involvement in mission was also revised positively. We worked out how to involve every church member in mission support.

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Dr. U. Obed is international coordinator of the Apostolic Discipleship Movement and the continental coordinator for the African Initiative on Transformational Discipleship. He was a senior lecturer in physics education and is currently the senior pastor of the Glory Tabernacle Ministry in Ibadan, Nigeria.