Lausanne World Pulse – LAUSANNE REPORTS – New Religious Movements and New Spiritualities the Focus of the Lausanne Consultation on Christian Encounter with New Spiritualities

By Ole Skjerbaek Madsen

Leaders from throughout the world met in Hong Kong to discuss how to reach people involved in New Religious Movements and New Spiritualities.

Issue Group 16, Religious and Non-religious Spirituality in the Postmodern World, from the 2004 Lausanne gathering in Thailand in 2004, continued their work with a recent consultation 30 September to 7 October 2006 in Hong Kong. Areopagos provides scholarship support for the attendance and participation of several members of the network. Through this meeting, the new missional apologetic paradigm to new religions and new spiritualities was discussed, as well as the work of the issue group since 2004. Future plans, including a conference for 2008 and preparations for the continued work going into the preparations for the Lausanne gathering in connection with the 2010 centenary of the Edinburgh meeting, were also discussed. The participants of IG 16 and the 2006 consultation will continue their work as a Lausanne network on Christian Witness to New Religious Movements (NRM) and New Spiritualities (NS).

A New Paradigm for New Religious Movements and New Spiritualities
During the conference participants confirmed the continuing development of an emerging new paradigm for a Christian engagement with the adherents and practitioners of NRM and NS. This paradigm begins with and builds upon the insight of the 1980 Thailand report (Lausanne Occasional Paper 11) that adherents of new religious movements are unreached peoples. The development of the NRM and NS affirms this insight in light of the spiritual reality of the Western world, which calls for mission and Christian witness as a priority of the Western Church and evangelical Christians. Furthermore, the process of globalisation brings this development to the Two-Thirds world, especially in the big cities.

Since NRM and NS represent unreached peoples, they should be encountered missionally as any other unreached people group, (i.e., the gospel should be contextually communicated to adherents and practitioners of new religions). This new paradigm calls for an abandonment of (1) the atmosphere of fear in the relationship with adherents of the NRM, (2) the automatic demonization of their spiritual practices and (3) the typecasting of them as spiritual enemies.

The new paradigm looks upon the adherents of NRM and practitioners of NS as people whom God loves, potential disciples of Jesus Christ and neighbours for who Christ died on the cross. This does not mean that the discernment of spirits is abandoned in relation to NRM and NS, but it means that Christians should not be afraid of establishing friendships and studying and understanding their beliefs, practices, hopes, hurts and fears. We recognize in and among ourselves the same beliefs, hopes and fears shared in our common humanity and imago Dei.

In ministering among the people who comprise the NRM and NS, we are dealing with a group of people who have often been deeply hurt by Christians, and who have suffered from rejection and suspicion from Christians. In the same group of people we find many who have misunderstood Christian teachings and practices, and who are unaware of the message and viability of Christianity in the postmodern world, but who nevertheless in their search for a spiritual dimension and meaning have found inspiration in new expressions of East Asian religions, in nature-based spiritualities such as Contemporary Paganism, Neo-Pagan movements, Wicca and in various esoteric traditions.

Ole Skjerbaek Madsen has been a missions pastor with Areopagos, working in the area of new spiritualities, since 2000. He was a parish pastor from 1975 to 1999. Skjerbaek was the convener of the Lausanne Consultation on Christian Encounter with New Spiritualities in Hong Kong. He co-authored the article with Steve Hollinhurst (UK) and Michael Cooper (USA).