Lausanne World Pulse – LAUSANNE REPORTS – Summary Report on Lausanne Theology Working Group

By Chris Wright and Rosalee Velloso Ewell
April 2010

In February 2010 the Lausanne Theology Working Group (LTWG) met in Beirut, Lebanon, for its third and final pre-Cape Town 2010 consultation. The topic, “The Whole World,” was the third in a series of consultations on the theological significance of the three phrases of the Lausanne Covenant, “The whole Church taking the whole gospel to the whole world.” The first consultation on “The Whole Gospel” was held in February 2008 in Chiang Mai; the second on “The Whole Church” took place January 2009 in Panama.

 

Twenty-three people from fourteen countries worked together around plenary papers and case

studies on what is meant by “the world.”

In Lebanon, twenty-three people from fourteen countries convened and worked together around four plenary papers and sixteen case studies on what is meant by “the world.” The group met in facilities provided by the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, and in collaboration with the WEA-Theological Commission.

The findings of the Beirut consultation will be published and offered to the greater Lausanne Movement and others as part of the contribution of the LTWG to the preparation for The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization: Cape Town 2010.

Each morning participants studied Colossians together, since in it Paul makes clear the cosmic significance of Jesus Christ in creating, sustaining, and reconciling the whole world to God—and the correspondingly vast relevance of the gospel to the whole world at every level. The biblical themes that arose from the daily Bible study informed and infused the group’s reflection on papers and case studies.

The consultation was framed around six major themes:

  • The World in the Bible
  • The World of God’s Creation
  • The World of Religions
  • The World of the Globalized Public Square
  • The World of Violence
  • The World of Poverty and Injustice

Prior to the meetings the participants received four plenary papers offered by Chris Wright (“The World in the Bible”), Vinoth Ramachandra (“The Global Public Square”), Tan Kang-San (“Multi-Religious Belonging”), and Peter Harris (“From a Theology to a Missiology of Caring for Creation”), and many case studies on topics as varied as “The Threat of Nuclear Disaster,” “The World of HIV-AIDS,” “Israel and the Challenge of Christian Zionism,” and “The Violence of the World of Drugs and Human Trafficking.”

Dr. Chris Wright, international director of Langham Partnership, is an Irishman who lives in London, with his heart firmly planted in the Majority World. Dr. Rosalee Velloso Ewell is Brazilian. She has a Ph.D. in biblical theology from Duke University and lives in Londrina, Brazil. She serves as New Testament editor for the Latin American Bible Commentary, participates in the Lausanne Theology Working Group, is married and has three children.