Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – A Theology of Evangelism in the Global South

By Samuel Escobar
April 2008

Theology also has a critical and corrective function. The reference to humility, servanthood, suffering, meekness, and deprivation in the evangelistic style of Jesus must confront the warfare style that is involved in the idea of “crusades.” Fernando calls our attention to the fact that “with the breakdown of a rationalist stranglehold of modernism in the West, there is now a greater openness to the supernatural among Christians too.”¹⁴ Reminding us of the so-called “spiritual warfare,” Fernando refers to the rugged individualists who pioneered mission in the past and their contemporary successors. He adds these comments:

Sometimes it is not easy for these rugged pioneers, now influenced by this fresh emphasis on victory over opposing forces, to harmonize their battle emphasis with the emphasis on the meekness and gentleness of Christ and servanthood. There is a sense that they must win, in a worldly way, every battle they encounter with forces (human and supernatural) that oppose their work.¹⁵

Some of us in the Global South feel uncomfortable when the language and attitude of strategists of evangelism reflect more the style of such rugged pioneers than the style of Jesus.

Mission in Context
The contributions from the Global South in the Lausanne movement have also emphasized the need to take seriously the context of mission and evangelism. Issues such as culture, education of leaders, spiritual conflict, and persecution were addressed in paragraphs ten to thirteen of the Lausanne Covenant with due regard to context. The need was recognized for an evaluation of the social, ideological, and spiritual struggles that surround and condition the missionary enterprise in order to design a relevant type of discipleship for our own times.

There are no standard formulas that may be used for a valid communication of the gospel. The truth of Jesus Christ has to be expressed in response to the situation of the evangelist. Joseph D´Souza, a mission leader from India, writes,

It is quite obvious that Indian missions will have to chart their own course and come out of the shadow of imported ideas and ways of working. We need to stay true to the foundational gospel principles of regeneration, reconciliation, and redemption. Our own Christian communities need transformation first. We must not be pressurized by the “hurry up” mentality of our own day and go in for short-term results, statistics, and decisions of which we have had many millions.¹⁶

This is also forcefully stated by Kwame Bediako, an African theologian from Ghana who offers us an analysis of the sacralization of power that takes place in African societies and the need to affirm the Lordship of Christ in a meaningful way within that context. He concludes,

All Christian churches in Africa exist in contexts of religious pluralism and, in such contexts, they will have to learn to continue to worship God and his Christ, witness to the gospel, learn to survive in joy, and strive for peace and justice and democratic freedom for all.¹⁷

Endnotes

1. Stott, John, ed. 1996. Making Christ Known. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Eerdmans.

2. Claydon, David, ed. 2005. A New Vision, A New Heart, A Renewed Call. Pasadena, California, USA: William Carey Library. Three volumes.

3. All Lausanne Occasional Papers are available at: www.lausanne.org.

4. For a brief summary, see my 2000 article “Evangelical Missiology: Peering into the Future at the Turn of the Century.” In Global Missiology for the 21st Century: The Iguassu Dialogue. ed. William D. Taylor. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Baker-WEF, 101-120.

5. My paper was published by Evangelical Missions Quarterly and later became a chapter in the 1972 book Is Revolution Change? ed. Brian Griffiths. London: InterVarsity Press.

6. Fernando, Ajith. 2000. “Jesus: The Message and Model for our Mission.” In Global Missiology for the 21st Century. Ed. William D. Taylor. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Baker, 207-222.

7. Ibid, 261-263.

8. Padilla in Claydon, 2005. Vol I, 216-231.

9. Escobar, Samuel. 1994. “The Search for a Missiological Christology in Latin America,” In Emerging Voices in Global Christian Theology. Ed. William A. Dyrness. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Zondervan, 199-227.

10. Ramachandra, Vinoth. 1996. The Recovery of Mission. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Eerdmans, 181. The section from which I quote is actually the concluding section of the book. The first part is a masterful study of some contemporary Asian theologians from an evangelical perspective.

11. Ibid, 203.

12. Ibid, 273.

13. Ibid, 278.

14. Fernando. 2000, 214.

15. Ibid.

16. D´Souza, Joseph. “The Indian Church and Missions Face the Saffronization Challenge.” In Taylor, op.cit., 400.

17. Bediako, Kwame. 1995. Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press—Orbis.

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.