Lausanne Movement

‘From the commencement of this consultation, it seems to me that God has a message for the churches and the indigenous missions groups in Africa.’  Revd Dr Panya Baba.

Some 25 people, drawn from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, met in Abuja for three days of intensive discussion and planning in April.  They were influencers in a range of spheres, and included senior statesmen like Dr Panya Baba who has been part of The Lausanne Movement since its inception in 1974.  The aim of the gathering was to identify the most critical issues facing the African Church over the next five years, and to explore ways of making Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress as effective across the Continent of Africa as is possible.  The meeting was chaired by Gideon Para-Mallam, Lausanne International Deputy Director for English, Portuguese and Spanish-speaking Africa (and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students EPSA Associate Regional Secretary for West Africa).

Gideon Para-Mallam opened the meetings by delivering greetings from Doug Birdsall (Lausanne Executive Chair) and Lindsay Brown (Lausanne International Director) and from the Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria, the Rt Revd Peter Akinola, who was represented at the meeting by Ven Tunde Papoola.

The gathering expressed enthusiastic appreciation for the choice of Africa as host Continent for the Lausanne Congress in 2010 and made an appeal: ‘Please do not come to the African Continent and leave us as you met us, without taking a look at the issues which are pertinent to the Church on the Continent.’

While the African Church has its weaknesses as well as its strengths, the leaders also acknowledged that the Lord has infused the church with passion and vibrant worship.  The leaders felt that something of this passion and vibrancy could be brought as a gift to the global Church at the Congress.

‘We need to continue working towards a healthy Church on the continent,’ said Gideon, ‘as it is bound to have an impact on the culture, in politics and in every sphere of the national life.’

In looking towards the Congress, participants saw benefit in creating greater awareness of The Lausanne Movement.  They sensed that as word spread through the churches, there would be a sense of delight in Africa being the host continent and a genuine desire to pray for the Lord to use the Congress as a means of blessing across the world, as well as across Africa.

The goals for the Abuja meeting were to:

1. Identify the key theological and missiological issues confronting the African Church today;
2. Identify critical issues confronting Africa as a continent, and to consider their impact on the Church: its growth, its training in discipleship, its contribution in social concerns, etc;
3. Consider how these relate to our commitment in fulfilling the Great Commission on the African continent and beyond.

Participants included missiologists, theologians, churchworkers, evangelists, and Christians in the marketplace.  These groups met separately to identify the seven top issues; they then came together to pool their wisdom, and to hear what other contributors had written who were not able to come.  There was a high level of convergence in the concerns raised.

The final 'top seven' are grouped as follows:

• Need for good governance: leadership, a spirit of servanthood, role-modeling (mentoring), etc.
• Poverty & Wealth: good management of resources to stop resource-exploitation in this resource-rich land
• More education to replace illiteracy: including the issue of educational instability
• A need to address ethnicity and tribalism: including violence and disregard of sanctity of life
• The rapid spread of diseases: HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, etc.
• More intentional disciple-making a key issue in every aspect of church life
• The spread of Islam: the need for creative ways to engage

 
Other Important Issues:

• Issues surrounding the sanctity of life
• Gender questions
• A concern for youth

The attention of the participants was drawn to the fact that the university was the most influential institution on the continent (in human terms) and that its influence lay behind all public policy.  More Christian influence in the university at senior administrative and faculty level could have profound long-term implications for governance and public life in each nation.  Participants concluded that, ‘If we are really serious about world evangelisation, then we dare not ignore the university.’

‘At the moment it is working largely against us.  Let's engage.  If it were working for the kingdom, it would be a mighty weapon in pulling down the strongholds in the nation. Lausanne really needs to take the university and ministry to young people seriously,’ added Gideon.

Contribution of the Church in Africa to the 2010 Congress
Participants also listed the contributions that the African Church can make to the Lausanne Congress, such as:

• Praise Songs - should be biblical in depth and express good theology and missiology.  It was hoped to see a characteristically joyful African nuance in the praise, perhaps with African choirs.
• Prayer Sessions - The African Church is a praying Church, and wants to help other churches be such.
• Church Growth - The African Church can bring stories of phenomenal growth, eg in Anglican and Pentecostal denominations. These could present a model to the global Church.
• Mission Mobilisation - The emerging indigenous mission movement, largely from roots in the universities and colleges, could bring deep inspiration.
• Islam - The Church in Africa could help other churches engage with Islam.

Participants also discussed the following:

• That poverty would be no barrier to the African Church’s role in fulfilling the great commission. 
• The African Church would cover the costs of all participants at the congress.  Stronger churches would be approached to provide in scholarships for participants from poorer countries.
• Migration would not be seen as negative, but as a creative mission opportunity.  Several of the largest churches in Europe are African churches.

The participants all held one prayer goal in common: that through hosting the Congress, the Church in Africa will become more serious in her commitment to the Great Commission.   Similar regional consultations are being held in each of the Lausanne Movement’s 12 regions (http://www.lausanne.org/connect.html).

(Reporters: Francis Osteen, Rebecca Samuel Dali and Julia Cameron)

By Gill Dobson

 

It was with feelings of great expectation that 450 Christians of influence, black, white, coloured and Indian, from all arenas of life in South Africa, came together at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Boksburg in April for the National Initiative for the Reformation of South Africa (NIRSA).  Church leaders, influential businessmen and women, pastors and heads of denominations, politicians, educators and leaders of Christian organisations and NGO’s, all sharing a deep concern for the state of the nation, gathered in the spirit of Jehoshaphat to cry out to God:

“O our God…
We are powerless…
We don’t know what to do…
But our eyes are on thee.”
2 Chronicles 20:12

 

Speakers on the first morning included Michael Cassidy of African Enterprise and Archbishop Buti Thlagale (President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference).  Michael shared on the principles found in the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 17-20, setting the tone for the conference as one of admitting that as a nation, a people and a church there was a need to seek the Lord’s face and His solutions.  Michael was followed by Archbishop Thlagale, who gave a “pull no punches” talk on the State of the Nation.  It was a powerful moment and many were profoundly affected and challenged.

There was opportunity for corporate prayer and group sharing, after which representatives from the groups summarised the concerns expressed.  This was followed by a panel discussion with members sharing various perspectives on what the Church/Christians in their particular arena of life in South Africa were involved in.  Rev Trevor Pearce, an Anglican minister shared on a renewal and church growth movement within the Anglican church, Teresa Conradie representing the Christian Lawyers Association and Advocates for Africa, spoke about the forthcoming launch of the Advocates for Africa voter registration campaign ahead of the 2009 elections.  Greg Smerdon of African Enterprise South Africa spoke on his experiences with university missions, and Graham Power, a Christian business man and initiator of the Global Day of Prayer, shared perspectives on ethical living and an “Unashamedly Ethical” campaign which will be launched soon.

The first speaker after lunch, Landa Cope, shared that while there was no question that South Africa was facing numbers of crises, it was not the worst country in the world!  She pointed to the conference itself as a sign of hope – that Christians around the nation were still prepared to gather to pray, to engage with the issues facing the nation and to ask God what the Church could do to contribute to renewal and reformation.  She was followed by Reverend Moss Nthla of The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA), who expressed his concern that the church in South Africa needed to revalidate the word of God as a source of authority for all of life and faith, this being especially important after many blacks in the Apartheid era came to see the Bible as an instrument of White oppression. 

After two days of worship, prayer, listening – to speakers, to each other and to God – and reflection, there was an overwhelming and unanimous sense of the rebirth of hope, faith, encouragement and positive vision for the future.  While there was a recognition that the Church had seriously “dropped the ball” during the past 14 years, there was equally a recognition that now was the time for the Church to clean up its act, to work towards greater unity, and to reclaim its prophetic position in the nation of South Africa.  There was general agreement that sin and corruption within the church had resulted in a loss of the Church’s moral authority to speak, and there was a clear call for a greater degree of holiness and moral integrity within the church and as individual Christians: “It starts with our own lives. We need to repent of our sins in order to become influential leaders.”

Apathy within the church was also seen as having had serious national consequences.  One delegate commented, “We have been apathetic as a church and left the determining of morals to the government.  Christians have a key role to play, especially when it comes to moral issues.”  Another expressed a hope that by working actively and in unity, Christians could turn the tide of moral decay, political peril, rampant crime and corruption that faces us as a nation.

Anglican Bishop Rubin Philip expressed the view that there was a great need for the church to come together to reflect on its role in the transformation of society, and Bishop Frank Retief of the Church of England in South Africa, emphasised that true proclamation of the cross was not just evangelism, but included discipleship.  He believed that God could use just a few people to change the nation.

Michael and others on the Programme Committee worked throughout the final day of NIRSA to assemble a Declaration of Intent clarifying a way forward for the SA Church.  The first draft was presented by Michael to the congress and responses invited.  These were incorporated the next day as the document was worked on for a further 11 hours before being circulated to the whole NIRSA constituency of participants and invitees.  This resulted in further suggestions, edits, and alterations and with the inclusion of these a First Edition of the Declaration of Intent was circulated to all participants and invitees on the 20th May. 
One conferee wrote in, saying:

“The NIRSA Declaration of Intent has hit the mark for South Africa.  Your team, under God has clearly found a way forward for us.  Not an easy way, but a way that has within it the seeds of Biblical hope.  The issues are clearly stated; the tone is neither arrogant nor apologetic, it is resolute to the core.  It strikes a good balance, and will enable us to move forward with clearly defined objectives.

What is needed to launch this initiative through God's people now, is a deep move of the Spirit of God (Zechariah 3:6).”

 

Please join us now in prayer for the whole forward movement of the NIRSA venture.

Comix35, the cartooning training ministry, is seeking advice, input and collaborators, especially African cartoonists, for a projected evangelistic comic for Africa.  More information is available here: http://comix35.gospelcom.net/invitationals.html


By Sarah Plummer, Chair of the Lausanne Intercession Working Group

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called.”
Ephesians 4:3, 4

Praise God For:

• The unity of his body we encountered in Argentina this month at the Lausanne Leadership Gathering.
• The servant heart of the Latin America pastors and leaders we encountered.

Please Pray For:

• The Lord’s direction of the vision for “what” can be done by the mission heart beat of Cape Town 2010.
• The Lord’s direction of the strategy of “how” to prepare for the opportunities we want to capture.
• The Lord’s direction for “where” opportunities should take place.
• The impact for Christ that this may have on the Church in Africa and the global body of Christ for it not to be spectacular but significant.

This month we look at The Next Generation: Leadership and Communicating the Gospel:

• Generational theory suggests we seek to see the world through the eyes of other people.  We also need to recognize that every generation has something to teach the others—and every generation has something to learn, as well.  Graeme Codrington touches upon the differences between the Baby Boomers, the Generation Xers, and the Millennials.  He offers ten suggestions for Christian leaders to connect with the Millennials. 
  
• Having worked in ministry with post-moderns in Europe, David James offers suggestions for doing evangelism with young people who have come from broken homes and have secular values.  Having mentored younger evangelists himself, James also offers nine principles for leadership development for young Christians in Europe. 
  
• In order to reach out to young people in Europe, a new form of “church” must emerge, writes Jonny Baker.  “Church on the Edge” is a new expression of Christian community in specific cultures.  These communities do not seek to draw the un-churched into the pews, but to reach out to them where they are—using terminology and language they can understand. 
  
• “How do we extend encouragement to our peers, to those we influence, and to the next generation of leaders?” Grant McClung asks.  He recommends five ways to encourage others: stand with them, speak a word to (or for) them, show them a concrete act of encouragement, pray (supplication) for them, and see the future with them. 
  
• Algow International’s Generation Project is working with young people in nine countries to not only establish righteousness in their nations by serving in places of influence, but to take on problems in their communities, including: homelessness, foster care, littering, and visiting the elderly.  Evangeline Weiner shares the vision. 
  

Addition articles include:

• Are Rites of Passage Out of Step?  A Kenyan Christian Perspective.
• Retiring into Uncertainty. 
  
• University Student Mission with Slum Communities: Reflections After-the-Fact. 
  
• For the Race Set before Us: Training and the Church. 
  
• An Overview of Issues Affecting Evangelization in the United States.
  

Specific questions and comments about Lausanne World Pulse may be sent to Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spam-Bots geschützt, Sie müssen Javascript aktivieren, damit Sie es sehen können . For more information on submitting an article, please visit www.lausanneworldpulse.com/submit.php.

 

Coming in July: The Effect of Migration and the Growing Diaspora on Evangelism Efforts.