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2004 Forum Affirms Evangelism Ministry to World’s Most Needy

(Thailand) “A New Vision, A New Heart and a Renewed Call” was the theme of the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand this month. The Forum, hosted by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE), drew over 1,500 Christian leaders from nearly 130 countries to focus on the task of global evangelism.

Throughout the Forum, participants exhibited a renewed sense of passion and energy to share the gospel of Jesus around the world. With a united emphasis on reaching the people most in need – children, those in poverty, the oppressed and abused and those living with disabilities – participants were challenged to recommit themselves and their ministries to evangelism.

On the opening night of the gathering, 2004 Forum Chair Dr. Roger Parrott emphasized the desire to “catch the fresh wind of God” and urged the church to “sink the powerboats of ministry we have built and learn again to sail only on the wind of God.” Dr. Parrott recounted the story of the Apostle Peter being invited to walk on the water with Jesus and reminded the crowd that when Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink. He added that the same can be true when looking at the task of global evangelism and that instead of “looking to the power of our own motor which never allows us to stray far from our harbor, our focus must be on the limitless power of Jesus.”

WORKING FORUM
Prior to the Forum, an international research effort identified 31 crucial issues affecting global evangelism. Based on that research, Forum leaders established Issue Groups (IGs) of 20 to 100 people to define the issue, conduct research and collect information on ministries already successfully engaging the concern.

The Forum was a working consultation where, in addition to the main plenary sessions, much of the work was done in the smaller IG meetings. Many of these IGs had been meeting via the Internet, telephone and mail for several months prior to the Forum and the Pattaya meeting allowed leaders the opportunity to meet face-to-face to move their discussions toward an implementation action plan for the church. Mr. Paul Eshleman, JESUS Video Project, said the Forum provided a point of convergence for ministry practitioners and theorists that allowed participants to discuss strategies that will be both ministry-practical and theologically-sound.

FORUM AFFIRMATIONS
As IGs met, a team of leaders, led by Mr. Eshleman, was tasked with “listening” to each of the groups to determine Forum trends and themes. Based on IG visits and personal interviews with leaders, Mr. Eshleman’s team prepared a 2004 Forum Summary of Affirmations that included an affirmation that the major efforts of the church must be directed toward unreached people who have no access to the gospel. In addition the team discovered:

• A renewed commitment to reach out in love and compassion to those who are marginalized because of disabilities or have different lifestyles and spiritual perspectives, along with a commitment to reach out to children and young people who constitute a majority of the world’s population, many of whom are being abused, forced into slavery, armies and child labor.
• An acknowledgement that the growth of the church is now accelerating outside of the western world and that dynamic and rapid growth of the church is continuing in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
• An acknowledgement that much of the world is made up of oral learners who best understand information by means of stories.
• A call to the church to use media to effectively engage the culture in ways that draw non-believers toward spiritual truth and proclaim Jesus Christ in culturally relevant ways.
• An affirmation of the priesthood of all believers and a call to the church to equip, encourage and empower women, men and youth to fulfill their calling as witnesses and co-laborers in the world wide task of evangelization.

LEADERSHIP TRANSITION
In closing remarks to the Forum, Dr. Paul Cedar, outgoing LCWE International Chair, charged the delegates to not only respond personally to the challenge of global evangelization but also to commit to encouraging, motivating and mobilizing other Christians to pursue the strategic plans for evangelism that will result from the Forum. Dr. Cedar and International Director Dr. David Claydon stepped down from their posts at the end of the Forum. Dr. Cedar will now serve Lausanne as a Senior Advisor. Dr. Claydon has been named Lausanne Ambassador-At-Large.

Rev. S. Douglass Birdsall, President of Asian Access, was elected LCWE Executive Chair and Dr. Tetsunao (“Ted”) Yamamori, President Emeritus of Food for the Hungry International, was appointed LCWE International Director. By agreement with Lausanne, Dr. Yamamori will serve as International Director and then as Representative-At-Large. Dr. Yamamori, along with the Lausanne leadership, firmly believes that LCWE should have, as International Director, a younger leader from a non-western country. During his term as International Director, Dr. Yamamori will work with the Lausanne Committee to find someone who can fulfill those requirements.

Rev. Birdsall also announced the appointment of nine International Deputy Directors (IDDs) who will take on regional responsibilities for Lausanne. Rev. Birdsall says Lausanne will benefit by the addition of these new leaders who bring “perspectives from every region of the world to the concerns and opportunities of world evangelism.” The leaders named as IDDs are:

• Northern Asia: Dr. Agnes Liu (Hong Kong), Chinese Coordination Center on World Evangelization.
• East Asia: Dr. Hyung Keun (Paul) Choi (Korea), Seoul Theological University.
• South Asia: Rev. Adrian de Visser (Sri Lanka), Kethusevana National Church Planting.
• Middle East and North Africa: Dr. Sameh Maurice (Cairo, Egypt), Kasr El Dobarah Evangelical Church.
• Eastern Europe: Dr. Fiodor MoKan (Russia), St. Petersburg Theological Seminary.
• Western Europe: Mrs. Elke Werner (Marburg, Germany), author and speaker.
• Latin America: Dr. Norberto Saracco (Argentina), Pastor and Seminary President.
• Francopone Africa: Mr. Kadebe Daniel Bourdanne (Ivory Coast), International Fellowship of International Students.
• Anglophone Africa: Dr. John Azumah (Ghana), Presbyterian Minister.

Dr. Yamamori says the International Deputy Directors “will work closely with Forum Issue Group leaders, senior associates and others who will emerge as voluntary leaders in their own countries.” He believes the new structure will allow Lausanne to “exercise a spirit of unity and cooperation in seeking out new relationships with evangelical ministries, organizations and networks in any and all countries facilitated by Deputy Directors.”

FUTURE STEPS
2004 Forum Program Chair Mrs. Robyn Claydon says the International Deputy Directors become vitally important as the work of the Forum moves to the grassroots. By December, IGs will produce a paper addressing their specific evangelism challenge. Rev. Birdsall says IGs are being asked to articulate precise and concise Action Steps that can be implemented readily throughout the world. Mrs. Claydon says IDDs along with IG leaders and participants will begin to develop key relational networks to seek implementation of the strategies coming from the Forum, many of which will become Lausanne Occasional Papers (LOPs).

Leaders say the Forum offers an excellent opportunity for an expanded impact under the Lausanne Covenant and Lausanne Mission Statement of “The Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole World.” The widely adopted Lausanne Covenant has served as a theological gathering point since 1974 for individuals, denominations and ministries interested in collaboration toward the task of global evangelism.

In addition to the production of the Lausanne Ocassional Papers, Lausanne leaders have begun planning a Younger Leaders Conference in 2006 and are exploring a third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 2010.

By Dr. Tetsunao Yamamori, International Director of Lausanne
From a speech given October 5, 2004 at the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand

Colleagues in global and strategic evangelization.

I am honored by the confidence the Lausanne leaders have shown in me by choosing me as the new International Director of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. Able and prominent leaders have preceded me in this position. It is with humility and a plea to the Lord for guidance that I accept this assignment.

In looking ahead to the future of Lausanne, I wish to make the following five comments.

1. The Vision of the Lausanne Movement: We must reaffirm the vision again and again to keep it ablaze in our minds. It has been, is, and will be this: We are to pray, plan, and work together for the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world, as articulated in the combined documents of the Lausanne Covenant of 1974 and the Manila Manifesto of 1989. Our focus is on world evangelization. Whatever the topic, it should relate to world evangelization. Reaching the unreached is the soul of Lausanne.

2. The Challenge of the 21st Century: The Christian world has benefited from the wealth of important resources that were produced at the special consultation held in Pattaya in 1980. Perhaps one of the best-known contributions of Lausanne has been the publication of the “Lausanne Occasional Papers” that dealt with key issues challenging the church’s evangelistic efforts in the 1980s and early 1990s. The 2004 Forum is, in essence, Pattaya II, not Lausanne III, examining afresh the critical issues confronting the church in the 21st century. The fruits of this Forum will be widely shared around the world through various mediums. It is our hope that the findings of the Forum will once again become the engine of world evangelization, as did the publications of Pattaya I in 1980, to push the Lausanne movement forward.

3. The Strategic Role of Issue Groups Beyond the Forum: Each of 31 Issue Groups has developed a global network of its own in the course of working together for the Forum. It is our hope that each group will continue its networking beyond the Forum to further explore the topic, disseminate its findings, engage the churches through various forms of briefing, and lead them to action. In presenting a particular issue, each group needs to make its case and communicate its urgency in relationship to world evangelization. Let me cite a couple of examples:

(a) Uniqueness of Christ in a Post-Modern World (the topic of one of the Issue Groups). Dr. John Stott, in his Lausanne interview with Gary Barnes, described pluralism as the most critical issue today. Pluralism, itself an ideology, “affirms the independent validity of all faiths. It therefore rejects as arrogant and wholly unacceptable every attempt to convert anybody (let alone everybody) to our opinions.” Now, post-modernism is an idea that denies the existence of transcendent truth. In such a context of evangelization, we must boldly proclaim the uniqueness of Christ because, as Dr. Stott says, Jesus is unique in his incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and gift of the Spirit. Without the successful defense of the uniqueness of Christ, our evangelistic efforts will become nullified.

(b) Holistic mission: This is the Issue Group of which I was a part. We discussed holistic mission from various perspectives: (1) The Biblical and Historical Foundations, (2) Relief, (3) Hunger, (4) Health, and (5) Economic Justice. The context of the 21st century demands a holistic approach to evangelism and the Lausanne Movement firmly adheres to it. Now, speaking of the wind of the Spirit blowing as Dr. Roger Parrott eloquently expounded in his opening message, our group experienced something special. We had a panel discussion on “The Church and the AIDS Crisis.” It was such a powerful session that echoed what was already in the hearts and minds of most members of the group. The consensus of the group was: There is no point in talking about world evangelization without Lausanne taking seriously the enormity of the global AIDS pandemic and its impact on the church and the world.

Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist, said: “If the church of Jesus Christ rises to the challenge of HIV/AIDS, it will be the greatest apologetic the world has ever seen.” The Lausanne Movement must, and will, deal with this topic more fully in the coming months.

4. Mandate for Action: The 2004 Forum has given us a mandate for action. Having reaffirmed in our hearts the combined vision of the Lausanne Covenant and the Manila Manifesto and having delineated the critical issues facing the church in the 21st century, we who have gathered at Pattaya must make the Forum findings known to the evangelical community throughout the world, reiterate the historic Lausanne vision of world evangelization, and help implement the holistic gospel of word and deed in our encounter with the lost, suffering, and troubled world. What the world needs is hope – the hope that is possible only through Jesus Christ. Lausanne is a movement made up of individuals committed to world evangelization. You who have assembled here constitute the nucleus of Lausanne partners for the coming years. You will help catalyze a fresh movement in Lausanne. Lausanne needs your continued active participation beyond Pattaya.

The de-centralized and de-institutionalized format of the new Lausanne will be best served by having Deputy Directors in charge of various key regions of the world. These Deputy Directors will work closely with Issue Group leaders, Senior Associates, and others who, among the Forum participants, will emerge as voluntary leaders in their own countries.

Lausanne will exercise a spirit of unity and cooperation in seeking out new relationships with evangelical ministries, organizations, and networks in any and all countries facilitated by Deputy Directors.

5. Request for prayers: As we move ahead, we need your incessant prayers.

• For the new leaders as they begin their assignments.
• For the effective dissemination of the Forum findings around the world.
• For the surge of the Lausanne Movement to rekindle its passion for evangelism.
• For the development of voluntary, functioning networks around the world to encourage individuals, churches, and ministries to implement recommended action plans.
• For His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The world's largest missions event focused on young people is making some major changes. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship announced that their 21st Urbana will be moving to Saint Louis, Missouri, USA when it convenes in 2006. Jim Tebbe, InterVarsity's Vice-President and Director of Missions says "Moving to a new location gives you an opportunity to look at the program through new eyes and new ways of doing things. Another thing is growth. At any given time we get 20,000 people who attend Urbana. Well, there are 15-million students in the United States and we've been maxed out for the past 20 years."
This change will allow Urbana to expand program offerings, helping students get more connected. Tebbe adds that "Every person who comes to Urbana should be a part of God's mission and be actively engaged in that with a worldwide perspective, whether they be overseas or whether they remain in the United States working, we want to see their eyes opened up so that they're looking at a much broader vision of what it is that God's doing in the world."

Full Story from Mission Network News: http://mnn.gospelcom.net/article/6586

Full Story from Mission Network News: http://mnn.gospelcom.net/article/6556

By Glenda Weldon, Chair, Intercession Working Group

"I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which He is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us.” Isaiah 63: 7

Praise God for the daily evidence of His hand of blessing during Forum 2004. Our hearts are overwhelmed with praise and thanks to God for all that He did among us as we met together in Plenary Sessions, Issue Groups and Committees and as we prayed and shared and ate together.

God answered our cry for a “New Heart, a New Vision and a Renewed Call” to fulfil the Great Commission.

Special thanks must go to the Prayer Team led by Barbara Brierley and Derek Brant, for their ministry 24 hours a day throughout the Forum.

Praise and thank God:

• For the strong reminder of our need to be empowered by God’s Spirit to accomplish the work He has given us to do.
• For His clear call to holiness in the secret recesses of our hearts and minds.
• For the renewed passion and sense of urgency for the task of world evangelization.
• For a renewed commitment to prayerfully “mobilise the whole Church to present a clear message in many different ways to the most needy!’
• For the renewed commitment to cooperation and strategic partnerships.

Please pray that we will respond to God’s call:

• To address the very serious issues related to the pandemic of HIV/Aids with focused prayer and action.
• To meet the challenge of sharing the Gospel in effective ways with oral learners.
• To recognise, equip and release children to fulfil their vital role in the Church.
• To empower and release younger leaders.
• That we will indeed as the “Whole Church take the Whole Gospel to the Whole World!”

Please pray for:

• Doug Birdsall as he begins his new role as Executive Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation.
• For Ted Yamamori, International Director of LCWE, and the newly appointed International Deputy Directors. Pray for keen wisdom and clear direction form the Lord as they plan the way ahead.
• Lisa Tucker, Naomi Frizzell as they complete all the work still to be done as a result of the Forum.
• God’s continuing blessing on all those who worked so tirelessly for the Forum.
• That the Lord will bring together the key leaders and team members to plan the Conference for Young Leaders in 2006.

Issue Groups Prayer Requests

Praise God for all that was accomplished as the Issue Group participants prayed and worked together.

Please pray:

• For the completion of the final documents by the November 5 deadline.
• For David Claydon as he begins the mammoth task of editing all the submissions from the Issue Groups. Please pray for daily refreshing, renewed strength and great wisdom for him.
• For wisdom as the Issue Group Convenors and Facilitators plan the ongoing work of their groups.
• For a continuing sense of “setting their sails to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit” as they plan the strategies to implement the actions steps that have been identified by the Group.

IG7: Non-Traditional Families
Please pray for:

• Members of the group as they pick up their various ministries – deadlines for many are pressing.
• The ongoing work of the group.
• Writing and editing of the occasional paper.
• God's blessing on and protection of the families and households to which group members belong.

IG13: Prayer in Evangelism
Praise God for:

• His Presence among them as they worked together at the Forum.
• The commitment to work through difficult issues with grace, love and mutual respect for one another.
• The editing and collating work done by Col. Earl Robinson and his wife Benita. The final document is almost complete.
• Please pray for the ongoing work of this Issue Group through the Intercession Working Group as they seek to implement the action plans from the Forum.

IG26: Reaching and Mobilizing the Diaspora and International Students
Please pray for:

• A good copy editor to help with finalising their LOP. The person who had agreed to help with the task has been taken ill and will not be able to help for the next few months. Please pray for him (David Porter) to be healed and for someone to be found at this short notice to take on this crucial task of helping produce the LOP.

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:1