| Lausanne Connecting Point - July 2006 |
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NO TRANSLATION AVAILABLE In This Issue:
Arts and Evangelism is the focus of July’s Lausanne World Pulse (LWP). Topics include:
Plus:
Articles or reports for possible use in LausanneWorldPulse.com may be sent to Dit e-mail adres is beschermd door spambots, u heeft Javascript nodig om dit onderdeel te kunnen bekijken . LWP is a partnership of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) and Wheaton College’s (Chicago, IL., USA) Institute of Strategic Evangelism, Evangelism and Mission Information Service (EMIS) and Intercultural Studies Department.
7th Chinese Congress on World Evangelization (CCOWE)
Theme The daily sub-themes: “Renewal of Life,” “Renewal of Society,” “Renewal of Culture,” and “Renewal of All Nations” will be examined from the perspectives of theology, missiology, church history, as well as other professional points of view. Program At the evening Mission Celebration, the message will be delivered mainly through sermon, but there will also be presentation of testimony that pertains to the main theme and daily sub-theme. For the first time in CCOWE’s history, there will be a parallel English Track, hoping to invite more English-speaking Chinese from all over the world to participate in the CCOWE Movement. While the morning Bible Study and evening Mission Celebration remain joint sessions, plenary and response sessions as well as workshops are separate meetings designed to meet the specific needs of ethnic Chinese of different continents. Workshop topics include, “Appreciating Our Chinese Roots,” “Effective Leadership: Communication Links between the 3 Lines of Leadership in a Chinese Church,” “Inter-Generational Leaders Conflict Resolution,” “Vital Sign: Building Healthy Church in a Post-Modern World,” etc. For Your Intercession More than 600 volunteers will serve in the areas of operation and logistics, please pray for efficient work flow and close collaboration in His love. A Macau Evangelistic Rally will be held immediately after the congress, please pray for a spirit of unity to be released among different denominations of Macau and also pray that the gospel could reach and touch many lives in Macau. With the introduction of the first ever English Track at CCOWE, please pray that the 7th CCOWE will mark a new page in the history of worldwide English-speaking ethnic Chinese ministry. After Rev. John Kao, the General Secretary of CCOWE, has been referred to a new medical team, he is currently treated by dialysis in Toronto. Please pray that Rev. Kao will respond to this treatment and he’ll be able to regain strength needed for making the long trip from Canada to Macau. For the overall budget of the 7th CCOWE, we’re still in great need. Please pray that God will move more people to support the congress by prayer as well as generous offerings. Other than being one of the hottest months in Macau, July is also a month, in which tropical cyclones occur frequently which make the highest records of precipitation and temperature. Please pray for a suitable weather during the congress period and also pray that all participants will be able to adjust to the subtropical climate. By Dr. David S. Lim, Chair, Preparation Committee and National Coordinator, Lausanne Philippines 150 church leaders representing 19 countries of Asia met from 22-26 May 22 for the Sixth Asia Lausanne Congress on Evangelism (ALCOE VI) sponsored by the Asia Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (ALCOWE) at the Caliraya Recreational Center, Laguna, Philippines and together sought “A New Heart for the Evangelization of Asia.” Welcoming us to the Philippines, Bishop Efraim Tendero directed our attention to Acts 5: 27-32. He spelled out three reasons why we should get involved in evangelism:
Dr Jong Yun Lee, Chairman of ALCOWE, in his keynote address, spoke of the total identity crisis faced in Asia and called us to open our spiritual eyes and to hear what God is saying. He said the church must recover joy, maintain sanctification, proclaim the truth and fulfill the missionary task entrusted to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We were reminded of the Lausanne Movement and how Christians of widely different backgrounds and persuasions have been able to accept the Lausanne Covenant as the basis of cooperation. Taking the missionary ministry of the triune God as the starting point and Jesus as the model of ministry, the Covenant affirms a holistic Gospel where evangelism and social responsibility cannot be dichotomized while strongly maintaining the primacy of evangelism. The Lausanne Movement was looking ahead to greater things that God had in store for the Church as it purposed to declare the whole Gospel to the whole world in word and deed and in the power of the Holy Spirit. We were reminded of Abraham and his obedience to God’s call. We were reminded of the Old Testament prophets who called God’s people to fulfill His universal purpose for the redemption of the nations through building communities of love, peace and justice in obedience to the Great Commandment. We were reminded of Jesus and his commission to the church to go into all the world in his authority and with his presence to proclaim the whole Gospel. We were reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul that the Lord who had started the good work would faithfully continue to empower us till the work was fully completed. We worshipped God together, prayed for one another, committed ourselves to praying for the suffering church in North Korea, we heard reports of signs of God’s work amongst people of some unreached people’s groups and strengthened to continue in the task of proclaiming the Gospel. Standing with Christians all over the world joined together by our Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit of the Lausanne Movement characterized by humility, prayer, study and partnership:
The IFES consists of student Christian movements in approximately 150 countries. After an extensive assessment of candidates, the IEC undertook a prayerful and thorough process to select a new General Secretary at the June 2006 IEC meeting in India. Over a period of three days, which included candidate interviews and presentations, the IEC focused on the priorities for the future of the Fellowship and the desired profile of the next General Secretary. There was constant prayer for wisdom and God’s guidance in evaluating the candidates. At the completion of this process, and after prayerful consideration, the IEC warmly endorsed Daniel to serve as the next General Secretary. He will begin his term in mid 2007 after confirmation by the IFES General Committee at World Assembly in Canada in July 2007.
Daniel studied in Chad, Cameroon, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire and France. He has a PhD from the University of Abidjan in animal ecology and is a member of the International Society of Myriapodologists – in other words he is a specialist in millipedes. He has served IFES in Francophone Africa since 1990, firstly as traveling secretary in West Africa, then as Literature Secretary and since 1995 he has been the Regional Secretary, responsible to oversee IFES ministry throughout the region which encompasses 20 French-speaking countries. Daniel has served on the boards of a number of Christian organizations in Africa. Over the past few years he has led a number of significant training initiatives including the “Forum de Théologie pour l’Eglise” designed to bring theological academics and local churches together, the “Centre Africain du Christianisme Contemporain” – an IFES Leadership Training Centre for Francophone Africa, and the “Tyranus” biblical preaching initiative. By Paul Van Der Werf, co-founder and Director of Operations of SVM2 and director of the Year of the Haystack initiative Twice in the last couple hundred years, God has used a Haystack to change the world . . . Haystack 1.0: The Haystack Prayer Meeting (1806) That self dedication gave birth to the first student mission society, and within five years, through the influence of these and other students, the first mission sending organization was founded, with seven student volunteers sailing to India in 1812. Over the next several years, numerous mission societies were founded on campuses, and more missionaries were sent out through new sending boards. Kenneth Scott Latourette, one of the foremost historians on Christian movements, notes, “It was from this haystack meeting that the foreign missionary movement of the churches in the United States had an initial main impulse.” Haystack 2.0: The Student Volunteer Movement (1886) Luther desired to go onto the mission field, but became convinced that he could be used even more to stay and raise missions awareness and send many more in his place. He organized the Mt. Hermon mission conference in 1886, at which 100 students volunteered their lives for missionary service, sparking the Student Volunteer Movement, the largest mission movement ever. Over the next generation, students on every campus in the US committed themselves to the “evangelization of the world in this generation.” Over 20,000 of them sailed to the foreign mission field, and over 80,000 others had personally committed themselves to prayer and to financially support those being sent out. Haystack 3.0: A Movement Today? (2006): The answer: Of course. Each generation of believers has a choice. Will it choose to surrender itself and follow in faith seeking to see God’s global purpose realized in their generation? Or will they choose to live their lives for too small a thing? Each time that God has used the Haystack to spark a mission movement in a generation, it was through the dedication of just a handful of students that committed themselves to prayer for a widespread movement in their generation, and then actively did what they could do to influence their peers and their campuses to get personally involved in God’s desire to bring the gospel to the least reached. Today’s students are longing for something more. They know that the material things and the purposes that the previous generations have settled for weren’t enough. Will students today commit themselves to prayer and personal involvement in what God’s doing globally? If so, we could very well see “Haystack reloaded.” And given today’s global church, and the amazing technology and connectedness that exists today, we very well could see the ‘evangelization of the world in our generation. Do you believe it? Will you pray for it? Will you leverage your life - your prayers, your time and your priorities - to see it happen? If so, pray this prayer now, and let’s keep praying it together. Lord, I am willing to go any where, at anytime to do anything for you. Amen. Upcoming Haystack Prayer Summit
The WEA Theological Commission's (TC) planning for its 2006 annual meeting at Nairobi, Kenya, continues to develop. The program will include a mini-consultation on the topic, “Theological Reflection on Religious Fundamentalism as a Global Issue” for which ideas and contributions are welcome. There will also be networking sessions with local theologians and church leaders on matters of local interest, as well as the TC's planning and strategy meeting. The event will be held 19-24 September at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. Participants will include TC Commissioners drawn from around the world and for the first time, those who are participating in the new expanded membership scheme announced in January 2006. They include Affiliates (TCs affiliated with national Evangelical Fellowships/Alliances), Affiliates (seminaries and other institutions) and Associates (personal membership). Applications are continuously open for these categories and enquiries are welcomed. Local theologians are also invited to participate. Another part of the program will be a workshop on “Poverty and HIV/AIDS.” A small group of local church leaders and theological educators will participate in the workshop to be held at the start of the TC session and in parallel with part of it. It will attempt to understand the complex socio-economic processes at work in African societies, together with a conceptualization of poverty and development. The TC will contribute to this process with biblical theological thinking and spell out some practical guidelines for action. Organizer, Vice-Chair of the TC, Dr Ken Gnanakan, who is in conversation with World Vision to jointly conduct the workshop, said, “It is recognized that one of the major issues facing people in Africa is HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS estimates in Sub- Saharan Africa for 2005 were 5.8 million (out of 40 million worldwide) living with HIV, 3.2 million (out of 4.9 million worldwide) new HIV infections, 2.4 million (out of 3.1 million worldwide) AIDS deaths.” Dr Gnanakan added, “It is critical for the church to explore the relationship between poverty and HIV/AIDS, through an understanding of the processes by which the experience of HIV and AIDS in households and communities leads to an intensification of poverty. Findings from the workshop will be of great value to the Christian community.” by Liz Adleta, Co-chairperson of Ethnê Prayer Workgroup with Mark Kim, Grace Gesto and Tety Irwan
Ethnê’s Volume 1 DVD is already available by request through numerous distributors in every one of the twelve global regions. Volume 1 contains the first six testimony stories, one for each of the first six regions. These stories detail the experiences of individuals formerly of least-reached people groups who have come to meet and follow Jesus and now are reaching others. In addition to these six video stories, you will find many coordinating resources such as bulletin inserts, prayer bookmarks, a brochure on the HeLPS initiative, and much more. Volume 2 is in process and is expected to be released by September 2006; it will contain the last six testimony stories for the regions from East and South Africa through North America/Caribbean. Global Prayer Digest is partnering to provide coordinating daily prayer items month by month as well (www.global-prayer-digest.com). Joshua Project is also partnering to provide detailed people group profiles and extensive information in their excellent database. Lausanne World Pulse is also including the special prayer focus in its monthly emphasis on unreached people groups. Ethnê has made great efforts to produce these tools in as many languages as possible so that the entire Body of Christ can participate together. If there are tools you wish to see in other languages, permission is given to translate, with the request that the translation be sent to us to share with others through the DVD and website (www.ethne.net). All the Ethnê resources are available at this website except for the videos which are only available on the DVD. The DVD also contains all the related resources in a special data section. For more information on how to obtain the DVD see www.ethne.net/DVD/Distributors or email Dit e-mail adres is beschermd door spambots, u heeft Javascript nodig om dit onderdeel te kunnen bekijken . By Durk Meijer, Associate Director International Orality Network
We are offering two unique, overlapping conferences to address distinct aspects of the oral Bible movement. "Making Disciples of Primary Oral Learners" (14-16 November) will focus on those who work with the unreached people groups. The conference will run from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday night and will include speakers and sessions that address the needs of primary oral learners, those who rely totally on oral communication methods. "The Inside Story: Radically Improving Your Ministry Skills" (15-17 November) will focus on those who work with the literate who "choose" to communicate by oral means even though they can read and write -- often referred to as "secondary Both conferences will be held at Wyndam hotel in Colorado Springs. The Primary Oral learners event begins Tuesday and ends Thursday. The Secondary Oral event starts Wednesday and ends Friday. The cost of each is $275. We will have a joint session on Wednesday evening, but the rest of the conferences will be separate. You must choose to attend one or the other. You cannot attend both in their entirety. We do offer an option that allows you to add on the extra from the other conference before or after for an additional charge. Both conference fees include most meals and snacks. Lodging is extra and is offered at a discounted rate. Please go to http://www.ion2006.org for more information. By Glenda Weldon, Chair, Intercession Working Group, LCWE “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 6:2. As we read Paul’s words to the followers of Jesus in Corinth, we are impacted by his deep love and passion for the God and for those who had not heard and responded to the Gospel. We also catch the profound sense of the urgency that motivated his life and ministry. May that same love, passion and urgency continue to stir our hearts as we work together to see “the whole church bring the whole Gospel to the whole world!” LCWE Administration Committee
Younger Leaders Gathering
East Africa – Uganda
Oceania
The Church and New Spirituality Consultation
IG Bioethics:
Intercession Working Group Please pray for Sarah Plummer as she prepares to take over the role of Chair of the Intercession Working Group (IWG) later this year and for Dr John Abraham Godson who will be working with her as Vice Chair of the IWG. The Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering 2006
Scripture: “… open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:3
Scripture: “… stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.” Phil. 1:27 Scripture: “… with integrity of heart and skillful hands he led them.” Ps. 78:72
Scripture: “. . . I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple . . . Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me’”’ Isaiah 6:1-9
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CCOWE will be held 17–21 July in Macau, China. Macau is a small city where Rev. Robert Morrison first brought the gospel to the Chinese people 200 years ago.
The International Executive Committee (IEC) of the 
Daniel (46) was born in Chad. He is married to Halimatou who comes originally from Niger. They currently live in Côte d’Ivoire. They have four children, including one adopted Togolese daughter and three children who were born in Côte d’Ivoire.
In 1806, five students gather in a field on the outskirts of their Williams College campus for their weekly prayer meeting. Caught in a thunderstorm, the five found shelter under a large Haystack, and continued their prayers. Samuel Mills, a freshmen and their leader, directed the discussion and prayer toward their own missionary obligation. The students specifically discussed the needs in Asia, with one of them suggesting that it was too dangerous, and that they should wait to go until Asia was safe and “civilized.” They decided to commit the matter to prayer, and “willed that God should have their lives for service, wherever he needed them.” Seeing their own responsibility to reach their world and believing that the choice of what they would do with the great commission was in their hands, Samuel Mills catalyzed their faith and their prayers exclaiming “We can do this if we will.”
About eighty years after the Haystack prayer meeting, a young man in his twenties, Luther Wishard, learned of the story of these five men. Having just been appointed a leader within the then young YMCA organization, his role was to lead students in their Christian commitment. Luther visited the Haystack prayer monument (which had been erected in the exact spot where the five had prayed some sixty years after the meeting) and immediately recognized that what had happened among the students under the haystack was again happening in his generation: “What they had done was ours to complete.” Kneeling in the snow by the monument, Wishard pleaded with God to do it again, praying “Where water once flowed, may it flow again.” Then, recognizing that his personal whole-hearted surrender to Christ must be the first step, Wishard committed the whole of his life praying “I am willing to go anywhere at any time to do anything for Jesus.”
Ethnê, the movement focusing on the remaining 6,900 least-reached people groups around the world, is producing a two-volume video and resource DVD to facilitate its Harvest-Linked Prayer Strategy initiative (HeLPS). The HeLPS initiative focuses prayer on these least reached people groups in each of 12 regions moving from east to west beginning with South Pacific in June 2006 through to North America/Caribbean for May 2007. At the same time, outreaches to these groups are encouraged during the month of prayer as well as for the two months following, believing God will pour out a spiritual harvest among these groups in response to this global prayer.
Making Disciples of Oral Learners will be held 14-16 November 2006 (
