Eighth International Conference on Jewish Evangelism: Consultation Statement

The Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism (LCJE) met for its 8th International Conference by Lake Balaton, Hungary, from 19 – 24 August 2007. The conference provided a platform for the unique network of organizations and individuals to gather information, coordinate strategies, consider trends, and stimulate theological thinking and missiological research in the cause of advancing Jewish evangelism.The theme of this quadrennial conference was “Jewish Evangelism–Telling the Story.” Doug Birdsall, Executive Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, spoke in support of Jewish evangelism saying, “The story of Jesus Christ is a message to be shared with the whole world, but especially with the Jewish people, as it is the fullest expression of God’s love relationship with His people.”

Consultation participants saw themselves in an historical context. In 1927 an international conference on Jewish evangelism was held in Budapest.  Eighty years later LCJE participants met in Hungary and faced some of the same issues reported by their predecessors. The 1927 conference report spoke about Jesus’ love for His own people and the conferees’ dedication to tell Jewish people the good news. Eighty years later, the LCJE network shares that same commitment to Jewish evangelism.

Therefore, the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism calls on the whole Church to join in presenting the whole gospel of Messiah Jesus to the Jewish people worldwide.

We affirm the good news of Jesus is the only hope for the salvation of the Jewish people. If Jesus is not the Messiah for the Jewish people, then neither is He Christ for the nations.  Either Jesus is the Messiah for all, or He is not the Messiah at all.

We rejoice over the reports that Jewish people are coming to faith in Jesus and that the number of Messianic congregations is growing.

We assert that the worst possible Christian injustice to the Jewish people would be to deny them a hearing of the gospel, which is their only hope of salvation.

We encourage evangelism to all the children of Abraham according to the flesh and pray for efforts toward reconciliation between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews in Christ.

We denounce contemporary expressions of anti-Semitism and prejudice against the State of Israel and urge the whole Church to join us in speaking against such sentiments, recognizing that they hinder Jewish people from hearing the gospel of Christ’s love.

We commend the LCWE publication Jewish Evangelism–A Call to the Church (Lausanne Occasional Paper #60, 2004) to increase understanding regarding Jewish evangelism.

We challenge ourselves to minister with openness to God’s call and a willingness to collaborate in new approaches for communicating Jesus’ message in a post modern world.

We call on the whole Church to support and actively partner in creative, thoughtful ways to share the whole gospel with the Jewish people.