EGN NEWS DESK
“The Great Commission is everybody’s accountability,” Dr Michael Oh instructed 1000’s of Christians on the finish of the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Incheon, South Korea, on Saturday.
Speaking throughout the closing ceremony of Lausanne 4, Dr Oh warned towards dismissing the Great Commission as “not my enterprise”, and mentioned that it have to be seen because the Church’s “collective accountability” and “everybody’s enterprise”.
“The Great Commission is everybody’s accountability. The combination results of Christians doing their very own factor in their very own place – even faithfully – has left us with the trajectory that, yr after yr, there are extra folks on this planet who’ve by no means heard the Gospel than the yr earlier than,” he mentioned.
In his closing keynote handle of the congress on Saturday, Dr Oh mentioned that “something wanting a large realignment of Christian presence and coordination and intentionality” would end in billions of individuals by no means listening to the Gospel.
He mentioned he needed to see extra Christians getting into totally different spheres of society to achieve folks with the Gospel.
“With 3.4 billion individuals who reside amongst 7,400 unreached folks teams on this planet and can probably by no means hear the Good News of Jesus earlier than they die; with 86 per cent of all of the world’s Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus not figuring out a single Christian … this isn’t simply the accountability of missionaries and ministers, however of artists, engineers, college students, professors, CFOs, CEOs and extra,” he mentioned.
He continued, “May none of us discover consolation in imagining ourselves standing earlier than God someday and giving excuses for our lack of intentionality and collective accountability by pleading ignorance and saying, sorry, I did not know.”
Collaborative motion has been careworn all through Lausanne 4. On the ultimate day, individuals had been requested to signal a ‘Collaborative Action Commitment’ to encourage them to proceed in search of methods to work collectively past the congress in sharing the Gospel.
Dr Oh mentioned that no Christian might say they didn’t want one another. “What affect and higher effectiveness would possibly there be if the ministry of all God’s folks had been to [be] much less just like the Christian model of ‘do random acts of kindness’ and extra like a coordinated and wholesome physique of Jesus Christ?” he mentioned.
Also talking on the ultimate day of the congress was American pastor and bestselling creator Rick Warren, who instructed youthful individuals beneath the age of 40, “You have the potential to complete the duty and full the Great Commission.”
However, “to make it to the end line,” he mentioned that they wanted 4 issues: “mentors, fashions, companions and buddies.”
Asking these over the age of 40 to face up, he instructed youthful individuals, “These are the folks you ought to be studying from. You can be taught from anyone if you realize the fitting questions. All leaders are learners. These folks have already been in ministry for years to allow them to educate you issues that you do not know.”
He added, “Now, my prayer for each of those teams is that you’ll end properly.”
Lausanne 4 introduced collectively over 5,000 Christians from over 200 international locations to South Korea for per week of collaborating and strategising for world mission.
Discussions had been alleged to be underpinned by the Seoul Statement, a 20-page doc supposed to enrich and construct upon earlier Lausanne theological statements. However, publishing the Seoul Statement previous to the congress proved controversial and created confusion and frustration amongst many individuals who had anticipated to deliberate over it throughout the gathering to be able to present suggestions earlier than its launch.
The power of feeling led Lausanne leaders to open a suggestions mechanism for congress individuals to share their reflections on the Seoul Statement’s content material.
Lausanne spokesperson Michael du Toit acknowledged the confusion in an e-mail to individuals inviting their responses to the Seoul Statement: “We recognise that in introducing the Seoul Statement, we must always have been clearer in explaining its objective and the best way by which individuals are invited to interact with it.”
The suggestions can be thought-about within the coming weeks by the Theology Working Group, who along with Lausanne senior leaders will decide any subsequent steps to be taken.
The Seoul Statement was not the one controversy on the congress after some individuals had been upset by feedback from visitor speaker Ruth Padilla DeBorst criticising Israel and dispensational eschatology.
The feedback throughout her Monday evening presentation on justice prompted an apology by congress director David Bennett.
Others had been angered by the apology. Valdir Steuernagel, a Brazilian theologian and senior government adviser to the Lausanne Movement, mentioned it was “problematic” that Lausanne had “distanced itself from one of the vital impactful shows of the occasion.”
Addressing the controversy on Friday, Chris Wright, who serves on Lausanne’s board of administrators, instructed reporters that the motion “does not declare to be the voice of the entire Christian neighborhood”, and prompt that members should discover a solution to reside with their variations that doesn’t search to “pin blame or give you straightforward options”.
“What was mentioned on Monday evening was certain to be hurtful for some, and the apology on her behalf hurtful for others. It’s very laborious to easily say that one facet’s proper or the opposite facet’s mistaken,” he mentioned.
Lausanne 4 was held over seven days on the Songdo Convensia in Incheon, simply outdoors the Korean capital of Seoul. Sessions explored key matters regarding world mission, together with management, intergenerational discipleship, city mission, sexuality, religion within the office, justice, local weather change, and persecution.
The congress coincided with the Lausanne Movement’s fiftieth anniversary, marking half a century since Billy Graham, John Stott and different evangelical leaders got here collectively in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974 to discovered the mission-focused motion.
In his keynote handle throughout the anniversary celebrations on Wednesday, Dr Oh mentioned it was crucial that the Church interact digitally with the world or else “lose the longer term”.
Lausanne 4 was held across the theme of ‘Let the Church Declare and Display Christ Together’. It was supported by lots of of Korean church buildings and 1000’s of particular person Korean Christians who signed as much as pray for the occasion all through the week, though a couple of native Christians protested outdoors the gathering, claiming that Lausanne was failing to talk out towards homosexuality. A Lausanne spokesperson mentioned that the motion had determined to not interact with the protesters.
