Will you join The Lausanne Global Conversation?

The past 20 years have been like no other in history. Everything about the way we think and live has changed.

The under-25s entered education when the concept of Truth had already become historical, even quaint. And the last quarter century has, as a result, proved fertile ground for amoral pragmatism, which, not surprisingly, gained easy acceptance in many areas of life. The church needs leaders who can discern the times, leaders like the men of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12.32).

This abandonment of Truth has come at an unusual point in history. 20 years ago we could barely have imagined the digital age as we now know it. Added to the changes it has brought, we have also seen advancement in biotechnology and new nanoscale possibilities. Together, these three open the door to anything fallen man can desire; for all is now within our reach. The warning, ‘You shall be as gods’ (Genesis 3.5), suddenly starts to make more sense. The sin of Babel seems mild in comparison.

New questions

New questions are emerging which are different from the older, familiar ones. And the older ones are also taking on new forms. Think, for example, of the issues surrounding the massive rise in people movements over the past 50 years, and of the trends in urbanisation, and of the penetration of other faiths. Christians need to talk, and global issues need global conversations.

Let’s talk

While there have been gatherings for discussion of major issues since the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), a very different kind of meeting is now being planned. The Lausanne Movement is extending an invitation to evangelicals everywhere to engage together with some of the most critical issues of our time bearing on world evangelisation. Please will you join us from October onwards?

We need to link arms and work together — to listen and to learn and to take counsel from one another. For the first time in history this is a real possibility, with internet access available, if not in homes then at least in universities and internet cafes almost everywhere. There will be countries where our brothers and sisters have limited access to the web because of political regimes. We are not forgetful of them.

The Lord gave gifts to his church to share and, through Lausanne, the Africans can share their joy and perseverance, the Indians their wisdom on living in a pluralistic context, the Persecuted Church their precious trust of what it means to share in Christ’s suffering, the converts from other faiths their insights into ways of reaching those whose faith they once shared, the West its scholarship (which we should remember was once found in North Africa), and so on around the world. In ways unimagined, we can share these gifts even across different languages, through automatic translation tools. Those translation tools are not perfect, but, with a commitment of all to the authority of Scripture and a willingness to listen and learn, we will manage to understand one another. The work you put into the global conversation will be richly rewarded.

Who will start?

The Lausanne Movement is working in partnership with publications around the world in providing the 12 key articles by leading theologians on issues facing the global church. Each article will be published in the same month by everyone, to spark the conversation globally. These articles each have four commissioned respondents from different parts of the world and will be accompanied online by video and photo essays, and responses from people like you.

How will it work?

Through blogs, discussion forums and other interactive tools like Twitter and Facebook, The Global Conversation will enable each person’s voice to be heard. As iron sharpens iron, and as there is wisdom in the counsel of many, we trust the Lord will use this discussion to spur us on not only to further dialogue but to strategy and action.

What will we talk about?

When conversations go viral, they take on a life of their own. The articles will spark other areas, as no issue can be kept in its own silo. The opening article is by Christopher Wright (see 'Whole gospel, whole church, whole world' in this issue), Old Testament scholar and President of Langham Partnership International (John Stott Ministries in the US). It looks at the stirring theme in The Lausanne Covenant of ‘the whole church’ taking ‘the whole gospel to the whole world’. To do this effectively, he argues, we must read ‘the whole Bible’, which evangelicals have often not done. The conversation will focus on the final command of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has never been rescinded: to bring his glorious gospel to all peoples and to every area of work and of society.

The next article will engage with the ‘prosperity gospel’ and future articles with such themes as the environment, the biotech century, urbanisation, and the new issues raised by massive people movements across the world.

Please think and pray about joining the conversation. Let it truly be ‘iron sharpening iron’. Get your church on board, and your Christian colleagues. What happens in the ether will, we trust, be a means of God’s blessing his church on earth.

To join the conversation online from October this year, go to http://www.lausanne.org/conversation

Julia Cameron,
Cape Town 2010 Director for External Relations