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Welcome to Mission Hits: Lausanne Congress Special!
This is not your normal Mission Hits! A normal edition of that will come in in the coming days. My original intention was to scatter some resources about the Fourth Lausanne Congress amongst that edition, but it quickly became clear that so much had been written, from so many different perspectives, about so many different topics, that a different approach was required.
So please find below a one-off Mission Hits special on the Fourth Lausanne Congress in Seoul last month. You’ll find here twenty-five different articles, essays & posts (listed in no particular order) about what happened at that event and what it means for 21st century mission.
I decided to limit this list to 25 articles which means some good resources didn’t get featured here. Apologies, but I simply had to draw the line somewhere. Apologies too if I haven’t even seen your own/your favourite article. I keep my eyes on as much as I can, but there’s ALWAYS more (!) The authors featured below are written by people from Sri Lanka, USA, Latin America, India, UK, Spain, Kenya, China and more. However missions blogging is weighted towards American male authors, so this list inevitably is too. Obviously being in English limits the breadth of potential resources to feature.
If you want to hear my own reflections on the event, then I recorded a podcast episode with Eric Ortlund for Oak Hill’s ‘Deep Roots’ Podcast. You can watch or listen to that 30-min conversation.
Don’t forget to engage too with the primary resources from the Lausanne Movement itself, not just these secondary ones below. For example the all-important Seoul Statement, The State of the Great Commission report, and some of the Congress sessions themselves which have now been made available to watch.
Look out for a normal Mission Hits (edition #61) coming soon,
Blessings all,
Chris (Howles)
Director of Cross-Cultural Training, Oak Hill College (UK)
Doctorate in Intercultural Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary (US)
p.s. Do you know anyone who went to Lausanne IV, or who wants to understand more what happened there? Do send this to them! They can sign up to receive Mission Hits each month here
Asbury president Timothy Tennant summarises his feelings at the end of a busy week: It is difficult to describe in words the breathtaking beauty of a Lausanne gathering with 5,200 people gathered in a single room with delegates from nearly every country on earth worshipping in joy and harmony.”
British church network leader Jon Stevens with some humble, helpful thoughts from a UK persepctive: “It was hugely encouraging to hear story after story of gospel growth from around the world. This is so different from our experience of decline or slow, steady growth at best. Have we perhaps lost confidence in the gospel and in God? A mindset of inevitable decline besets the West at the moment, and this easily affects the church.”
Kenyan (ministering in the US) pastor Christian Mungai challenges us to learn from other perspectives, not double-down: “The Korean church’s hospitality was extravagant and humbling. I saw the Korean church come together to bless and serve the world in a very beautiful way. We applaud the brothers and sisters who showed us what high honor and service is.”
Asian-American missiologist Allen Yeh, VP of Academic Affairs at International Theological Seminary, on the theology, unity, and strategy of Lausanne IV (or Church being vertical, horizontal inward, and horizontal outward respectively). “All I know is, Lausanne is keeping the Gospel holistic and for that I am grateful. I think John Stott would be pleased”
Spanish parachurch leader Estefany Sánchez Blake on Lausanne and its application to Spain and ‘post-Christian’ Europe: “I have come to the conclusion that the church as a body has a lot of work ahead of it and that the importance of collaboration between different denominations, ministries, leaders and individuals plays a key role in the advancement of the Kingdom”
Enjoyed this from US missiologist Darren Carlson writing for Evangelical Focus: “Engaging meaningfully requires us to be flexible—and for others to be flexible with us. We must listen, and in doing so, we might realize our deeply held convictions have some blind spots.”
Associate Director of the Global Diaspora Institute at Wheaton College Andrew Lee writing for the ChinaSource blog: “For the first 100 years of Christianity in China, missionaries came to China. The second 100 years saw the advance of the gospel in China. In the third 100 years, a major goal is to send out an overseas missionary force.”
Lecturer at Colombo Theological Seminary Nathanael Somanathan arguing for a higher priority of integral mission: “While the diminishing of proclamation in Christian mission can be a sign of complacency, compromise, and/or cowardice, the gospel message cannot be neatly separated from the medium.”
US missiologist Ed Stetzer, writing during the congress, calling for a stronger focus on evangelism: “We are concerned about evangelistic mission drift, and clarifying our commitment to evangelism would…ensure that our commitment is clear for the next generation.”
US pastor Derwin Gray: “As I left the congress, I felt a deep sense of hope. Yes, the challenges facing the global church are great, but our God is greater…The congress was a powerful reminder that the gospel is not just good news for the individual but good news for the world.”
MissioNexus President Ted Esler on the ongoing Lausanne prioritism/holism debate: “Lausanne 2024, whether it was on purpose or simply happened because they sought to platform so many different voices, was a John Stott conference.”
Australian Chinese theologian Xiaoli Yang on the significance of spiritual intimacy in mission: “If mission is the key drive of the Chinese church movement as said by one of the speakers, then intimacy with God needs to be placed as the first and foremost priority in the participation of God’s mission. Mission activities ought to be an overflow of the intimate relationship with the Triune God”
Chief Innovation Officer at SIL International Jon Hirst with a series of 4 posts reflecting on not only the content but also the ‘dynamics’ of Lausanne: “the push of the congress strived to create a global, managed and orchestrated approach to action, while the pull of the congress sought to identify much more local and relational opportunities for action that responded to needs that were already part of their lived experience.”
Indian intercultural Studies scholar Allan Varghese Meloottu on the distance travelled, and still left to travel, toward mutuality in global Christianity: “there was the togetherness of the Global North and South, but they point towards a much-needed mutual learning process to be effective in our growing globalized and transnational world. “
US theologian Trevin Wax writing for the Gospel Coalition: “The Fourth Lausanne Congress reminded me that no matter how crazy the world seems right now, the church is going to be fine.”
Chinese-Latino American historian Robert Chao Romero with some very hard-hitting critique: “It’s a familiar feeling. Being wanted for our Brown skin, but dismissed for sharing our perspectives which flow from living and journeying with Jesus in the same Brown skin.”
Spanish pastor Timo Anzalone with some highlights and reflections: “It was truly a privilege to be among more than 5,300 Great Commission leaders and advocates, and to serve with the Congress team. A reminder that we are but a very small part of the larger story that God is writing.”
Former President of Reformed Theological Seminary Don Sweeting summarises his L4 encouragements e.g. “All who attended got an exposure to the vibrancy of Asian Christianity and specifically the Korean Church. What a blessing this was.”
British missiologist Mark Pickett reflects on a number of Lausanne topics, including the danger of the cult of celebrity, which he describes as “an insidious intruder: like carbon monoxide it can enter the evangelical bloodstream and slowly but unconsciously poison us to death.”
Missional Information Worker Lara Heneveld reflects on how missions information functioned at Lausanne IV: “As participants return to their respective countries, they carry with them a renewed commitment to the Great Commission and a vision for collaborative action in advancing the gospel worldwide.”
US missions practioner Dave Defries on the place of the unreached at Lausanne IV: “The lack of a compelling and persistent call to the unevangelized and the unreached at this Congress left me deeply saddened.”
Don Sweeting again, this time with an introduction and summary of the remarkable State of the Great Commission report. “Simply put, this is an extraordinary, impressive, comprehensive new source on global Christianity. In my opinion, it ranks in significance with other resources such as the World Christian Encyclopedia and Operation World.”
Don Sweeting again, this time on the Seoul Statement that came from Lausanne: “Overall, I see it as is a strong, supplemental statement that helpfully addresses seven key gap areas. But I’ll also highlight a few “gaps” within this new statement.”
US missiologist Tyler Prieb with some thoughts on what L4 reveals about 21st mission: “Polycentrism implies a lack of a geographic or institutional center, but we have to be careful that it doesn’t lose a conceptual center”
OK I’m cheating here – this link isn’t just one article, but loads more! As if all the above wasn’t enough, there’s about 20 or more further reflections that have been published on Ed Stetzer’s ‘Church Leaders’ website over the past month.
Full searchable archives of all Mission Hits resources from edition #1
Questions, comments, or suggestions for the next edition?