As thousands of Christians from more than 200 nations have gathered in Seoul, Korea, for the fourth global Lausanne Congress, we anticipated the theological statement the committee would release. The first Lausanne gathering in 1974 released The Lausanne Covenant; the second in Manila, Philippines, in 1989 released The Manila Manifesto; and the third in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2010 released The Cape Town Commitment. The Seoul Statement was released over the weekend, and I’m grateful for how it addresses critical issues facing the church in the 21st century.
The Seoul Statement outlines seven key themes for the global, evangelical church: a biblical theology of the gospel, a strong view of Scripture, a robust doctrine of the church, a vision for humanity and biblical sexuality, discipleship, global conflict, and technology. Let me reiterate that I am grateful for how the Seoul Statement addresses these themes. That said, I have a concern, one that quite a few others have echoed through the congress.
This concern is one I shared before the congress in my four part series you can read (or watch) here. At that time, the statement was not out.
Now that I have read the statement (when it was emailed to the congress on Sunday night), I will share that I believe that the Seoul Statement needs a greater call to prioritize evangelism.
Lausanne: The Need to Prioritize Evangelism
As I shared on social media, “I’m thankful for holistic mission and how evangelicals are embracing it—displaying the good news by caring for the marginalized. We need MORE, not less, “displaying.”
Yet, in a time of aggressive religious pluralism (when evangelism receives such significant pushback), evangelism (“declaring”) needs greater focus, particularly in a time of evangelistic decline.
I also pointed out, “The full name of the Lausanne Movement is the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization. A stronger statement on the priority of evangelism would help the Seoul Statement. These statements will influence a generation, far more than the congress itself, so let’s make it stronger and not leave #L4Congress without the world knowing that we know mission drift happens—and is already happening in many places in evangelicalism. Let’s help an entire generation know that we are deeply committed to holding evangelism central to the mission.”
I am appealing to the Lausanne leadership to state our evangelistic priority more clearly in The Seoul Statement. Specifically, I think we could add a “friendly edit” to paragraph 45. This paragraph helps The Seoul Statement define Article III: The Church: The People of God We Love and Build Up, under the final section, “The mission of the church is to make disciples of Christ.”
Paragraph 45 outlines a priority on gospel proclamation:
The Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Therefore, the faithful proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ is essential to the witness of the church, and for this task, the Lord has poured out the Holy Spirit to empower the members of the church for evangelism. By his Word and through his Spirit, the church displays God’s saving power of the gospel and sends heralds to declare his gospel where Christ is not known. Through daily witness at home and at work, God continues to gather to himself people from every tribe and tongue, saving them through the atoning blood of Jesus and joining them as members of the body of Christ. (Rom 10:17).
I think we could make this paragraph a bit longer and more specific, by adding something like the following language:
We embrace holistic mission, while also acknowledging the history of Christians in generations past, who, like us, wanted to declare and display Christ, yet saw their evangelistic focus diminish over time. We remain committed to keeping evangelism central and indispensable in our understanding of mission, and to making it a priority in our lives and ministries.
