Such a turn in Lausanne is not the fruit of “integral mission” but the fruit of imagining the gospel as the disembodied disbursement of data. As a student of Lausanne’s history, I had expected a vision for the future of Christian evangelical mission at Seoul—a vision of the church reforming its attitude toward the great task at hand with humility, engagement with the different perspectives represented, collaboration based on mutual learning, and utter dependence on the Spirit.
What I experienced instead was a fixation on corporate and digital strategies. Also, missing were the hallmarks of Korean spirituality, like extended time of prayer, lament, and waiting on the Spirit. As Padilla remarked five decades ago, “Changed lives and quality of community—that is, faithfulness to the gospel in practical life—do not come through technology, but through the Word and the Spirit of God.” In other words, “Technology will never make up for our failure to let the Gospel mold our lives!”
This is what is missed in what I think is a misdiagnosis by Stetzer and others. Without the integration of proclamation and social action, the missional and gospel imagination lacks an emphasis on embodiment, spirituality, and ethics. To emphasize one over the other is to break the organic link between the two. The underemphasis on proclamation at the congress was not because social action had triumphed, but because the “how” had overshadowed the “what” and “why.”
If there is anything to be gleaned from the global church, it is conformity to the life of Christ and dependance on the Spirit that drives mission. Strategies and models have their place but it is the face of the other in pain and suffering that invites the proclamation of the gospel of hope and the promise of the resurrection (Luke 4:18-19), and it is the love of Christ that compels compassion and service to the last, the least, and the lost (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). Let me end with Padilla’s concluding words, which might have served as a beneficial reminder at the congress’s closing:
My own hope and prayer is that we go away with a repentant attitude with regard to our enslavement to the world and our arrogant triumphalism, with a sense of our helplessness to break away from our bonds, and yet also with a great confidence in God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who “by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.”
An update has been made to this article to correct an omission and provide more context to one of the quotes. The originally omitted word, while not altering the overall meaning of the quote, does contribute to its tone and the clarity of the author’s intent. The change has been made to ensure accuracy and preserve the intended nuance of the text.
