By utilizing the same methodology, let’s add some initial observations of the Seoul Statement into my previous research. Regarding the term “evangelism” and its cognates:
- 38 occurrences in the ‘74LC
- 46 occurrences in the ‘89MM
- 40 occurrences in the ‘10CTC
- 14 occurrences in the ‘24SS
Let’s add in the term “mission” just to be consistent:
- 18 occurrences in the ‘74LC
- 26 occurrences in the ‘89MM
- 138 occurrences in the ‘10CTC (shout out to Chris Wright, I see what you did here!)
- 32 occurrences in the ‘24SS
Back to the term “evangelism,” the simple math of the frequency of this term proves my first point of discontinuity of the Lausanne documents, which is a diminished emphasis on evangelism. We can use other words to say the same thing. For example, the Seoul Statement utilizes the phrase, “declare and display Christ together” to basically say what it has always been saying.
However, I want to share a word of warning that our language produces culture, and if our language gets rebranded too much then we may just be self-inflicting mission-drift regarding evangelism when we don’t mean to do that on purpose.
Is it truly the gospel if Christ is not proclaimed? Absolutely not. Is it truly declaring and displaying Christ together if we do not explicitly proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ? Absolutely not.
Everyone at Lausanne 4 knew this and knows this. I’m not crying “Ichabod!” yet about the Lausanne Movement and honestly I’m quite sad more people from my tribe didn’t participate in this. However, I do think it’s more important than ever in our chaotic world to be abundantly and extremely clear about Jesus.
Christ alone is our hope. Christ alone is our salvation. Christ alone is our answer. Christ alone is what we must continue to proclaim.
As a participant at Lausanne 4, I was simultaneously encouraged and discouraged regarding the emphasis on evangelism. I saw moments and felt moments emphasizing the priority of evangelism in the scope of Christian mission. While I do feel like an old-school missiologist in many ways, I don’t say “priority of evangelism” like I view holistic mission as unbiblical. That’s silly and ironically unbiblical for anyone who thinks mission is not holistic.
My moments of discouragement had more to do with observing people and presentations who have lost sight of the big picture. I agree there are growing nuances to our polycentric Christianity. I wholeheartedly affirm polycentric Christianity. I only want to keep being old-school in the sense that polycentric Christianity should never outpace Christ-centered Christianity, meaning we do all this collaboration for Christ. We need to be more redundant than ever, keeping the main thing the main thing.
Honestly, any future congress is doing their job if they continue to proclaim what has been proclaimed from the moment Jesus commissioned his first disciples after his resurrection. We are not ultimately inventors or innovators of something new. If we are innovators, inventors, or collaborators, we are only so because we aim to glorify God supremely through the proclamation of Christ through intentional evangelism. We must continue to gossip the good news of Jesus wherever we go.
I could easily say much more, but for the sake of the focus of this article I will end on this: I did come away especially encouraged by the exclusivity of Christ in all things and saw no areas of concern that past meetings may have experienced in greater forms. Jesus Christ as the only hope of the world was abundantly clear at Lausanne 4.
Thank you, Lausanne 4. You are Christ-centered. Let’s continue to be so by saying the same thing and by reminding future generations to keep saying the same thing. Let’s evangelize the world by proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ for the glory of God!
