So we’ll be gathering to celebrate what the Lord has being doing with and through us over the last three decades. We’ll have times of worship and testimony. We’ll hear reports from places as diverse as India, Cambodia, Niger and Spain. We’ll have interactive prayer times and some fun activities for the kids to join in with. We are hoping that Rowland Evans whose ministry with youth and students became World Horizons will speak to our gathering on Tuesday evening August 14th.

With Brazilians, French, American, African, Indonesian, Venezuelan and Germans, joining the local Welsh team members and the rest of the Brits we will be a very international celebration for and from the nations. We expect this time to add great impetus and energy to our ministry around the globe.

There are still places available for the celebration gathering so if you are interested in getting to know more about us please consider yourself invited. Contact the UK office for more details.

… from every nation, tribe, people and language… OK, maybe not absolutely every nation, tribe, people and language are here in Cape Town, but there are a whole bunch of them here, more than at any other Christian gathering in history. I suppose the Olympic games might get more variety, but not many other world events.

… standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb… Mmm, more like sitting around tables, or standing in the aisles, neatly arrayed in front of a couple of stages and some huge video screens. Wonder how we’ll see what’s going on in heaven? I mean, you wouldn’t want those at the back to miss out now, would you?

… They were wearing white robes… Well, I can’t say I have seen many white robes — one or two maybe, but it certainly doesn’t look like Mecca during the hajj. There is a good variety of ethnic attire though, not bad considering the dress code is officially “business casual”.

… and were holding palm branches in their hands… No, definitely no palm branches here. Plenty of cameras, iphones and other video devices being waved around though, particularly when the African dancers get going. I wonder how many gigabytes worth of storage space are used each day?

… And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb… That one’s not in our song books, but there are plenty of others. The musicians are just great, some real characters. I wonder who will lead worship in heaven?

Heaven. I hadn’t really appreciated how much this is a picture of heaven. It’s a funny feeling, but I doubt I will ever have the chance to worship with a group like this again until I do so “on that day”. Maybe this is what Jesus felt like when he drank that last cup of wine with his disciples, “until I drink it with you again in my Father’s kingdom”.

Just what will it be like then? I really don’t know. Probably nothing like this. But this is perhaps the closest I will get until then. What a thought. Roll on eternity.

It started with the video on Latin America which presented all the “Christian” options of the continent as valid expressions of our faith and failed to mention the growth of the evangelical church, which has ocurred through evangelization of those who, nominally at least, were Catholics. As the congress has continued, no mention has been made of work in such areas. The “unreached” are the Muslims, the Hindus and the Buddhists, perhaps even the atheists, but not those of other Christian traditions. Statistics speak more of the Christian population of the world as reached rather than the Bible-believing element, evangelicals, or however one would wish to label that part of the Church for whom faith is a personal and living element and not a mere cultural tradition or religious label.

What follows is part of the letter of concern which the Spanish delegation is bringing to the attention of the Lausanne leadership.

“We are concerned with the lack of sensitivity, even the apparent invisibility, of those of us who are working in the evangelization of nominal Christians. When reference is made to evangelizing those of other religious groups, Muslim, Hindus and Buddhists are alluded to, but there has not been one single reference to the evangelization of those parts of the world with a Roman Catholic or Orthodox background. Even though Latin America is one of the areas which has witnessed the greatest growth of the gospel in the twentieth century, the evangelization of this continent has been passed over, unnoticed for the majority of participants in the congress. The same is true of countries in Europe with a Catholic or Orthodox background.

“The audiovisual presentations from any area of the world seemed to be communicating that any form in which Christianity is expressed is a spiritual reality which does not need to be the object of any specific mission effort. We are concerned that we may be falling into the same tremendous error that was manifest in the Edinburgh 1910 congress when it was declared that Latin America and countries with a Catholic or Orthodox background were not mission fields.

“This produces highly damaging effects such as that of not generating prayer or workers towards these countries, as well as depriving the missions who are working amongst nominal Christians of finance, by focusing interest on any other part of the world and generating the conviction that these countries no longer need evangelizing.”

End of quote. Let’s be clear about this. “unreached peoples” or “unengaged people groups” are a vital focus of Christian mission. Building on an understanding of Matthew 24:14 and the identity of “nations” as individual culturally distinct ethnic groups, the remaining task is defined in terms of achievable “bite-sized” actions which can be taken up by the people of God. But that focus does not remove the need for the evangelization of each individual — unreached persons as well as unreached people — nor the need to focus on “underengaged” and “underreached” nations such as Spain, Greece, or most of southern Europe today, amongst others.

It seems, however, that the risk of offending the established churches is given more consideration than the need to highlight the needs of these nations. Or perhaps there are deeper theological convictions underlying this lack of focus, who knows. Whatever the reason, it leaves deep dissatisfaction amongst the Spanish delegation with regard to how the evangelization of their country is being presented. I trust it has no longer term effects.

Much of what has been shared has been informational, or inspirational — reviewing what God is doing around the world or outlining the challenges facing the church in terms of outward looking ministry — and needs prayerful reflexion and then outworking. Today’s challenge, however, is much closer to home, and thus perhaps of more immediate impact and relevance. Who we are as a church, and how we live out our Christian faith as communities of God’s people, is the foundation on which our witness can be built.

Building on themes that find their roots in the prophetic voice in Scripture against the idolatry of the nation of Israel, Christ Wright outlined three areas of constant struggle for the church today together with the response God seeks. Perhaps this is the best place to start if we want to look at anything in all the Lausanne materials in terms of our own response to the challenges laid before us.

The idolatry of power, and the call to humility

The abuse of power and status, with leaders wielding power and control over huge “flocks”, constitutes a denial of the servant leadership that Jesus defines for his body. It is rooted in a fallen nature that exalts status over submission to God and is tainted by the pride characteristic of Satan himself. The antidote is the conscious pursuit of humility as a key characteristic of those who want to be useful in building the kingdom of God, rather than their own empire.

The idolatry of success, and the call to integrity

Who are we trying to impress? We have all heard — and perhaps issued — “evangelastic” statistic. Are our reports of what we do exaggerated or even invented? Do we manipulate information in the hope of guaranteeing funding? Do we look for “quick fix” solutions rather than build deeply and strongly through patient discipleship? “There is no biblical mission without biblical ethics”; integrity is a vital ingredient of God-honouring ministry.

The idolatry of greed, and the call to simplicity

Wealth is a good gift flowing from God’s generosity, but at no time does Scripture justify greed or allow wealth to become an end in and of itself. Covetousness, quite simply, is idolatry. The church must deal with the greed of its leaders not as a historical phenomenon that plagued mediaeval Christianity but as a contemporary blight on our witness. Building on a careful manipulation of out-of-context Scriptures, the “prosperity gospel” so prevalent in some areas of the world — ironically, often the most poor — is a perversion which distorts the message and person of Jesus, deceives unwitting listeners and feeds off the greed of its proponents at the expense of the needs of followers. Biblical giving is not an investment in order to receive a greater return, but choosing to invest what we have in another for their benefit and blessing. A commitment to simplicity of life-style can cut the root of greed and free us to handle wealth in manners that will honour God and ultimately further his work.

I am glad that Chris Wright admitted this wouldn’t work in other languages — poor translators! — but are we H.I.S.? Humility, Integrity, Simplicity, how much are these part of who we are? This is basic stuff, but so important, and our ability to fulfil our commission rests on this more than any amount of strategic planning and research. Please, let’s all of us make sure we are H.I.S.

They have all been good, though today’s was just great. Calisto Odede from Kenya, on Paul’s practical applications for Christian living. Well worth listening to or watching. If you do get to see it, watch out for the bit about half way through where Calisto must have caught sight of the prompt board at the back flashing him “Slow Down”… As most speakers are under time restrictions, it seems they choose to speed up to get in everything they want to say, and a bit more, rather than cut down their material.

And while you are looking at the web, something else you may want to look at is a blog being written by a director of WH in the US, Richard Haney. You can find it at http://richardlhaney.blogspot.com/

Oh, and I nearly forgot. What’s this about porcupines, you wonder? Well, you’ll just have to listen to Calisto’s message all the way through to find out… Or if you think that’s just unfair, do write to me and I’ll put you out of your misery next week

The twentieth century was a Western century, both politically and in terms of the world church. I won’t predict what might happen on a global political scene, though certainly the emergence of Pacific Rim economies and the overall shift towards Asia does appear to indicate a sell-by date for Western dominance. But this century certainly does not belong to the Western church, and Africa is a good candidate for the role of leadership of global Christianity.

Hosting the Lausanne congress on African soil was intended as a statement, a recognition of this emerging role that the African church will undoubtedly play in coming decades, indeed, that it is already beginning to exercise. What a fantastically vibrant and faith-filled body of people they are! Simply wonderful.

It is not that Africa does not have its issues — of course it does, and they are all too aware of these. But it is all too easy to dwell on the deep political corruption, tribal or ethnic rivalries and hatred, the HIV-AIDS pandemic, other health issues, poverty, wars and refugee crises, not to mention aberrations of the Christian faith such as the so-called prosperity gospel… the list goes on. But the church chooses to stick with what God is doing all around them and through them and stand tall in the midst of the chaos.

Spirituality seems to have a natural home in the heart of the African psyche, and Christianity has put down deep roots. Numerical growth has been spectacular — some 3000% last century — but has also been accompanied by a depth of understanding, theological reflection, and contextualisation of the faith to African realities. Confident of God’s approval as they have reached out to their own peoples, they are now living a growing awareness of the opportunities they have to bless the wider world, including the West, and are willing to step into the leadership vacuum that Western moral decadence and theological liberalism has created.

This was so powerfully illustrated a couple of days ago as five Anglican archbishops talked about the crisis within the Anglican communion sparked off by the consecration of bishop Gene Robinson in the US Episcopalian church. During the Anglican decade of evangelism (1989-1999), African churches doubled in size whilst the West devoted its energy to debating human sexuality. (This is not the whole picture — let’s not forget that Alpha is a product of the Western church.) Rather than complain, or sit and wait to see what happened, the primates of the Anglican provinces of the global south have joined forces to bring a dynamic lead to the rest of the church. The newly created Anglican province in North America was established under the supervision of the Ugandan church, and has grown with input from Nigerian, Kenyan, and South American leaders.

This same vibrancy is seen across the continent, in churches of all shapes, sizes and varieties. A strong commitment to an evangelical faith, locally relevant expressions, social justice and compassion, education and development on all levels, and relentless evangelization. No wonder the African churches are also the fastest growing in the UK.

Like David when Saul first met him, Africa might not be the most obvious choice for leadership to our Western eyes. But God clearly sees things differently, and I, for one, gladly acknowledge the anointing they bear, and look to the future with excited anticipation.

(Do note that this does not equate with illiterate. Some of these oral learners may well not know how to read, though in today’s world many do, but simply do not learn in that way. Traditionally oral societies have developed highly sophisticated communication techniques that do not depend on written materials, and reflect very different thought patterns to those that tend to characterize communication in literate societies. Taking this oral learning into account is fundamental to seeing the gospel make progress amongst them.)

This is a vital ingredient in the evangelisation of societies where the literate language is different to the people’s own heart language. It is said that a person is four times more likely to understand and receive the message of the gospel in their mother tongue than in a national or trade language, often the language of written Scriptures.

Oral story Bible teams are working amongst an already large and growing number of completely unreached peoples. Over a period of a couple of years, 40 or 50 adaptations of Bible stories are communicated in the local language, being told, retold and checked until satisfactory, then recorded to provide a resource for evangelization and discipleship. Exciting stuff, with exciting results in some areas.

Do get in touch with me if you want any resources.

And if you go to a church, that church is one of around five million local churches across the planet. Five million churches! That’s one for every 1350 people. One would think that should be enough for the whole world.

The problem is that they’re not in the right places to be enough for the whole world. Whilst different lists of unreached peoples say different things, there are still whole bunches of peoples and ethnic groups that have no access whatsoever to the gospel. It’s really not worth quibbling about the exact number, a good approximation is more than sufficient.

Changing this, it would seem to me, is the most basic task of the church. What is needed for us to take this seriously? Two things, perhaps. Take either of these away, and we won’t get very far.

Firstly, a passionate commitment to Christ. Deep love for him, and for his world, that matures in knowledge and understanding through ongoing discipleship in healthy churches.

Secondly, knowledge. Awareness of what the world is really like, built on adequate research of the real “state of the nation”, where the needs lie, which peoples are yet to have authentic and adequate witness to the gospel, and then seeing this reality communicated through contextualised means to God’s people everywhere.

Get those two things right, and we might just make some serious progress.

But what about women on the platform? Yes, they are there in the “tag teams” that emcee the sessions, Oscar ceremony style. And in testimonies and the like. But a few more would be welcome, particularly for the “weightier” presentations and contributions where the absence is more patent. It seems there is still some way to go before the reality of who we are in Christ is fully lived out in his body here and now.

PS from Saturday. Well, even if there are not many women in main-stage speaking roles, Lausanne has certainly bitten the bullet by a clear call to end discrimination and allow women to minister according to their gifts and abilities, not being excluded from certain roles and positions merely on the basis of gender — brave words considering the wide evangelical representation here. Very encouraging. The only proviso is that it may have been more impactful to hear this on the lips of one of the main male leaders or global figures, rather than from a woman speaker. Then she could have given the main address…

PPS from Sunday. And they have done it again today in the session on partnership. Men and women must partner as equals in the task we have ahead of us, not allowing the curse of the fall to continue to bring discrimination on the basis of gender to leadership and ministry in the church. Well said. This does not bring resolution to the theological undercurrents that must inform any docrine or practice in the evangelical church, and I do not anticipate churches and organizations around the world suddenly casting of their convictions on women in ministry and adopting an egalitarian approach. But it surely is a nudge in the right direction, and hopefully will provoke reflection that may, in time, lead to change.