Sorry for the lack of live blog yesterday. I had some challenges with the internet…
Day 6 Final morning Bible reading
I came in late after a helpful conversation with one of the English delegation. He was upset about the negative tone of some of the blogs that have been posted. I hope readers will have picked up my desire to rejoice in the great things in the programme of the event and to ask questions of some of things that have been going on. I hope I have not been judge, jury and executioner of the congress. I am sorry if I have come across as this. I am very happy to receive comments about things I have written that may have been unfair. The delegate wanted the bloggers to talk about the highlights which for him had been the corridor conversations and the new networks that are happening outside of the main sessions. He was very critical of what had taken place in the main sessions – but delighted by what has been happening outside of them. As someone that was live blogging only the plenary sessions I think it’s worth a few comments about what has happened outside of them.
The informal time has been a highlight not just for this conference but for any conference. I have really enjoyed meeting up with old friends from Albania, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Zimbabwe as well as making new friends from the USA, Sudan, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka. There is an incredible excitement walking through the conference centre – it is an extrovert’s dream come through as you could be queueing up to get some food and end up chatting to someone who is doing the same kind of ministry as you in a different continent or while browsing the bookshop you’ll end up chatting with another customer and discover you know 3 people in common on three different continents. There’s been an openness to prayer in those contexts too – I enjoyed praying with a brother from Togo unsure about what God wants for him next, after only meeting him for 3 minutes. Its great to walk past people praying together in the enourmous walkways of this majestic looking convention centre.
Prayer
On the last day of the conference we are being lead in prayer for China, thanking God for their faithfulness in their prayers for us.
Now we are being introduced to the incredibly multicultural sung worship leading team. Now we sing “Lord of Lord and King of Kings” in different languages – the group sing each verse in a different language and we echo “Hallelujah” nice touch guys. At the same time we are being presented with commemorative certificates for being part of the conference. I also get a nice piece of artwork for doing my 6 min presentation. Nice touch – thanks for that guys. We also get a DVD with all of the conference video clips on it – again very well thought through – and professionally presented.
Bible Poverty
We watch a video about ending bible poverty – with a testimony from a Russian young man who has been converted through receiving a Bible at his school in Siberia 1992. “Thank you to those people that shared this book with me, maybe they have forgotten about that moment – I have not” It’s a lovely video – real well shot.
Michel Kemonge from Cameroon is now on stage talking about the need to eradicate Bible poverty. The United nations will not take responsibility for Bible poverty. It is our responsibility before God and before man to share the treasure of the scriptures. We need a commitment to the Bible use in our lives. We need to prophetically challenge the ungodly social norms and respond with compassion. We need to invest in the youth so that the emerging generations can engage with the scriptures.
We are now directed to a commitment to eradicate Bible poverty – we are asked to stand and pray together.
“Lord you promised that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the water covers the sea. We promise to play our part so that your word may be fulfilled sooner rather than later.”
David Oginde – Kenya is now on the stage.
“put on the full armour of God” is the theme for today he says. We are reading ephesians 6:10-24. This passage is a lot shorter than the Pentecostal preacher from Kenya had to look at yesterday : Ephesians 4:13-
Ramez and Rebecca Atallah the General Secretary of the Bible Society
Ramez makes an apology in French that he will be speaing in English. Rebecca translates and then apologises to the women listeners that ramez will do most of the speaking but she will be speaking later on. Rebecca prays for her husband asking that they not rely on their natural gifts but on the power of the Holy Spirit. She then goes and sits alone on a stool on the stage just to the side of the pulpit.
Ramez tells the story of a prayer meeting in the 1970s that Lindsay Brown was at as Operation Mobilisation prayed for a ship to do their ministry. Youth For Christ then considered a competitor with OM had been raising some money for their own ship and the deal had fallen through and so they were donating
Ephesians 1 – the blessing
Ephesians 2 – when God reconciles people with himself he also integrates them into his church
Ephesians 3 – we learned about how the church declares glory of God to the devil by suffering.
Ephesians 4 – church need to be marked by faitfulness to the word and for unity
Ephesians 5 -the church needs to be distinct in its lifestyle and relationships
Ephesians 6 – today
Section 1 Our responsibility
Finally after all you have heard about the gospel – be strong not weaklings. Don’t abandon the faith. Put on the whole armour of God so we can stand against the schemes of the devil.
Many Christians don’t withstand the devil’s schemes. Lets pray together for 2 minutes in silent prayer for them. (brave move from Ramez to give up 2 mins of preaching time to pray – this is longer than any stretch of time we had at the prayer meeting last night). Ramez says “don’t worry about the time – as programme chair – I am deducting these minutes from the talk time. ( The clock at the back hasn’t reset though…)
We hear a practical example:
How did God’s power overcome the power of evil in a very poor district in Egypt. In 1982 Rebecca everyone in this village lived at the same level – they lived amongst their garbage, there was no services except for drug or booze. (we see some pictures on the screen.) In garbage village people thought of themselves as garbage. There are high rise buildings , services, markets – (we see an incredibly different place on the screen.) In one generation this change has taken place. One person did this by God’s strength. He lead his garbage man to the lord and then he went with them to their garbage village and many people came to faith and many miracles were done. He had prayer supporters who prayed everyday for this family. Soon there were enough believers in the village that the coptic orthodox church built a church for them and the lay man that lead his garbage man to the lord became its pastor. Father Simon. The believers worked with Father Simon to build a school. They became great recyclers – they were still garbage collectors but world class recyclers.
They built these cave churches – the biggest one seats 20 000 people. The largest church in the middle east. 1 Corinthians 1:27 God took the weak things of this world to shame the strong. Now they are doing a great ministry amongst the disabled.
Section 2 God’s equipment
Essentail Values – truth, righteousness, intgegrity. The shoes of the gospel of peace. The church needs peacemakers in the church and outside. In this conference we have seen a CEO and a high school graduate have served this conference humbly together.
Essential Beliefs – the shield of faith – we have to have faith to envision in his name task ahead of us. He offers us salvation (the helmet of salvation)
Essential Resources – the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. The Bible unites people. We use the book to give ourselves an opening in the country – we sell the Bible in Egypt to make it available.
We are to pray on all occasions, for all people and all kinds of different prayer. Paul ask for prayers to be bold . Even Paul needs it. Paul ask for boldness not for comfort and safety. Is this your passion? Is this mine? May we stand together for God’s glory. Amen.
We have a table discussion – we wonder if the genius of this passage is that Paul has been pushing for reconciliation and unity in his letter – between jew and gentile especially. That by identifying the real enemy that we need to fight there is a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” mentality. So by identifying the “principalities and powers” as the enemy it should draw us together in greater unity. The devil seems to be the only unreconcilabe, unredeemed person in the universe so it is fitting to fight against him.
We enjoy some time together to pray as a table – the use of tables to meet around and consistent groups have been great – really enjoyed spending time with Jake from India, Knut from Norway, John from Jamaica and Reagan from Sudan.
Today we are going to look at how to use God’s weapons not the worlds.
We are doing individual study.
(This was an encouraging model sermon – integrating in prayer, men and women working together, some great visuals and good story telling. Sadly because time was so short – we didn’t really get below the surface reading of the text. I felt that this Bible reading did not have an agenda to it. There has been an interesting dilemma this week as they have tried to connect a general theme and the Bible readings together – this may have put the Bible readers under pressure to work the theme into the text. Ramez and Rebecca did a great job overall, they preached with integrity, passion and clarity – but it missed some bite – it felt like an introductory level study.)
Plenary session
John Stott Video
John Stott’s double listening – listening to the word and the world. Most christians listen to the word but not the world. “It comes more natural to shout the gospel at a distance than to involve themselves in their lives” Christ is the model and the message for evangelism.
John Stott has had a lifetime friendship with Billy Graham, Billy asked John Stott to be the chief architect of the Lausanne 1.
Its moving to think about the impact of Stott’s life – his legacy is imense.
The Pentecostal twang of Billy Graham and the measured Etonian tones of John Stott are poles apart – yet they together have had a huge impact . They have been faithful to the call of God in their generation – they lay down an enourmous challenge to the rest of us.
Doug Birdsall- President of Lausanne Movement
There is an apology about the Latin American video shown at the Lausanne congress. Doug very graciously apologises and thanks the Latin Americans for their generousity and patience.
We live in an age of single issue politics, we are seeking to develop a culture of grace. We do not want this event to be about a single issue.
There have been 4 invitations for people to host Lausanne 4 – but we are undecided about whether there should be a fourth event. We want to be light on our feet but not over institutionalised. Reliable, Strategic and continually committed to developing younger leaders.
Many have said “I will never attend a conference again, unless it contains table groups”.
Video
28 full time intepreters (clap for their work)
Trying to create an environment not just a programme.
The focus is on partnership today.
The focus is on partnership today.
David Ruiz from latin america
We hear who wants to correct the picture of Latin America that was portrayed in the video. He talks of a vibrant church and mission agency. We have work together to make unity possible – we prefer to serve ourselves. He speaks to us from 1 Cor 15:58. It’s difficult to hear the talk from the press room.
We are hearing about some exciting coalitions in Algeria. Next the large scale sports collaborations at major events like the Olympics and the World Cup. There is a partnership field guide which is a Lausanne document to encourage good practice amongst missional partnerships.
Leslie Segraves and Chad Segraves a US couple are on stage.
John 17 has been a theme passage for this couple, they had it preached on their wedding day. They co-founded 10 years ago an interdenominational mission agency – aiming to help the unity of the denominations and generations. They try to work in partnerships between the west and indigenous people movements. Through their marriage and organisations they are trying to get men and women working together. Lesslie explains when she was at a missionary conference speaking, leaving her husband at home. “What are your husband’s spiritual gifts that allow him to do his ministry,” she was asked. when I heard this I felt excluded and isolated. The unity of male and females is a keep part of how we will see the world won.
In the creation God made men and women equal and to have shared dominion. The fall changes this but in Christ these are renewed. We are committed to releasing women into church planting. As a man I fight against the fall when I seek to empower my sisters in the body of Christ to use every gift they have received in the body of Christ – including teaching, training and leading. Am I teachable? My role is not to hold onto my own power
As a woman I have learned that I work against the fall when I use every gift that God has given me. The church can be a very restrictive place. I cannot let other people’s restrictions be a limit to my obedience. (loud claps). On Delhi university campus a young woman came up to us and said “in Hinduism and Islam – we are taught that men are higher than women – in your religion what is your beliefs about male and female relationships and how is this practiced?”
(Fascinating – the only upfront deliberate expression of male and female roles has been a clearly egalitarian one. This was what this couple was asked to speak about – this was not snuck into a section of the conference by someone seeking to grind an axe. I would read this was a clear statement of intent for the Lausanne Congress on the complimentarian / egalitarian issue. )
Now some tap dancing / street dance with an african twist – with a rap – it’s pretty good – well done guys.
Raymond Fung
is preaching partnership with passion.The world is in a holitic mess it needs a holistic gospel.
He prays for humility in the Asian church and not triumphalism.
Mission is from everywhere to everywhere – arrogance and self pity will be the two things that prevent us from pursuing real partnerships. No one nation has all the answers or the resources to finish the missionary task. I pray that there will be true long lasting, authentic friendships that will offer reconciliation to the world.
There’s an interview on stage involving Femi from Africa and Brenda from America.
“we need to ask questions like what are native americans saying to the global church”
“the day of the superhero is over for the evangelical movement – we need new partnerships”
“we need local partnerships- lets put our mission
Thanks Krish! As you may know, vast majority of my Podcasts are downloaded in China and Indonesia… So many people gear their podcasts for the western audience with narrative and a bit of bible teaching at the end… Whereas in the two-thirds world, they simply want bible teaching…
Thanks again for the updates, Krish! Good job, mate!