INTRODUCTION
We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, from
more than 150 nations, participants in the International Congress on
World Evangelization at Lausanne, praise God for his great salvation
and rejoice in the fellowship he has given us with himself and with
each other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our day,
moved to penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished
task of evangelization. We believe the Gospel is God's good news for
the whole world, and we are determined by his grace to obey Christ's
commission to proclaim it to all mankind and to make disciples of every
nation. We desire, therefore, to affirm our faith and our resolve, and
to make public our covenant.
1. THE PURPOSE OF GOD
We affirm our belief in the one-eternal God,
Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who govern
all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling
out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back
into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension
of his kingdom, the building up of Christ's body, and the glory of his
name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and
failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by
withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that even when borne by earthen
vessels the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making
that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to
dedicate ourselves anew. (Isa. 40:28; Matt. 28:19; Eph. 1:11; Acts
15:14; John 17:6, 18; Eph 4:12; 1 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 12:2; II Cor. 4:7)
2. THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THE BIBLE
We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness
and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their
entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it
affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We also
affirm the power of God's word to accomplish his purpose of salvation.
The message of the Bible is addressed to all men and women. For God's
revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the
Holy Spirit still speaks today. He illumines the minds of God's people
in every culture to perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes
and thus discloses to the whole Church ever more of the many-colored
wisdom of God. (II Tim. 3:16; II Pet. 1:21; John 10:35; Isa. 55:11; 1
Cor. 1:21; Rom. 1:16, Matt. 5:17,18; Jude 3; Eph. 1:17,18; 3:10,18)
3. THE UNIQUENESS AND UNIVERSALITY OF CHRIST
We affirm that there is only one Saviour and
only one gospel, although there is a wide diversity of evangelistic
approaches. We recognise that everyone has some knowledge of God
through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this can
save, for people suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. We also
reject as derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism
and dialogue which implies that Christ speaks equally through all
religions and ideologies. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man,
who gave himself as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator
between God and people. There is no other name by which we must be
saved. All men and women are perishing because of sin, but God loves
everyone, not wishing that any should perish but that all should
repent. Yet those who reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and
condemn themselves to eternal separation from God. To proclaim Jesus as
"the Saviour of the world" is not to affirm that all people are either
automatically or ultimately saved, still less to affirm that all
religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather it is to proclaim God's
love for a world of sinners and to invite everyone to respond to him as
Saviour and Lord in the wholehearted personal commitment of repentance
and faith. Jesus Christ has been exalted above every other name; we
long for the day when every knee shall bow to him and every tongue
shall confess him Lord. (Gal. 1:6-9;Rom. 1:18-32; I Tim. 2:5,6; Acts
4:12; John 3:16-19; II Pet. 3:9; II Thess. 1:7-9;John 4:42; Matt.
11:28; Eph. 1:20,21; Phil. 2:9-11)
4. THE NATURE OF EVANGELISM
To evangelize is to spread the good news that
Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according
to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the
forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who
repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is
indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose
purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism
itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as
Saviour and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him
personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the gospel
invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship.
Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up
their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The
results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into
his Church and responsible service in the world. (I Cor. 15:3,4; Acts
2: 32-39; John 20:21; I Cor. 1:23; II Cor. 4:5; 5:11,20; Luke 14:25-33;
Mark 8:34; Acts 2:40,47; Mark 10:43-45)
5. CHRISTIAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
We affirm that God is both the Creator and the
Judge of all men. We therefore should share his concern for justice and
reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men
and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made
in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion,
colour, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of
which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited. Here too
we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes
regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although
reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is
social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation,
nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement
are both part of our Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions
of our doctrines of God and man, our love for our neighbour and our
obedience to Jesus Christ. The message of salvation implies also a
message of judgment upon every form of alienation, oppression and
discrimination, and we should not be afraid to denounce evil and
injustice wherever they exist. When people receive Christ they are born
again into his kingdom and must seek not only to exhibit but also to
spread its righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous world. The
salvation we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our
personal and social responsibilities. Faith without works is dead.
(Acts 17:26,31; Gen. 18:25; Isa. 1:17; Psa. 45:7; Gen. 1:26,27; Jas.
3:9; Lev. 19:18; Luke 6:27,35; Jas. 2:14-26; Joh. 3:3,5; Matt. 5:20;
6:33; II Cor. 3:18; Jas. 2:20)
6. THE CHURCH AND EVANGELISM
We affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people
into the world as the Father sent him, and that this calls for a
similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need to break out
of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian society. In
the Church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism is primary.
World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole gospel
to the whole world. The Church is at the very centre of God's cosmic
purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a
church which preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross. It
becomes a stumbling block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or
lacks a living faith in God, a genuine love for people, or scrupulous
honesty in all things including promotion and finance. The church is
the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not
be identified with any particular culture, social or political system,
or human ideology. (John 17:18; 20:21; Matt. 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 20:27;
Eph. 1:9,10; 3:9-11; Gal. 6:14,17; II Cor. 6:3,4; II Tim. 2:19-21;
Phil. 1:27)
7. COOPERATION IN EVANGELISM
We affirm that the Church's visible unity in
truth is God's purpose. Evangelism also summons us to unity, because
our oneness strengthens our witness, just as our disunity undermines
our gospel of reconciliation. We recognize, however, that
organisational unity may take many forms and does not necessarily
forward evangelism. Yet we who share the same biblical faith should be
closely united in fellowship, work and witness. We confess that our
testimony has sometimes been marred by a sinful individualism and
needless duplication. We pledge ourselves to seek a deeper unity in
truth, worship, holiness and mission. We urge the development of
regional and functional cooperation for the furtherance of the Church's
mission, for strategic planning, for mutual encouragement, and for the
sharing of resources and experience. (John 17:21,23; Eph. 4:3,4; John
13:35; Phil. 1:27; John 17:11-23)
8. CHURCHES IN EVANGELISTIC PARTNERSHIP
We rejoice that a new missionary era has dawned.
The dominant role of western missions is fast disappearing. God is
raising up from the younger churches a great new resource for world
evangelization, and is thus demonstrating that the responsibility to
evangelise belongs to the whole body of Christ. All churches should
therefore be asking God and themselves what they should be doing both
to reach their own area and to send missionaries to other parts of the
world. A reevaluation of our missionary responsibility and role should
be continuous. Thus a growing partnership of churches will develop and
the universal character of Christ's Church will be more clearly
exhibited. We also thank God for agencies which labor in Bible
translation, theological education, the mass media, Christian
litterature, evangelism, missions, church renewal and other specialist
fields. They too should engage in constant self-examination to evaluate
their effectiveness as part of the Church's mission. (Rom. 1:8; Phil.
1:5; 4:15; Acts 13:1-3, I Thess. 1:6-8)
9. THE URGENCY OF THE EVANGELISTIC TASK
More than 2,700 million people, which is more
than two-thirds of all humanity, have yet to be evangelised. We are
ashamed that so many have been neglected; it is a standing rebuke to us
and to the whole Church. There is now, however, in many parts of the
world an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are
convinced that this is the time for churches and para-church agencies
to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch new
efforts to achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign
missionaries and money in an evangelised country may sometimes be
necessary to facilitate the national church's growth in self-reliance
and to release resources for unevangelised areas. Missionaries should
flow ever more freely from and to all six continents in a spirit of
humble service. The goal should be, by all available means and at the
earliest possible time, that every person will have the opportunity to
hear, understand, and to receive the good news. We cannot hope to
attain this goal without sacrifice. All of us are shocked by the
poverty of millions and disturbed by the injustices which causes it.
Those of us who live in affluent circumstances accept our duty to
develop a simple life-style in order to contribute more generously to
both relief and evangelism. (John 9:4; Matt. 9:35-38; Rom. 9:1-3; I
Cor. 9:19-23; Mark 16:15; Isa. 58:6,7; Jas. 1:27; 2:1-9; Matt.
25:31-46; Acts 2:44,45; 4:34,35)
10. EVANGELISM AND CULTURE
The development of strategies for world
evangelization calls for imaginative pioneering methods. Under God, the
result will be the rise of churches deeply rooted in Christ and closely
related to their culture. Culture must always be tested and judged by
Scripture. Because men and women are God's creatures, some of their
culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because they are fallen, all of
it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel does not
presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all
cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness, and
insists on moral absolutes in every culture. Missions have all too
frequently exported with the gospel an alien culture and churches have
sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than to Scripture. Christ's
evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all but their
personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others, and
churches must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory
of God. (Mark 7:8,9,13; Gen. 4:21,22; I Cor. 9:19-23; Phil. 2:5-7; II
Cor. 4:5)
11. EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP
We confess that we have sometimes pursued church
growth at the expense of church depth, and divorced evangelism from
Christian nurture. We also acknowledge that some of our missions have
been too slow to equip and encourage national leaders to assume their
rightful responsibilities. Yet we are committed to indigenous
principles, and long that every church will have national leaders who
manifest a Christian style of leadership in terms not of domination but
of service. We recognise that there is a great need to improve
theological education, especially for church leaders. In every nation
and culture there should be an effective training programme for pastors
and laity in doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, nurture and service.
Such training programmes should not rely on any stereotyped methodology
but should be developed by creative local initiatives according to
biblical standards. (Col. I:27,28; Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5,9; Mark
10:42-45; Eph. 4:11,12)
12. SPIRITUAL CONFLICT
We believe that we are engaged in constant
spiritual warfare with the principalities and powers of evil, who are
seeking to overthrow the Church and frustrate its task of world
evangelization. We know our need to equip ourselves with God's armour
and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth and
prayer. For we detect the activity of our enemy, not only in false
ideologies outside the Church, but also inside it in false gospels
which twist Scripture and put people in the place of God. We need both
watchfulness and discernment to safeguard the biblical gospel. We
acknowledge that we ourselves are not immune to worldliness of thoughts
and action, that is, to a surrender to secularism. For example,
although careful studies of church growth, both numerical and
spiritual, are right and valuable, we have sometimes neglected them. At
other times, desirous to ensure a response to the gospel, we have
compromised our message, manipulated our hearers through pressure
techniques, and become unduly preoccupied with statistics or even
dishonest in our use of them. All this is worldly. The Church must be
in the world; the world must not be in the Church. (Eph. 6:12; II Cor.
4:3,4; Eph. 6:11,13-18; II Cor. 10:3-5; I John 2:18-26; 4:1-3; Gal.
1:6-9; II Cor. 2:17; 4:2; John 17:15)
13. FREEDOM AND PERSECUTION
It is the God-appointed duty of every government
to secure conditions of peace, justice and liberty in which the Church
may obey God, serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and preach the gospel
without interference. We therefore pray for the leaders of nations and
call upon them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience, and
freedom to practise and propagate religion in accordance with the will
of God and as set forth in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We also express our deep concern for all who have been unjustly
imprisoned, and especially for those who are suffering for their
testimony to the Lord Jesus. We promise to pray and work for their
freedom. At the same time we refuse to be intimidated by their fate.
God helping us, we too will seek to stand against injustice and to
remain faithful to the gospel, whatever the cost. We do not forget the
warnings of Jesus that persecution is inevitable. (I Tim. 1:1-4, Acts
4:19; 5:29; Col. 3:24; Heb. 13:1-3; Luke 4:18; Gal. 5:11; 6:12; Matt.
5:10-12; John 15:18-21)
14. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The
Father sent his Spirit to bear witness to his Son, without his witness
ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth and
Christian growth are all his work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a
missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a
Spirit-filled church. A church that is not a missionary church is
contradicting itself and quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization
will become a realistic possibility only when the Spirit renews the
Church in truth and wisdom, faith, holiness, love and power. We
therefore call upon all Christians to pray for such a visitation of the
sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all his people
and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will
the whole world become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole
earth may hear his voice. (I Cor. 2:4; John 15:26;27; 16:8-11; I Cor.
12:3; John 3:6-8; II Cor. 3:18; John 7:37-39; I Thess. 5:19; Acts 1:8;
Psa. 85:4-7; 67:1-3; Gal. 5:22,23; I Cor. 12:4-31; Rom. 12:3-8)
15. THE RETURN OF CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ will return
personally and visibly, in power and glory, to consummate his salvation
and his judgment. This promise of his coming is a further spur to our
evangelism, for we remember his words that the gospel must first be
preached to all nations. We believe that the interim period between
Christ's ascension and return is to be filled with the mission of the
people of God, who have no liberty to stop before the end. We also
remember his warning that false Christs and false prophets will arise
as precursors of the final Antichrist. We therefore reject as a proud,
self-confident dream the notion that people can ever build a utopia on
earth. Our Christian confidence is that God will perfect his kingdom,
and we look forward with eager anticipation to that day, and to the new
heaven and earth in which righteousness will dwell and God will reign
forever. Meanwhile, we rededicate ourselves to the service of Christ
and of people in joyful submission to his authority over the whole of
our lives. (Mark 14:62; Heb. 9:28; Mark 13:10; Acts 1:8-11; Matt.
28:20; Mark 13:21-23; John 2:18; 4:1-3; Luke 12:32; Rev. 21:1-5; II
Pet. 3:13; Matt. 28:18)
CONCLUSION
Therefore, in the light of this our faith and
our resolve, we enter into a solemn covenant with God and with each
other, to pray, to plan and to work together for the evangelization of
the whole world. We call upon others to join us. May God help us by his
grace and for his glory to be faithful to this our covenant! Amen,
Alleluia!
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