Developments in the Lausanne committee for world
evangelization and world evangelical fellowship
Introduction:
- Most mission historians agree that the battle between evangelism and social
concern is a twentieth century phenomenon. Before it erupted in the 1920s,
evangelicals engaged society as part and parcel of their practice of faith. It
is now widely accepted that the church’s mission is intrinsically holistic. Few
would say that the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne marks
the first serious attempt to correct this shortsightedness. The historical
development of the relationship between evangelism and social concern
constitutes the first root of evangelical holistic mission.
International
Congress on World Evangelization (ICOWE):- The International
Congress on World Evangelization held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974 was
sponsored by the Billy graham Evangelistic Association, brought together almost
2500 participants from about 150 nations for ten days of intensive focus on the
unfinished task of world evangelization. According to honorary chairman Billy
Graham, one main purpose of the congress was to frame a biblical declaration on
evangelism and state the relationship between evangelism and social
responsibility. He announced, “I trust we can state the relationship between
evangelism and social responsibility which disturbs many believers. C. René Padilla says This
International Congress was a milestone in the history of evangelicalism around
the world.
Lausanne
Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE): - The Lausanne
Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) was established at this congress. The
LCWE, more commonly known as the Lausanne Movement, is a global Movement that
mobilizes evangelical leaders to collaborate for world evangelization. The
stated vision is “the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world”.
Lausanne
Covenant (1974):- It is a document prepared by the
International Congress on World Evangelization by the Lausanne Committee for
World Evangelism (LCWE). It is considered as the charter document of
inter-denominational cooperation in Evangelical circles. Specifically addressed
towards mission, it also includes a comprehensive Christological statement of
faith and provides theological basis for collaborative work in the area of
mission and evangelism. Lausanne ’74 clearly recognized and affirmed social
concern as essential to the task of world evangelization by making it an
integral part of the Covenant.
Later Chris Sugden says, mission
as transformation was the recovery of the wholeness – whole persons and whole communities
which was the concept of Lausanne Covenant.
The covenant consists
of many articles particularly article 5 entitled ‘Christian Social
Responsibility’, which basically synthesized the papers presented at the
Congress by Rene Padilla, Samuel Escobar and Carl Henry, that articulates
Lausanne’s social vision most clearly. Klaus Bockmuehl’s detailed
interpretation of the nine ‘verbs of action’ contained in the article further
developed its missionary implications. At least two overall themes emerge from
his analysis:
(1) To act prophetically in society,
denouncing injustices and calling governments to repentance, and
(2) To demonstrate and promote the
righteousness of the kingdom of God for and among the oppressed.
The
Covenant’s clear affirmation of social concern did not go unchallenged at the
Congress. Many conservatives saw it as a distraction from the original Lausanne
vision of ‘cross-cultural evangelism’. Others to the right of the conservatives
went even further and accused Lausanne’s stated social vision as being the old
Social Gospel in evangelical clothing.
Further
progress of Lausanne
Wheaton:-
The Consultation on the Church in Response to Human Need met in Wheaton,
Illinois, in June 1983 as the third track of a larger conference sponsored by
the World Evangelical Fellowship under the title “I Will Build My Church.” …
the statement “Transformation: The Church in Response to Human Need,” which was
produced as an outgrowth of the consultation.
Manila
Manifesto (1989):- The Manila Manifesto is an elaboration
of the Lausanne Covenant fifteen years later. This conference is called as Lausanne
II, or the Second International Congress on World Evangelization, in Manila in
the Philippines in July 1989 deliberated on the prospects for the fulfillment
of the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. The subject was looked at
from every conceivable angle with an attempt to be true to the Holy Scriptures
in the analysis. This was made as a draft and passed with majority. Statement on Spiritual Warfare (1993):-
The Intercession Working Group (IWG) of the Lausanne Committee for World
Evangelization met at Fairmile Court in London July 10-14, 1993. This discussed
for one full day the subject of spiritual warfare and to write papers reflecting
on this emphasis in each of their regions and these papers formed the basis for
discussion.
Living
Word for a Dying World (1994):- The members of the
Forum for Bible Agencies and some 200 church leaders from 60 countries
discussed the question of how to bring the Bible back on center stage in the
life of the church, in mission and evangelism. The consultation, “Living Word
for a Dying World” was held in Dalfsen, Holland 20-25 April, 1994.
Lausanne
International Consultation on Nominalism:- It was held at High
Leigh, Hoddesdon, U.K., in December 1998, 65 men and women from 15 countries
and all six continents met to discuss ministry in relation to nominality among
people who identify themselves as Christians. Those gathered represented a wide
range of denominations and traditions. They shared a common concern about the
challenges in pastoral care and evangelisation posed by nominal Christianity.
Nairobi,
Kenya: - Spiritual conflict is an emerging, yet uneasy,
frontier in taking the whole gospel to the whole world. Enthusiasm and concern
rest side by side. Trying to come to grips with the many complex issues, thirty
practitioners, missiologists, pastors and theologians gathered in Nairobi,
Kenya from 16 to 22 August, 2000. Discussed issues of spiritual conflict in a
consultation, “Deliver Us From Evil,” convened by the LCWE and the Association
of Evangelicals in Africa.
World
Evangelical Alliance: - The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA)
is a global evangelical ministry working with local churches around the world
to join in common concern to live and proclaim the gospel in their communities.
WEA is a network of churches in 129 nations that have each formed an
Evangelical Alliance and over 100 international organizations joining together
to give a worldwide identity, voice and platform to more than 600 million
evangelical Christians seeking unity, holiness, justice, renewal at every level
of society - individual, family, community and culture.
Christians
from ten countries met in London in 1846 for the purpose of launching, in their
own words, “a new thing in church history, a definite organization for the
expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to different
churches.” This was the beginning of a vision that was fulfilled in 1951 when
believers from 21 countries officially formed the World Evangelical Fellowship.
World
Evangelical Fellowship (WEF): - Up to 1951 the
Alliance was primarily a British venture, with varied support in Europe and the
USA. Two world wars had decimated hopes for greater unity. Evangelicals lived a
new historical context: Americans founded the National Association of
Evangelicals in 1942; 51 nations in 1945 signed the UN charter and in 1951 the
UN headquarters opened in New York. In 1951 Some 91 men and women from 21
nations met in Holland as the International Convention of Evangelicals to
re-envision the old EA into a global fellowship. Leaders included J. Elwin
Wright, Harold J. Ockenga, and Clyde W. Taylor from the USA and John R. W.
Stott and A. Jack Dain from England. Dain and Stott drafted its threefold
purpose: The furtherance of the gospel; the defense and confirmation of the
gospel; and the fellowship in the gospel.
Growth
of WEF:- From 1951-1982 widely spread of this new, global
body, with its Executive Committee, co-international leaders, and four
commissions—evangelism, missionary, literature, Christian action. WEF's leaders
traveled indefatigably, establishing and expanding the new global evangelical
body, always with limited funding with the dream of evangelicals in common
cause. WEF was now finally to the global church epicenter. David M. Howard, who
has chronicled the history of the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF), states
confidently that WEF leaders “have always understood the obligation of
Christians to reach out in love to those in need and give a cup of cold water.”
Today,
WEA/WEF is a dynamic global structure for unity and action that embraces 600
million evangelicals in 129 countries. It is a unity based on the historic
Christian faith expressed in the evangelical tradition. Today, WEA seeks to
strengthen local churches through national Alliances, supporting and
coordinating grassroots leadership and seeking practical ways of fostering
Christian unity.
Conclusion:
- In
the history of church there were many attempts made to unite the church when it
has been divided on the basis of doctrines. There were organizations on the
other hand which made steps to spread the gospel to other faiths. The above
associations are as such which had different ideas and views to spread the
gospel, through social action which was not thought to be one of the church’s
aims. Such associations made the church to rethink and to work for wholistic
world.
Bibliograph
Lossky.
Hicholas (Ed), Dictionary of ecumenical
movement, Geneva: WCC Publications, 2002.
Rouse.Ruth,
Stephen Charles Neil, A history of the
ecumenical movement Vol I, Geneva: WCC
Publications, 1954.
Webliography
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