The Lausanne Global Conversation

New questions are emerging which are different from the older, familiar ones. And the older ones are also taking on new forms. Think, for example, of the issues surrounding the massive rise in people movements over the past 50 years, and of the trends in urbanisation, and of the penetration of other faiths. Christians need to talk, and global issues need global conversations.

The Lausanne Movement is working in partnership with publications around the world in providing the 12 key articles by leading theologians on issues facing the global church. Each article will be published in the same month by everyone, to spark the conversation globally. These articles each have four commissioned respondents from different parts of the world and will be accompanied online by video and photo essays, and responses from people like you.

The Lord gave gifts to his church to share and, through Lausanne, the Africans can share their joy and perseverance, the Indians their wisdom on living in a pluralistic context, the Persecuted Church their precious trust of what it means to share in Christ’s suffering, the converts from other faiths their insights into ways of reaching those whose faith they once shared, the West its scholarship (which we should remember was once found in North Africa), and so on around the world. In ways unimagined, we can share these gifts even across different languages, through automatic translation tools. Those translation tools are not perfect, but, with a commitment of all to the authority of Scripture and a willingness to listen and learn, we will manage to understand one another. The work you put into the global conversation will be richly rewarded.

The Lausanne Global Conversation will include:

a series of 12 articles appearing in Christianity Today (and in dozens of publications around the world), plus parallel articles in the Canadian media and elsewhere

thought-provoking blogs, podcasts, radio programs and video discussion forums

interaction on Twitter and Facebook

advance written and multimedia presentations from CT2010 speakers

connections to related discussions on the web already underway

in-person interaction at Bible colleges, mission agencies, churches and theological institutions through the Cape Town GlobaLink

Here is the very first article to kick off the whole conversation:
Whole Gospel, Whole Church, Whole World by Christopher Wright

The Gospel in All Its Forms

Like God, the gospel is both one and more than that.
by Tim Keller

The gospel has been described as a pool in which a toddler can wade and yet an elephant can swim. It is both simple enough to tell to a child and profound enough for the greatest minds to explore. Indeed, even angels never tire of looking into it (1 Peter 1:12). Humans are by no means angels, however, so rather than contemplating it, we argue about it.

A generation ago evangelicals agreed on "the simple gospel": (1) God made you and wants to have a relationship with you, (2) but your sin separates you from God. (3) Jesus took the punishment your sins deserved, (4) so if you repent from sins and trust in him for your salvation, you will be forgiven, justified, and accepted freely by grace, and indwelt with his Spirit until you die and go to heaven.

There are today at least two major criticisms of this simple formulation. Many say that it is too individualistic, that Christ's salvation is not so much to bring individual happiness as to bring peace, justice, and a new creation. A second criticism is that there is no one "simple gospel" because "everything is contextual" and the Bible itself contains many gospel presentations that exist in tension with each other.

No single gospel message?
Let's take the second criticism first. The belief that there is no single basic gospel outline in the Bible goes back at least to the Tubingen school of biblical scholarship, which insisted Paul's gospel of justification was sharply different from Jesus' gospel of the kingdom. In the 20th century, British professor C.H. Dodd countered that there was one consensus gospel message in the Bible. Then, in turn, James Dunn argued in Unity and Diversity in the New Testament (1977) that the gospel formulations in the Bible are so different that we can't come up with a single outline.

Now hundreds of websites of young Christian leaders complain that the older evangelical church spent too much time reading Romans rather than Jesus' declaration that "the kingdom of God is at hand." But to be true to first-century Christians' own understanding of the gospel, I believe we must side with Dodd over Dunn. Paul is emphatic that the gospel he presents is the same as the one preached by the Jerusalem apostles. "Whether it was I or they," Paul says, referring to Peter and the others, "so we preached and so you believed" (1 Cor. 15:10-11). This statement assumes a single body of gospel content.

One gospel, many forms
So yes, there must be one gospel, yet there are clearly different forms in which that one gospel can be expressed. This is the Bible's own way of speaking of the gospel, and we should stick with it. Paul is an example. After insisting there is only one gospel (Gal. 1:8), he then speaks of being entrusted with "the gospel of the uncircumcised" as opposed to the "gospel of the circumcised" (Gal. 2:7).

READ ON!

The Pressure of Novelty

Stuart McAllister will be speaking at the RZIM Reasonable Faith Training Camp: "Christ among other lords" in Melaka this coming weekend.(I'm looking forward to make a trip there to meet the Agora Spore gang!)

Born in Scotland, he majors in topics like pluralism, postmodernism and consumerism. Check out his interesting mini-biography here which includes some imprisonments in Europe. Two articles from Just Thinking columns called Permanent Things and the church and culture in the 21st century are highly recommended reads.

But here's an excerpt from a favorite of mine called the Pressure of Novelty:

"What disturbs me personally—and many people whom I have talked to across the country and internationally—is the growing trend to ignore Christian history, to devalue Scripture, to reframe worship, and to lessen the role of discipleship, holiness, theology, and content. What matters is whether God is “experienced” (something I also seek), whether worship is compelling (a commendable value), and whether people actually come (a valid desire). However, this tendency and practice of avoiding the past is distracting, and I believe, wrong.

Speaking of this trend, Christian scholar R. R. Reno says, “In all cases we are modern insofar as we will not suffer that which we have received. We must step back in order to unburden ourselves, to lighten our lives so that we can be raptured away from the hindering, limited, ruined forms that the past has imposed on the present. This is the spiritual pattern that makes modernity modern.”

Within the mythology of modern and post-modern society is the deep belief and value that only what works or satisfies in the present is to be allowed. Thus a creeping evolutionary notion is married to an existentialist demand, and then served up with a muddle of therapeutic and marketing requirements, which begins to alter beyond recognition the thing (the Christian faith) that is the target of such enthusiastic revision.

Commenting on what he describes as the breathless pursuit of relevance, Os Guinness writes, “By our uncritical pursuit of relevance we have actually courted irrelevance; by our breathless chase after relevance without a matching commitment to faithfulness, we have become not only unfaithful but irrelevant; by our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and our relevance. Our crying need is to be faithful as well as relevant.”

Another speaker to look out for is Aussie John Dickson and we could check out his free online resources here.

Here's an excerpt from his award winning book Spectator's Guide To World Religions:

"If Christianity is uniquely true, its beauty will be best seen only when viewed amidst a full and fair account of the alternatives. Let me give you an analogy that comes to mind. Imagine yourself as an art curator who is convinced that one piece in his collection has an unequalled quality. What will you do? Will you dim the lights on the ‘competitors’ in the gallery and put the spotlights on your favourite piece. Of course not. That would be a sure sign you were not actually convinced about the special beauty of your treasured masterpiece. I mean, if you’ve got to obscure the other pieces in order to make your favourite one look good, something is clearly
wrong. A truly assured curator, that is, one with a deep confidence in the excellence of his prized item, would place all the gallery lights on full, confident that as careful art-lovers inspect the whole collection, viewing all the works in their best light, one painting, in particular, will draw people’s attention.

Reasonable Faith 2007

Reasonable Faith Training Program

Date: April 13 - 15, 2007
Venue: Hotel Puri Melaka, Malaysia
Contact: iching@rzimap.com.sg (IChing) for more details abt registration

Exciting and Relevant Issue: "Jesus among other lords"

The experienced RZIM team will take you on a discovery exploration on Religion roulette: How can we know for sure?, Interactive Movie Discussions, Worldview thinking, How now shall we live?, Postmodern spirituality, Jesus then and now, Ecclesiastes, Communicating the gospel in a pluralistic society and so much more!

Without a firm foundation in Scripture and the uniqueness of Christ, we would risk being captivated by religious pluralism and postmodern spirituality which reduced the gospel narrative as merely one among many religious options in the supermarket. I highly recommend this camp to everyone!

Conversational Evangelism

Spiritual Formation Institute Seminar 2007/1
Date: 17 & 24 March 2007 (Saturdays)
Time: 2.00pm-6.00pm
Venue: Holy Light Church main hall, Johor Bahru

Synopsis

"How do we share the gospel with those who seem less and less interested in hearing about the person of Christ and who may in fact think we are somewhat arrogant for holding such an exclusive view of truth?" "What do you said to someone who told you that 'I am glad that Christianity works for you but please leave me alone, I am happy with what I believe!'?"

Conversational Evangelism explores effective ways of integrating compelling Christian evidences into our daily conversations with pre-believers through interactive dialogue. There are primarily four types of conversational engagements:

(1) a conversation that focuses on hearing what the other person actually believes;
(2) on asking questions illuminating gaps in their belief systems;
(3) on uncovering real barriers and deeper root issues; and
(4) on building a bridge to the gospel. This seminar will also suggest some practical ways to use Conversational Evangelism effectively in ones daily witness.

Objectives Of Seminar

· To understand the problems in evangelism today in a Post-Christian World
· To clarify misunderstandings that could affect our witness
· To learn how to use a pre-evangelism paradigm in your witness to others.
· To give practical ideas on how to implement this model into your daily witness to increase your effectiveness in witnessing to others.


Speakers
Rev. Dave Geisler and Elder Gan Kim Choon

Rev Dr Dave Geisler received his Th.M. and M.A.B.S. from Dallas Theological Seminary, and Doctor of Ministry in Apologetics from Southern Evangelical Seminary. He has been involved in church and para-church college ministry for 15 years. He is currently the founder and President of Meekness and Truth Ministries based here in Singapore. Dave, is married to Charlene, a Singaporean, and they have two children, Kristina and Jonathan.

Elder Gan Kim Choon, currently student of Master of Arts (Pastoral Counselling) in Singapore Bible College. He is married to Toon Fung, and have three children, Joanna, Joshua and Joseph.

For enquiries, please contact Spiritual Formation Institute, Holy Light Church (English), 11C, Jalan Gertak Merah, 80100 Johor Bahru
Tel: 07-2243285 Fax: 07-2235476
Dr. Alex Tang Tel: 07-2253014

Download brochure here. More about Spiritual Formation Institute at www.kairos2.com/spiritual_formation_institute.htm