Great time of worship this morning – rich songs from God’s church around the world with solos from 5 different singers in five different languages – some I still don’t know which language they were speaking, but it was a powerful reminder of All One in Christ Jesus!
Reading Eph 3. Struck again at just what a rich book this is.
John Piper beginning to unpack the chapter.
God’s cosmic purpose that the Wisdom of God displayed to demonic powers. A global congress on the cosmic manifestation of the wisdom of God…if there were other Christians on other planets they would be invited to Lausanne! V10
God’s design is that the church be drawn in to the unsearchable riches of Christ through the suffering of the missionaries and the minister of the Gospel. V1, 13
God has chosen that the supernatural power required to see the glory of his wisdom and to suffer through his name comes to us through prayer. V14-21
No suffering can be divine and glorious except through prayer.
The mystery is that all the riches of Christ and the inheritance that brings is now available to all the nations and not just the Jews. How…through the gospel (1 Cor 15) through the cross of Jesus Christ. When Christ dies in the cross he creates the church from all the nations of the world (cf Gen 11 restoration of division and reconciliation from separation).
Asks if we can care about all suffering equally – suffering now and suffering eternally? After asking for balance seems to then want to emphasize eternal more because it is “10,000 times worse than any suffering here on earth”. Not disputing the truth, just questioning his logical consistency? Says if we cannot keep that (elusive) balance we have a defective view of hell. Be interesting to have him and John Stott (founder of Lausanne) on the platform together as Stott accepted annihilation as a possibility and did not see that as reducing the need for urgency in sharing the good news of the gospel.
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Very powerful testimony from the wife of a medic who served in a key tension area of the world and was killed less than 2 months ago – he was a Christian but doing medical work and was killed with others doing a medical camp in a remote valley. His wife testified from some blood stained notes recovered with his body that he had given a devotion in the team worship time based on Eph 2:8-10. She highlights the need to dispense grace in small doses over a long length of time – that grace needs to be lived out amongst the world to provide a good aroma which makes people want to taste. Powerful and an interesting and wise contrast to Piper’s certainty and word-based declaration. If the organisers planned this – well done, if not – thank God that he knows our human frailty and tendency to one extreme or another. She concludes with a poem written by Piper – not often when you can sit in a room with over 4000 people and hear a pin drop!!
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Tim Keller on Megacities
No one nation will be most influential in the next 20 years, it will be the cities. They are responsible for almost all innovation. They are central culturally, missiologically and viscerally. That us why we must reach cities.
“The country side is where plants out number people, cities are where people out number plants..God values people more than plants so cities are most important”
3% of people in cities 50 years ago…now 50%!
How to reach cities:
CCCs need to be patient with cultural insensitivity. It is inevitable because of context. You will never solve it but if you are patient with it you will be respected.
Pastors only know how to disciple people by bringing them into the church not how to disciple them in the workplace. This is not good enough for CCCs.
CCCs need to be passionately evangelistic and famous for their sense of justice
CCCs need a committment to the arts
CCCs need to be cooperative with other churches, denominations and traditions.
As someone who is seriously concerned that in the WEA we have never had a consultation on cities and urbanization and has advocated for both subject and setting of an upcoming conference to have this focus, I was keen to hear Keller. I was not disappointed. I have only captured his key points on approach and action but he also gave an excellent biblical and theological case for his missiologically one (something quite rare so far in this gathering) so do download Keller’s talk as soon as it becomes available. Some excellent notes on the second section here in Chris Kidds live blog http://ow.ly/2WFGh also Krish Kandiah’s blog makes good additional points.
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Padilla and Escobar share their thoughts (I confess I am sitting here listening to two of my missionary heroes!)
Rene Padilla and Samuel Escobar now sitting on bar stools sharing reflections including unheard histories…at least for those of us who are ‘younger leaders’ (in Lausanne definition under 50!).
Michael Cassidy (platform speaker here) was accused of being a communist (by some in the mission scene) in the pre-Lausanne 74 mini conferences, for speaking against Aparteid!
Reflections on the challenges of getting a holistic view of mission into that first Lausanne Covenant of 74 in the drafting committee! hmmm makes me pray hard from Chris Wright and Rose Dowsett and the other members of the Statement Committee.
3 concerns they have for Lausanne III:
1. Discipleship – Jesus sent us to make disciples not converts
2. Globalization – an unjust economic system that is destroying the world
3. Environment – the destruction of the entire ecosystem supporting life.
MISSION IN THE SPIRIT OF LAUSANNE IS HOLISTIC MISSION – the final comment from Escobar and Padilla, which along with the 3 concerns stand as a hanging question mark in the air now above the gathering – a warning and a challenge!
Darrell Jackson
October 20, 2010
Thanks for the snapshot from Padilla and Escobar. This is Lausanne at its best!
Simon
October 21, 2010
Once again, it is so ego focused isnt, is it our job to reach anyone? God is more than capable of reaching people and in fact I would contend already has done. The idea of reaching people seems both arrogant, unbiblical, psychologically flawed. Now the idea of reconnecting people is different, as I understand it (I am no original language expert) a way of talking about connecting people to God is to simply pick up the cable and plug it back in. Everyone has cables, everyone can link into the divine, people simply forget that they have that capacity. We need to reconnect firstly with ourselves, our materialistic consumerist lifestyle simply causes us to use power not to export it, then we have to reconnect with our environment, our communities, with those powers that we live within. Then we have to reconnect with the source, and become both integrated and whole. There is a great mystery in that connecting into the wider circle we become more ourselves and more an individual. This silly infantile, ego centric approach to mission is not only ineffective but just wrong….it is a little bit like magic, trying to influence the gods to keep a contract that they never made.
Anyway enough blurb from me for today! as an aside, it is interesting to listen to intense stories, I have always had an issue with being emotionally black mailed, however and sometimes I cant help but feel that this is the unspoken intention of such feats….but then I am a cynical young fool.