Day 3 began with Keith Walker (Director of SIM) speaking on Challenges in mission. Keith was at the conference in Cape Town last year, the successor of the Edinburgh Conference of 2010 and two previous congresses in more recent years. See here. Some 4,200 from 198 (not 199 as the Chinese were not allowed out)countries gathered. Evangelical essentials were reasserted and the way things are changing was recognised.
Keith suggested three challenges that arose from the congress
1. What is the church's mission?
Here we had some discussion of how we hold together the issue of preaching the gospel and meeting social needs. The Cape Town Commitment reaffirmed the Lausanne Covenant and is keen not to dichotomise or to ignore ecological issues. John Piper called for the congress to say We Christians care about all suffering especially eternal suffering
2. To whom is the church's mission?
Here we were alerted to three thrusts - towards unreached people groups (though there is need for a great deal of nuancing here and no tick box mentality); cities; Post-Christendom Europe.
3. From whom is the church's mission
In the global south there is growth and a growing confidence. Meanwhile political power is with the rich north.
Tensions include residual and neo-Colonialism from north and west and impatience with the north and west. In the past it was the north and west that took the gospel to the south and east. What will happen in the next two centuries is not clear. We closed with a reference to Acts 19 and the transition from Jewish to Gentile predominance. Similar patterns are seen in the shrinking of old Christendom and so on. We must pray that we are better at transition.
Like the paper from Ray yesterday this seemed a little remote from every day life but was full of interest and challenge. Discussion followed.
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