It is Time to Rise and Engage the World
Dear CoaH,
Some twenty of us had a wonderful wrap-up time last night, completing the nine-week course on the Lausanne Covenant Study. Dr. Robert Cousins of the Lausanne Movement Canada was our guest speaker. For those wondering what the Lausanne Covenant (1974) is, I encourage you to visit www.lausanne.org and read the document. It is a well-written position paper from the evangelical perspective, calling the Church to do its utmost to fulfill the task of world evangelization. Even though the leaders made the plea almost half a century ago, it is even more relevant today as we are inundated with many challenges of living in a highly secularized, pluralistic world.
Over the nine-week study period, we mainly discussed the meaning of each paragraph in the Covenant (fifteen paragraphs in total). It begins with the statement about God, who ‘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.’ In a nutshell, we have the concept of the missional God sending His people (the Church) into the world to accomplish the purposes He has in mind. That is the essence of the missional Church.
In paragraph 6, the Covenant says,
“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.”
We should take these words seriously. Coming out of the pandemic, we must rekindle our passion for world evangelization. We have been barely maintaining our spiritual fervor while fighting the dreadful disease for the past two years. But it is now time to rise and engage the world. Yes, it is time to bring back into our lives the short-term mission trips, the mission Sundays, and the intercessory prayers for the unreached peoples and the persecuted churches worldwide.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14)
May the LORD bless you and keep you safe.
Pastor Minho Song
