Another Boston Pastor- Enoch Liao

John Piper on Ephesians 3

John touched upon an issue that is always front and central at a gathering like this. We are the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. That word “Evangelization” takes on so many different meanings to so many different people.

A summary of what he said about this issue: Those who do not care about the eternal suffering from not knowing Jesus have a defective view of hell and those who do not care about earthly suffering have a defective heart. Both are equally important but the priority needs to be to deal with the eternal suffering as that is infinitely longer and infinitely worse.

Check out his sermon when they post it on line here

Indian Cousins to the Rescue

Press Release from Cape Town 2010

CYBER ATTACK HITS GLOBAL CHURCH GATHERING

Malicious hits from multiple locations crash system SOUTH AFRICA 20 OCTOBER 2010 Organizers of Cape Town 2010, the widest gathering of Christians in the history of the Church, today announced that their internet communication to the outside world had been hacked. ‘We have 700 GlobaLink sites in 95 countries extending the Congress to 100,000 people’, said Victor Nakah, GlobaLink Chair for the Congress. ‘Finally, after two rough days, they are being served as planned.’ The sophisticated computer network developed for sharing Congress content with the world was compromised for the first two days of the Congress. ‘We have tracked malicious attacks by millions of external hits coming from several locations’, said Joseph Vijayam, IT Chair of The Lausanne Movement, sponsor of the gathering. ‘Added to this was a virus brought into the centre on a mobile phone.’ Asked if he could confirm where the hacking came from, he replied, ‘We have a pretty strong indication, but one can never be absolutely certain, so we prefer not to share our suspicions.’ The Congress has drawn carefully-selected participants from 198 nations representing many of the best minds and the most courageous practitioners in the Church. Joseph Vijayam explained that two cousins from Bangalore had largely been responsible for solving the difficulties, due to their unique expertise in the exact problems the Congress was experiencing. Vijay Kumar, an employee of Unisys Global Services, and Daniel Singh, a pastor with a doctorate in computational biology, came forward to help when they learned of the situation. They had come to the Congress as volunteers to help hook up printers and other basic IT tasks. ‘I believe God in his sovereignty brought them to us,’ Mr Vijayam said.

Jesus is himself our peace - Ephesians 2:15

Joseph Cummings once said “Most Christians are completely unaware that there is a titanic struggle taking place. It is not between Muslims and Christians, not between Muslims and the West, but rather within ‘Christianity’ itself – a struggle for the soul of the Christian faith”

Our relationships with Muslims, reveals this struggle for the soul. We have to ask ourselves what is the priority of our faith? Is our faith primarily a tribal identity or is costly discipleship to Jesus. If it is about tribal identity, then we have to be about the business of defending our Christian civilization against a Muslim civilization. It’s our Christian society and God against their Allah and their culture. BUT if it is about costly discipleship, then doesn’t Jesus give us the example of laying down our lives in love for Muslims so that they might come to see and know the good news of salvation.

Each day as I get inundated with forwarded emails by well meaning Christians, that are alarmist in nature, warning of the encroaching Muslims, it frustrates me that these messages create a phobia which can only lead to hate when we should be about the business of thinking and working on how to love them and share the good news with them, not simply how to stop them.

An example of this was some public correspondence between two Christian Mission Leaders several years ago, who we will call Will and David. After David had written negatively about Muslims, Will wrote:

David, you were able to minister well with tribal's because you lived among them and loved them. I wonder how many Muslims you know well and really love and how many your approach has attracted to Christ. I hope that on that Final Day we can stand together with the Muslims that we and those we have influenced have led to the Throne.

Will responded:
Here is how I illustrate our differences: Imagine that an avalanche has buried hikers in the High Sierras. Mr. Christian Church, a trainer of St. Bernard rescue dogs, orders two trainees—David and Will—to search for and rescue as many lost hikers as possible. David and Will charge off, sniffing the snow for a scent of buried hikers. But Will catches a different scent—mountain lion! David looks back and sees a large cougar stalking Mr. Church! Will is suddenly one very conflicted rescue dog. He still wants to rescue hikers, but decides his priority must be to defend Mr. Church…David prioritizes lost hikers.

As followers of Jesus, who is himself is Peace, what does he say?

If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. (Mt 18:12-13)
If anyone wants to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever would save their life will lose it; and whoever loses their life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it. (Mk 8:34-35)

Should we be concerned about protecting our society against Muslim encroachment or should we be more concerned that 1.3 billion Muslims don’t know that Jesus loves them and have never talked to a Christian who has told or demonstrated that?

Cape Town Speaker Videos

To see videos of some of the main sessions and speakers you can click here

Are we apologizing for being American?

We had our US regional gathering on Monday. We talked about the fact that the US has more representation on every level of this Congress than any other nation. Six leaders were invited to share briefly about issues that face the American church. Several spoke on the need to repent of racism and embrace the God given opportunity of the other cultures coming to America through immigration. We were also reminded of our need to be humble and listen to the rest of the world. There was a sentiment that we need to step back and listen and that we need to let others lead internationally and in the local context let those who are immigrants to the land step up and lead. At the end of the time, a brother asked me an incredibly honest and vulnerable question.

Is there an Anti Americanism that we perpetuate as Americans when we are so apologetic for who we are and what we have done?

I wanted to formulate some of my reflections on that question. First Americans are not the only ones with cultural blinders. Every nation and culture has their own blinders. Americans are not the only ones who need to be apologetic and humble but we can only start with checking our own attitudes and trust that others will see for themselves their own blinders. I want respond to that question with five factors that I think, we, as American need to consider every time we gather in international gatherings with brothers and sisters from around the world and even in our own country. (1) We live with the baggage of our cultures sin both past and current. Our country was built on a racist past of slavery and of cultural destruction of native peoples living in the land. We also live with the current hypocrisy that we as a nation of immigrants has a growing anti immigrant sentiment often with the undercurrent of xenophobia. I do not think we need to beat ourselves up over this but we need to realize we have to be honest with the fact that these are challenges we need to work out as a church according to God’s call to us in scripture. (2) We also live with the burden of our foreign policy whether we feel we have supported it or not. Americans have the burden of breaking through the assumptions that people have about our ideology or perceived imperialism. (3) We by nature are problem solvers and have always been leaders. We need to remember that people and nations are not problems to be solved and that the rest of the world does not “need” us to lead because we are Americans. Americans are known for speaking first and speaking loudest and too often end up shutting out other voices that need to be and wait to be heard. (4)We need to realize that we control resources as those who are generally wealthier and resource laden than most of the rest of the world. Without checking our attitudes carefully this too often leads to a patronizing attitude towards those we wish to serve and those we wish to work with. (5) There is a changing world and we live in a changing America. We can fight that inevitable change or we can see the opportunity that God may be giving us with these changes. Could these changes mean a greater mutual partnership with the church in other parts of the world as many of them step up to help lead? Could these changes mean a fresh revival of mission leaders for the church in America, leaders who might be bicultural?

America has a proud missions history. I am eternally grateful for American missionaries that brought the gospel to my homeland Korea and to those who sent them out. Americans believe in American exceptionalism as we would expect other nations to have a healthy sense of their own exceptionalism. But in this new season of churches growing all over the world, I think America should lead, and can lead but can we lead in the posture of being servant leaders.

North Korean Girl Gets Standing Ovation

We were moved to tears at the testimony of Gyeong Joo Song, an 18 year old high school student. She had grown up in North Korea as her father worked for Kim Jong Il. At the age of 6 her family became political refugees and escaped to China. In China her parents became believers in Jesus and her father eventually returned to North Korea to bring Bibles and the good news back to North Korea. He was arrested and has not been heard from, and is presumed dead. Her mother passed away in China to leukemia. Gyeong Joo ended up in South Korea where she came to accept Jesus as her savior and now wants to return to North Korea to share the gospel with the people that have most likely killed her father. With a firm faith in a heavenly father she is living out "God in Christ reconciling the world to himself." What an amazing testimony from an amazing young woman living out reconciliation in its purest form. Clearly the highlight of the week thus far.

Park Street Church at Cape Town

My church in Boston has quite a great presence here in Cape Town. I am not the only one from Park Street participating. We have our missionaries in South Africa fully involved. David and Deborah Bliss have been serving on the Prayer Team and will be leading a learning tour of Wellington and the history Andrew Murray Center. Ashley Leimkheuler is serving on the Congress Staff Team. She has been taking care of the Special Guests. Andrew and Anne May are serving as stewards. In addition three members of the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary Stewards team are Park Street Interns, Mike Chadwell, Soojin Chung, and Geoff Quin. In addition our former Minister of Missions and his wife, Casely and Angela Essamuah are here as delegates.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Triumphalism in Missions

So much of what is going on here is shaped by the backdrop of the 1910 Edinburgh Missions Conference, convened by John Mott, which really launched the century of Protestant missions all over the world and a great student volunteer missions movement. For that period of history it was probably the most ecumenical Christian gathering ever with gathered guests from all over the world. There was a strong belief that in their generation the whole world would be reached for Christ. Historians have critiqued the event for its strong sense of triumphalism, an over confidence of the certain triumph of their mission.

The theme of this congress is “God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” - 2 Corinthians 5:19. This congress is most likely the most diverse and ecumenical gathering of Christian leaders ever. I am honored to continue to meet so many luminaries of the faith, men and women from around the world, doing such significant ministry. I wondered if we would have an early sense of triumphalism or if I would get caught up in the optimism of this sort of gathering. Rather I have sensed soberness about the realities of the challenges that face us. I wonder if there is the other effect of seeing the problems as larger than the Lord we follow. In so many previous generations, people have believed that surely the world would be reached for Christ in their generation. I wonder if we will be a generation that is too pessimistic about the power of Jesus to reconcile the world to himself in our generation?

I now declare open the discussions of the Third Lausanne Congress

The Cape Town Congress began with wonderful South African Fan Fare. We were treated to a full symphony orchestra, with wonderful thematic music, a large choir, children singing and dancing, a historical video covering the sweep of Christian history to 1910, dramatic narratives of what God is doing in Latin America, Asian, and Africa, a warm welcome by the Chairman of the Congress, Henry Orombi, Archbishop of Uganda, and the words of Doug Birdsall, Executive Director of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, declaring “with these words I now declare open the discussions of the Third Lausanne Congress"

Now the work will begin. In a unique paradigm shift the meeting hall has been set up not as an auditorium but with hundreds of tables to accommodate six people each so that after each speaker we will be responding in discussion groups.

The Congress about to Open

After five years of dreaming, talking, praying, and planning, the Third Lausanne Congress is about to kick off this evening. Delegates have been pouring in form all over the world. The one conspicuous absence is that the majority of the Chinese Mainland delegates will not be joining us again. The NY Times has written this article regarding the governments decision to bar the delegates from attending.

Chinese Christians Barred From Conference
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
More than 100 Chinese Christians seeking to attend an international evangelical conference in South Africa have been barred from leaving the country.

Please pray for us that the Holy Spirit would guide each of our deliberations and meetings.

Heartbroken for the China's Delegates

So it looks official. The Chinese authorities are preventing the Chinese delegation from leaving China by confiscating passports and other means until after the Congress is over. After two long years of preparation, prayer, selecting delegates, raising funds for themselves, and for others who need scholarships outside China, the majority of those delegates will once again be denied the opportunity to join the world Christian community at a Lausanne Congress.

We take comfort in God's sovereignty that surely he is doing a work of renewing his precious church in China. And surely God is reminding the rest of us, that what our brothers and sisters face there daily, in choosing to walk the path of the cross, is perhaps what normative discipleship should look like, and perhaps we live in the bubble encumbered by any cost or sacrifice.

We will miss their presence in Cape Town and there absence will be more conspicuous than ever.

China's House Church Reps Blocked from Attending Lausanne Congress | Gospelherald.net-Chinese Christian News Online

China's House Church Reps Blocked from Attending Lausanne Congress | Gospelherald.net-Chinese Christian News Online

Participants from China

We have been praying that our brothers and sisters might join us in Cape Town as real blessing to the church across the world. This was an open posting by a church in Beijing. As they write, delegates from China are "under much pressure and have been stopped" from departing for Cape Town. Please pray for this situation and for wisdom for the authorities and the church.

Shouwang Church’s position on China participants attending the Lausanne Congress

Participants from China invited to the Lausanne World Congress are currently under much pressure and have been stopped. We believe Lausanne has the Lord’s leading and His providential good will as it will move the church in China to become one and grow in maturity. Through Lausanne, God will bring the church in China to “rise up and shine!” becoming “salt and light” to bless China.

As a result, Shouwang church is grateful for our 12 brothers and sisters (8 participants and 4 volunteers) who are privileged to be a part of Lausanne. We beseech the Lord to lead them through this journey peacefully and successfully.

We pray for China’s participants to have a heart of “resolution, openness and togetherness” in attending Lausanne, and for the churches that have been under attack for the pressure to be released.

We especially pray for our brothers and sisters who have been detained and under arrest (especially Inner Mongolia brother Liu Jin Tao who was detained Oct 9^th for 15 days). We ask God for freedom in spirit and in body as we trust the Spirit of the Lord while being a testimony of His life and truth. We also pray for the church and their ministry co-workers that they would be one in the Lord.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you, his glory appears over you.” Isaiah 60:1-3

Beijing Shouwang Church Board

The Lausanne Questions

So these are the six questions and issues that we are going to tackle together in Cape Town. I just hope that this is not a done deal but that we really have space and time to actually work through these issues, not that I disagree with any of the call to action and commitment in any one of them.

1. The case for the truth and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a pluralistic world. We will look at the interaction of Christianity with other religions and the Challenge of Pluralism. As a response to the biblical reflection and consideration of the challenge, we will then recommit ourselves in Declaring the Uniqueness of Jesus Christ.

2. Developing a theology of reconciliation. After biblical reflection on Reconciliation, we will then look at the issue of human identity which is behind conflicts around the world and our ambiguity in biomedical and moral ethics. As the church, we will then repent and ask for God's help in Reconciling Us to Each Other.

3. Good news for a broken world. We will contemplate the Challenge of Suffering, seeking to better understand the issues of global economic injustice, disease, environment and poverty. If we are to engage the culture for Christ, we need to be Empowered by the Holy Spirit.

4. The unfinished task. The Challenge of the Unfinished Task will explore the new challenges and opportunities to evangelization, including unreached people groups, urbanization, migration, Diaspora groups and the role of women. We will be encouraged as we look at New Forms of Partnerships within and across minority and majority worlds as we cooperate in world evangelization.

5. A call to a 21st century reformation of the church. The Challenge of Relativism is one we need to deal with if the Church is to experience a rebirth and renewal. We hope for an impassioned appeal for Christ-like character individually and corporately. We will also look at prosperity teaching, entitlement theology and issues of moral purity with a challenge to Living as a Distinctive People.

6. Unity of the church. Under the Challenge of Unity, we will look at who is doing what and what is not being done. We will appeal for unity and increased cooperation between evangelicals worldwide. The closing service is a Call to Action which is a renewed commitment to dedicated discipleship and the Lordship of Christ as we prepare to spread the gospel worldwide with integrity and courage.

Lausanne Congress at Cape Town 2010

Friends many of you know I have been invited to be a US delegate to the Lausanne Congress in Cape Town this October 16-25. www.capetown2010.com

This gathering looks to be the most internationally diverse and ecumenical gathering of Christian leaders ever. There are 4,500 participants invited to the onsite Congress and there will be about 185 global link sites around the world. There are men and women from 200 nations who serve as missionaries, pastors, scholars, business people, government officials, journalists, medical personnel and more. Cape Town 2010 participants represent virtually every stream of Global Christianity. 40 % of these delegates are under the age of 50.

This is a Congress gathered for the focus on what it takes to finish the task of World Evangelization which was given to us by Jesus. In 1974 two key leaders, Billy Graham and John Stott gathered their friends from around the world in Lausanne Switzerland. Several things emerged from that first Congress. The first was the Lausanne Covenant which has become a great statement on evangelical belief and commitment to the gospel (www.lausanne.org/covenant) The second was a renewed commitment that the "whole church is to take the whole gospel to the whole world". I am looking forward to what God has in store for us this coming October.