The Fourth Lausanne Congress, September 2024, Memos from Incheon Memo #3
There is a subtle little lie that props up in our minds from time to time. It is the lie that I am, or my group is, or our ministry is, well, indispensable—indispensable to God’s kingdom work in the world. We become so dominated by our own self-importance, our own concerns, our own activities, that we actually begin to believe that the world, or God’s kingdom desperately needs us. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to belittle the eternal significance of each of our callings or of God’s invitation to join his kingdom’s work. I don’t want to minimize the privilege and joy of the extraordinary contributions we can make by God’s grace. What I am talking about is the me or we-centricity that easily arises in the midst of our work. It happens to all of us.
This takes me to the Fourth Lausanne Congress. Outside of the large group meetings convened here in Seoul, a significant part of our time is intentionally placing us into collaborative discussion groups. Each group focuses on some topic. In the main sessions in a hall of 5,000, we are sitting at tables with about six others. In the afternoon we are attending ministry interest groups, or “gap” groups, that focus on some gap yet to be filled in accomplishing Jesus’ great commission.
So yesterday I sat at the table working with Amil, a youth worker from Australia, Michelle, a radio broadcaster from the Philippines, Stephen a South African Missionary to Japan, Madonna, who works with children in Ghana, and Melissa, a research scientist at Cambridge university. I am sitting with and interacting with them all week long about the topics we are presented with from the platform. In the afternoon I am part of a “gap group” focused on the global aging populations. In that group is Chris from Malasia, Andi from Switzerland, Hoe Son from Taiwan, Yoo from South Korea, Yoshiya from Japan and Daniella from Lebanon, and……. me from Colorado.
I want you to know of the extraordinary privilege of talking to, listening to, and praying with so many committed believers from all around the world and benefiting from their insights. They all are a part of the global church. They have all been transformed by Jesus Christ. They all have perspectives from their own cultural settings which I benefit from hearing.
In my life in Denver, I often get to sit down with internationals students or faculty. But there are very few moments in my life when I get to sit down with so many internationals at one time, from every region of the world, who all love Jesus, and work together on a projects like this. And it reminds all of us that God is at work all over the world. His work is so much bigger than me and my group. And just in case we have forgotten, or we’ve become arrogant, Scripture reminds us in several places that there is a sense in which none of us are indispensable.
In Matthew 3, Jesus warns some of the Jewish leaders of his day to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, then he adds, “for out of these stones God can raise up children of Abraham.” Conversely, in Romans 11, while describing God’s work like an olive tree, Paul warns Gentile believers not to be arrogant and assume their own indispensability. For God can prune his tree and graft the natural branches back in again.
All of which is to say that I am immensely blessed by these designed collaborative moments in conversing with the global church this week in South Korea.