The Lausanne Movement has Friday (28th January) released the final version of the Cape Town Commitment, a historic
declaration and call to action to the world’s evangelicals.
It draws together the reflections of some 4,000 evangelicals from 198
countries who met in Cape Town, South Africa, last October for the
Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation.
Part 1 of the statement was released to delegates at the time, but
today is the first time that the Cape Town Commitment has been published
in full with Part 2, the Call to Action.
The first part of the Cape Town Commitment is a Trinitarian statement
drawn up by senior evangelical theologians, emphasising that Christians
are called to love because God first loved us.
It commits Christians to the "integral and dynamic exercise of all
dimensions of mission to which God calls his church" and compassionate
care for those in need and all of God's creation.
"In response to God’s boundless love for us in Christ, and out of our
overflowing love for him, we rededicate ourselves, with the help of the
Holy Spirit, fully to obey all that God commands, with self-denying
humility, joy and courage. We renew this covenant with the Lord - the
Lord we love because he first loved us," it reads.
Part 2 draws heavily from the discussions that took place at the Cape
Town Congress, and stresses the most urgent priorities for evangelicals
in fulfilling the task of taking the whole Gospel to the whole world.
It makes a number of specific calls, including the call to proclaim
the truth through word and deed, to be ethical in evangelism, and to
return to “humility, integrity and simplicity”.
Part of this return includes renouncing false gods and idols,
including the idolatry of "disordered sexuality", power, success and
greed.
It also emphasises the need to equip the church in walking in the ways of the Lord.
It states: "We challenge one another, as God’s people in every
culture, to face up to the extent to which, consciously or
unconsciously, we are caught up in the idolatries of our surrounding
culture. We pray for prophetic discernment to identify and expose such
false gods and their presence within the Church itself, and for the
courage to repent and renounce them in the name and authority of Jesus
as Lord."
Another significant aspect of the statement is its emphasis on
partnerships and the need for the different parts of Christ's body to
work in unity in mission.
"A divided Church has no message for a divided world. Our failure to
live in reconciled unity is a major obstacle to authenticity and
effectiveness in mission," it states.
"We lament the dividedness and divisiveness of our churches and
organisations. We deeply and urgently long for Christians to cultivate a
spirit of grace and to be obedient to Paul’s command to ‘make every
effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
The Rev Dr Doug Birdsall, Executive Chair of The Lausanne Movement,
said the Cape Town Commitment was intended as a “clear and engaging
declaration of belief”.
“With this as our basis, we wrestled with some of the toughest issues
imaginable – within the church, in global mission strategy, and in the
public arena,” he said.
“The Cape Town Commitment’s Call to Action, coming out of those
discussions in South Africa, is our roadmap for the next ten years.”
The Cape Town Commitment stands in the historic line of The Lausanne
Covenant and The Manila Manifesto, the former being one of the most
important documents in the history of the church and serving as the
statement of faith for millions of evangelicals, churches and parachurch
organisations worldwide.
The statement working group of the Cape Town Commitment was led by Dr
Chris Wright, International Director of Langham Partnership, and
included members of the World Evangelical Alliance Theological
Commission.
Dr Wright said the statement should not be regarded as a “memorial of a moment”.
“It is the conviction of a movement and the voice of a multitude. It
distils a vast quantity of input from the global church,” he said.
“We profoundly hope and pray that we are hearing not just the voice
of Cape Town 2010, but the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ who walked
among us there.”
Lindsay Brown, International Director of the Lausanne Movement, said
the statement was being offered to the worldwide church “in a humble
spirit”.
He spoke of his hopes for the impact that it would have on the church today.
“We trust it will be talked about, discussed, and afforded weight as a
united statement from evangelicals globally; that it will shape agendas
in Christian ministry; that it will strengthen thought-leaders in the
public arena; and that bold initiatives and partnerships will issue from
it,” he said.
Initial responses to the statement at a meeting of evangelicals in London Thursday were positive.
Tim Gunn, pastor of Woodlands Evangelical Church in Derby, welcomed the statement.
He said: "This call to belief is totally God-centred and
grace-centred. For us as representatives of the UK church, that is so
healthy [to hear] as the Western church is so often dominated by 'me'
and 'I'.
"This commitment keeps us where we should be as the UK church - on our knees."
Krish Kandiah churches to read the Cape Town Commitments and
prayerfully ask God to speak to them about the missing elements of the
church's mission.
"When we look through our old school photos, whose face do we look
for first? It’s often our own face. The temptation is that looking
through the long list that is the Cape Town Commitment, we look for our
own missional passions and we feel excited if they are there and
disappointed if they are not," he said.
"If that is our approach to the Cape Town commitment then we lose the
opportunity for the prophetic voice of the global church to speak to
us.
"If instead we use this list as a Missional MOT, its not the parts
that we are fulfilling that we need to look at , but rather the areas
that are missing that will have most significance for us."