Welcome to our Jumbo-sized Lausanne 4 edition of the Link.

You will no doubt be familiar with the story of the blind men describing a strange new beast. One, having felt the tail, described it as being like a rope. Another, touching the trunk described it as being like a snake, while another, touching the leg, likened it to a tree trunk. So the story goes on, with none of the blind men by themselves describing the beast, but collectively describing the elephant.

This month we have numerous contributors – none blind, I hasten to add - each giving a reflection of their experience of Lausanne 4, held in Seoul, Korea, September 22-28^th. Each shares from their perspective; the positive, the potential and beauty, but also the nagging questions, the concerns and the controversy. Their ‘warts and all’ reflections collectively give us all a feel and a Kiwi perspective of the conference. By any account Lausanne was both beautiful and controversial.

Collaboration seems to be big word from L4 and I'd like to highlight Jay Matenga's advice (from his blog https://jaymatenga.com/l4-reflections/.)

I would encourage pursuit of local involvement and collaboration. The work of the gospel is always local. It’s contextual. So, if you are in a church-based ministry, join or create a local pastor’s fellowship and encourage one another. Become a member of your national evangelical alliance and invest in its wellbeing. If you’re involved in ministry outside of a local church (including workplace and missions), create your own collaborative group, join or create a local chapter of a special interest global network, and/or contribute to the vitality of the national missions alliance or association. If you’re a missionary, invest in your organisation’s local and regional networks. If you are able, participate in regional church or missions alliance gatherings...

Our contributors in this edition are:

• Jay Matenga (Mutuality Trust, World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission)
  
• Andrew Lim (Worldwide International Students Ministry Network)
• Chris Ponniah ( Leader of Migrant Ministry Collaboration- MAIN)
• Sarah Scott Webb (SIM)
• Karl Udy (Tandem, reflecting on Lausanne Local, a kiwi follow up event to L4)
• Andrew Jones (creator of Virtual Lounges at L4) 
• Allen Tie (ISMNZ)

So you might want to make a jumbo sized cup of coffee (or tea) and read through the Link in one sitting – or you may wish to ‘eat the elephant’ one bite at a time.

(Note that these authors state their own opinions, MI does not claim to endorse everything that is written.)  

Joseph Bateson

Interim Director

More than 30 New Zealanders attended L4, in-person or online. It was wonderful to be on site as a cohort, especially participating in a regional discussion together with Australia and various Pacific Island nations.

Almost 5,400 participants from 200 countries gathered around about 1,000 discussion tables in the main hall. An additional 2,000 participants joined online from more than 100 countries (just 10 percent of what was initially hoped for). The livestream, however, attracted over 30,000 viewers from 161 countries. Our very own “Tall Skinny Kiwi” Andrew Jones led the creation of virtual lounges on spatial.io where online participants could create avatars, explore specially created virtual spaces, and hang out with each other. That online experience was dominated by Brazilians who made the most of it! 494 people served on the Congress Team and more than 1600 Koreans volunteered to serve on site with wonderful enthusiasm. 6,888 Koreans also participated in a 24/7 prayer meeting for the gathering in an nearby church.

Each morning Bible expositors drew on the book of Acts to explore issues such as God’s mission empowered by the Holy Spirit (Femi Adeleye, Nigeria/Ghana), the missional community as God’s new society (Ann Zaki, Egypt, who I had the privilege of praying for in te reo on stage), persecution and mission (Patrick Fung, Hong Kong/Singapore), Christian witness in the workplace (Julia Garschagen, Germany), Christlike servanthood (Philip Ryken, USA), and the gospel to the ends of the earth (Ronaldo Lidório, Brazil). Short talks and panels on related themes from a variety of presenters followed the expositions each day to conclude the morning plenary sessions.

The Korean Church also held the spotlight at times with stunning creativity and moving presentations. All of the content was rich and often challenging. Processing was done around tables of up to six participants. Afternoons were set aside for various types of interest groups, with two hours allocated to engaging with one of twenty five “gaps” identified as hindering the fulfilment of the Great Commission. The intended outcome was to form “collaborative action groups” to work to “fill the gaps”.

I encourage you to read the excellent plenary speaker reviews and insider interviews from the venue reported by Christian Daily International. Visit https://christiandaily.com and search for Lausanne. Very insightful.

A couple months prior to the event, the Lausanne team released the State of the Great Commission report, which can be viewed online here: https://lausanne.org/report or as a comprehensive 500+ page PDF available to download here: https://lausanne.org/download-report.

A 97-clause Seoul Statement was also released immediately after the opening of the Congress. It garnered no small amount of controversy for what it did or did not say, but more for the fact that it was not created out of the Congress itself and, at the time of release, was not considered a draft and therefore not intended to be changed. Most participants, including myself, were caught by surprise as we anticipated being able to influence a final statement coming out of the gathering. You can read the Seoul Statement for yourself here: https://lausanne.org/statement/the-seoul-statement.

I attended in a formal capacity as Executive Director of the World Evangelical Alliance’s Mission Commission. Many other WEA leaders were present and some were heavily involved in the programme creation and execution. While each guest presentation added a wonderful sense of Evangelical diversity, many leaders I have spoken with agreed that there was an undertone to Lausanne’s official presentations that gave us cause for concern. I have written up just some of my concerns as part of a much longer review available here: https://jaymatenga.com/l4-reflections/.

Lausanne’s assumption that collaboration was not happening effectively, and their intention to create a unique ecosystem to ensure it does, did not sit well with the many network leaders present whose primary vocation is to nurture collaborative action. Rather than a para-church entity like Lausanne, with little or no accountability to the global Church, I would far rather see local-church oriented collaborative alliances flourish in the ecosystem that already exists as the World Evangelical Alliance, our local manifestation of which is the New Zealand Christian Network; and within missions alliances, like Missions Interlink.

Only time will tell what lasting influence this event will have on global Evangelicalism. I suspect it will struggle to make anywhere near the impact of the 1974 or 2010 gatherings. Bible-believing, gospel-confident, Protestant Christianity is now too globally diverse and theologically mature to passively follow aspirations for future collaboration and Evangelical unity on Lausanne’s institutional terms.

My experience at Lausanne was incredibly positive, allowing me to witness the beauty of the global body of Christ as we worshipped, and engaged with one another despite our differences and imperfections. What united us was our shared desire to declare and display Christ together. Lausanne 4 reignited a fresh passion within me to play my part in the fulfilment of the Great Commission and see the Body of Christ actively proclaiming and displaying Christ to the world. While I have much to share about my time at L4, two key aspects stood out to me and have inspired me to keep the mission fire alive within me: the power of collaboration in fulfilling the Great Commission and the complexities of the global Church. Rather than remaining on the sidelines, I want to actively participate in realizing the Lausanne movement's vision. It was this vision that initially drew me to missions—the rallying cry from Lausanne in 1974: “the whole Church taking the whole Gospel to the whole world.”

The Power of Collaboration in fulfilling the Great Commission

At Lausanne 4, I was struck by the incredible strength of collaboration and how it brings the global church together in pursuit of the Great Commission. Throughout my formal and informal conversations with individuals from diverse backgrounds around the world, there was a shared passion for working in unity and purpose to stay focused on this mission of God. Our diversity crossed cultural, gender, socio-economic, theological, and professional realms, whether in church, mission, or the marketplace.

While this concept of collaboration is not new to me, it served as a powerful reminder that we must dismantle the barriers that divide us in order to work together effectively. The discussions and stories shared at Lausanne highlighted the significant work still needed to spread the gospel to all nations and ethnicities...

A major focus of the Fourth Lausanne Congress was collaboration.

A group of 5,000 is probably not conducive to effective collaboration.  Although I met several hundred people, the number with whom I will remain in contact is much smaller. But my connection with other kiwis at L4 was extended as a few of us ran a ‘Lausanne Local’ event in Auckland a couple of weeks after L4. The purpose of this was to bring the conversations that happened at L4 to the missions community in NZ. Over two days about 20 people, including missions leaders, pastors, and others who shared a passion for mission met to watch some of the Lausanne sessions and discuss the issues raised. People came from as far afield as Oamaru! During this time an interesting bond was formed as people experienced being in a group of people where, instead of being “that missions person” they were in a group where everyone was “that missions person”. Although most of the group were strangers to each other at the beginning, by the end people were making plans to connect with one another for partnership and mutual encouragement. We are looking forward to having further meetings to fuel the passion for missions in the near future.

Although 5,000 may not be number conducive to effective collaboration, sometimes it takes being in a group of 5,000 to find the two or three that you can partner really well with. At other times a group of 20 will be enough. But regardless of the number of people in the room, collaboration will not happen unless we intentionally seek out these partnerships.

In some ways, Lausanne Congress is the contemporary equivalent of our ancient ecumenical church councils (Nicea, Chalcedon, Constantinople etc) and like those councils, controversy, disagreements and differences were part of the Congress. However, there was also a deep sense of a common vision and a common goal; a common commitment to be a witness to the gospel to the ends of the world till the end of this age...

It is undeniable that L4 gathered from across the globe, a beautifully diverse gathering of faithful men and women from many ethnicities and cultures. I doubt that there are any other gatherings of Christians that are as multiethnic. However, being multiethnic does not equate to being multicultural. What was clear throughout the Congress was that L4 is very much an American enterprise. From its slick production, to the songs, to the drama teams, to the hype and vibe, to having paintings done concurrently at each session, it was an American consumerist religion on display.

Thus one of the most multiethnic gatherings of the Global Church was disappointingly, distressingly and distastefully monocultural. This was hammered home when one of the speakers plaintively explained that he had offered to speak in Spanish; his native tongue but was firmly told that it had to be English...

Having people of different ethnicities in our ministries does not make it multicultural even if they are on the leadership team. For a ministry to truly be multicultural, the ministry must intentionally have as a normal part of its life, multicultural elements like language, food and behaviour. And this requires the dominant culture to make space, to put aside their own preferences like so many minority cultures have done for so long...

Some of the beautiful:

• Worshipping with 5300 believers from 150+ countries is incredible. I often found myself thinking “Is this what heaven is going to be like?” It truly felt like ‘every tribe and every tongue worshipping before the throne of God’, and this experience alone was well worth going for. It is such an incredible privilege to get this glimpse of eternity.

• The God conversations and connections, including 1 at my table group, a German MP who established an anti-trafficking network 10 years ago, and was heavily involved in lobbying for Prostitution Reform in the German Parliament. We spent much time discussing this, and I was able to share with him about my time in DC in August with Reem Al Saleem, the UN Special Rapporteur who recently wrote a report condemning prostitution as violence against women. I also shared with him the written press release my team at the World Freedom Network had written in response to Reem’s report. The next day he told me he had sent it through to his lobbying team in the German parliament and they asked for permission to use it as a key document for their legislative lobbying!

• Some outstanding speakers, particularly Sarah Bruel, Dr Anne Zaki and Ruth de Padillo’s plenaries. Outstanding prophetic voices, despite the short time allocated to each.

• Learning about the history of Korea and the Korean church. We were treated to some incredible presentations about these, and gained much understanding and empathy for what they have gone through as a nation and as a church.

• The high profile creative arts were given, drama and art in particular. I especially loved watching the virtual artist worship in real time – he was mesmerising.

However despite these great things, there was much that saddened, disappointed, and to be honest grieved my spirit. Here’s what I experienced as the more controversial aspects of Lausanne...

Two months before the L4 Congress the leadership team asked me to create the virtual lounge for participants who could not come to S. Korea for the physical event. 

At the time I was living at a Christian intentional community for the poor in Otaki, in a one room cabin with only an extension lead for electricity. I had no internet except a hotspot from my phone. But I accepted the challenge.

I pulled together a team of VR digital missionaries from around the world and we built 8 lounges, some of them digital twins to the actual Lausanne Congress. We added a virtual African safari because when I was at Lausanne3 in Cape Town, they offered a safari as an excursion. And being in a VR space without playing a game or going on a quest was out of the question. We needed hoverboards, 4x4s and a hot air balloon. And a giant ant to ride. 

As it turned out, our lounges were very popular and much appreciated. L4 offered a Digital Discovery Center of 40 ministries impacting the digital world and so we created a digital twin of the same 40 ministries and their videos. Our Wall of the Unreached was actually a video wall that played automatically and you could walk around it. The art at L4 was recreated in digital form in our gallery and in a few of our lounges. All in all, it was a virtual experience that was not disappointing, though next time AI avatar bot walking around answering questions would be nice. 

The young Brazilians especially enjoyed it and weeks afterwards were still asking me how to add the Samba dance to their avatars. I got invitations to many countries to train missionaries to function successfully in the digital landscape. And requests from global mission leaders to help them understand this new digital world. 

Last week a New Zealand mission leader who was at L4 in person asked me to initiate him into the virtual world, he insisted that the young people in his realm wanted something more 3D and virtual. And so I promised to give him a private tour this week of the Lausanne lounges. Most likely he will not build virtual worlds to encompass his ministry but he will be able to connect with a younger generation, more native in these worlds and who do not entertain a physical/digital divide like their parents. 

The Lausanne4 Congress stressed the importance of digital missions. My team and I tried our best to display it, I think we opened a few eyes to the possibilities of Christian mission in the future. I think the excursions and games and social meetings of missional leaders are important and lead to trust and future conversations and partnerships

May God enable us all to move forward to completing the Great Commission, acknowledging the new technologies but not getting infatuated with any of them. 

See snapshots from the digital lounge 

I was nominated. I applied and was accepted. I got on a plane and here I was, in the Congress.

On the shuttle to the Convention Centre, I learnt the brother sitting next to me had his visa rejected several times, having to fly to another country to get his visa just before he departed for Seoul. Multiple times I heard stories of communities under intense persecution & suffering, by faith, they made their journey here. I wept and thanked God for them.

5200 participants, the majority world making up 59%, women 29% and under 40’s 16% of the total, with a notable 28% from marketplace workers. I commend L4 for the globally diverse presenters and the emphasis on digital and inter-generational discipleship.

As expected, with the messiness of people coming from around the world and covering many complex issues, some presentations reverberated well while others created uneasiness. The line between objective reporting and opinion sharing has at times, been blurred, when “truth” was expressed from an individual perspective, unfettered by biblical accountability. Yet, it gave me hope that despite the disagreements and controversies and how crazy the world is right now, God has gathered His people together to align with His work. After all, we are here to discuss, encourage, debate or even challenge, which is the spirit of Lausanne over the years.

The good news is we all subscribe to the authority of the Bible. Each morning, a global scholar presented an exposition from Acts, lessons on the work of the Holy Spirit, often in persecution. I did however lament the lack of participants studying directly from the scriptures together.

The report on the State of the Great Commission, was an impressive work on the current state of global missions (sadly, only a small Oceania session with little info on NZ), spelling out key challenges and gaps to fulfil bringing the good news to all people groups.

One of the key initiatives is to move from partnership to seeking collaborative actions in closing the 25 issue areas, or gaps. The aim is to create space to work together in innovative ways and to address areas that are under-resourced. Obviously, collaboration doesn’t happen without some degree of conflict. From my polycentric mission view (which defines mission activity as a truly global endeavour with people being sent from everywhere to everywhere), it was stimulating and yet frustrating, that the definition of this narrative has somewhat defines the agenda for our collaborations. 

Our group recognized and struggled at times to make connections between specific issues and other factors at play in our respective contexts. In trying to grasp a proper understanding of the larger context, we reckoned the current established rigidity of the ‘church structure’ with its practices and the lack of Kingdom mentality are key hindrances to incubate a polycentric mission DNA in every believer. I believe this is a heart issue, and it requires a shift to pilgrim mentality (theology), as in the scattered multitudes (Acts 8) with the ability to speak to truly unchurched people and to gossip about Jesus in our daily living among the lost.

As much as trying to be inclusive, I am still seeing a dominant western monocultural style, struggling to address the global contextual issues of spirituality and mission. Being in the corporate world most of my life, I find the L4 approach intriguing but as we proceed, I can’t help but feel even the slogan and the way we framed our goals fall into the danger of imposing and creating a frenzy of mission activities without desiring to know our Father’s heart.

The 140 years of Korean Christian story was especially heart-warming. It affirms that by His mercy, God is still building His Kingdom His way. Jesus repeatedly said, “I know, I know your work, your condition.” He holds and walks among His Church and it is He who said, “I have set before you an open door. You have little strength.”

Christ abased Himself for us and He said, “So send I you”. I came away with deep joy and lament, feeling deeply humbled by our Lord, to repent, to listen deeply to Him and to each other. The change starts with me. To declare and display Christ in my life and yes, in the context of a messy and broken world.