Hi friends,
At Lausanne 4, hosted in Seoul, Korea, the Lausanne Movement released “The Seoul Statement."
To see our community’s conversations on it, use the hashtag seoul-statement.
It’s a document worth reflecting on.
After all, the Seoul Statement took a global team of Christian leaders five years to develop!
Here’s the behind-the-scenes process:
The Seoul Statement addresses contemporary gaps that the Theology Working Group (TWG) deemed necessary to address for the sake of strengthening and sharpening today’s global mission.
Starting in 2019, the TWG team began to grow under the initial oversight of Michael Oh and David Bennett. These were the most important criteria for the TWG members: reputedly evangelical, recommended, global, and representative of Christian traditions. The TWG includes voices, men and women, from Latin America, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Africa, the UK, North America, Australia-New Zealand, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia.
The TWG, under the outstanding leadership of Dr. Ivor Poobalan and Dr. Victor Nakah, has faithfully and compellingly given the Movement and the global church this clarion call to influence global mission for the next generation.
You can always tell what’s important to someone by what they say first.
So, how do they start the statement after these many years of prayer, study, and discussion?
Their first section begins:
I. The Gospel: The Story We Live and Tell
At the beginning of the ministry of Jesus he said, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The apostle Paul wrote: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:17). This gospel is not a formula or set of religious ideas but rather a story that conveys good news and the power to transform lives. In the book of Acts, the apostles preached the gospel to diverse audiences, and we hear them tell a story. This is the reason that the apostles and countless Christians down the ages have embraced the gospel as the story we live and tell.
“It is the story (in the Old and New Testaments) that tells us who we are, what we are here for, and where we are going. This story of God’s mission defines our identity, drives our mission, and assures us that the ending is in God’s hands” [Cape Town Commitment, 2010]
As I meditated on how they describe the gospel, I am struck by what they say it is not: a formula or a set of religious ideas.
Because in America, perhaps the dominant gospel presentation has been a formulaic one:
Hear these ideas, respond to them with this prayer, and you are guaranteed a ticket to heaven.
By packaging the gospel into a simplified, repeatable formula, Christian leaders made it easy for people to memorize, repeat, and share it. It was like the ultimate sales pitch, except the cost was free, and the prize was eternal.
I don’t want to criticize sincere efforts to evangelize.
I’m reminded of this story about D.L. Moody:
One day a lady criticized D. L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody’s reply was “I agree with you. I don’t like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?” The lady replied, “I don’t do it.” Moody retorted, “Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”
At the same time, the Lausanne Movement is energetically committed to evangelism!
As they put it, the story of God’s mission (what we call God’s Uncommon Pursuit) “defines our identity, drives our mission, and assures us that the ending is in God’s hands.”
But what difference does it make if we think of the gospel as a story, and not religious ideas?
Stories invite us to experience God for ourselves
I find that I evaluate statements at arms-length. Is this true? Or false? What evidence is there?
All good questions - I studied philosophy at Rhodes College and Oxford - I’m in!
But stories are more personally compelling: they are about people and relationships.
Stories imitate the example of Jesus
Yes, Jesus taught declarative truths! Of course, and amen.
But most of his teaching involved telling parables, stories that invited us to examine our hearts, our connection to him, and our commitment to his purposes.
Stories implicitly ask us to participate in the narrative. As we do so, we experience transformation at the deepest level, changing our imagination, desires, goals, and expectations of life.
Stories better enable cultural contextualization
Propositional truth is a gift from God. It’s a hill I’ll die on. We don’t need to knock it. This post isn’t much of a story, is it? Analysis has its place.
But when we tell a story, we immediately start to reference locations, food, characters, dialogue, and so on - all of which require us to personalize the story to ourselves and our audience (or friends).
For a global church on a global mission from the Creator God, stories are the priority. And that’s what most of the Scriptures look like - historical, truth-filled stories.
Stories start conversations, ideas start arguments
That’s an oversimplification, and it deserves to be critiqued.
But in my experience, most of the time, a good story starts a conversation.
When I start with an assertion, I often get into an argument. It might be a polite, respectful, and empathetic debate over what is true between friends who respect each other. Still, it’s less likely to generate a heart-level sharing of our personal experiences.
However, once we do get to sharing our stories, the conversation becomes more intimate, vulnerable, and meaningful.
The risk of the gospel as a story
I think it’s odd, but sometimes “story” and “truth” are seen as contradictory genres. To put it in dramatic terms, there are fairy tales and science. Hollywood movies and established facts. Entertaining novels and the cold, hard truth.
However, I don’t think we need to create an artificial division. Can’t stories be true?
For me, that settles the debate. But I think it’s worth considering the risk of relativism.
What do you think?
Is the gospel a story? Is that how God presented it to us?
What do we gain when we understand the gospel as a story?
Are there any risks we should keep in mind?
Is the gospel the story of your life?
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