THE FOURTH DAY OF THE CAPE TOWN 2010 CONGRESS FOCUSES ON PRIORITIES;
Robust Dialogue Takes Place Around How to Reach the Least Reached People Groups and People in Urban Areas.
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, 20 October 2010—Day four of the Cape Town 2010 Congress sessions focused on strategies to bring the gospel to the remaining people groups not yet engaged with the gospel, as well as to the diverse communities in the world’s mega-cities.
Vaughan Roberts, Rector of St Ebbe’s Church in Oxford, UK, gave the morning message on the first half of Ephesians 4. He encouraged participants to remember the unity of diversity found in the body of Christ.
‘When human beings freeze water, we make ice cubes exactly the same,’ said Roberts. ‘But, when God freezes water, he makes snowflakes. Every one is different, and in the same way God has given us different gifts within the body.’
He also challenged participants to remember the centrality of the Word of God. He said that there is a famine of the Word of God in the world and in our churches. The lack of biblical teaching, he said, is 'the great omission,' and its absence hinders discipleship.
‘As the Word of God goes out, that's how people come to Christ in the first place,’ said Roberts. ‘People from all nations brought together in Christ. As people come together by the Spirit through the ministry of the Word – as people hear it, believe it, obey it – we grow to maturity in Christ.’
The Priority of the Least Reached Peoples
Paul Eshleman, Vice President of Networks and Partnerships for Campus Crusade for Christ International and the founder of The JESUS Film Project, led a session focused on the priority of bringing the gospel to the places where it is not.
‘Where is the Church not present, and what are we going to do about it?’ asked Paul Eshleman. ‘The incredible thing is that after 2,000 years there are still people everywhere that haven't heard. The global body of Christ needs you, needs your organization, needs your denomination, needs your relief in development organization, needs whatever you do for the cause of the kingdom to go where nobody has ever gone.’
Eshleman asked participants to recall the original appeal of Ralph Winter from the first International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, 35 years ago. ‘The essential mission task of making disciples of every people group, every nation, was a complete-able task, it could be done, and was one of the few tasks that God gave us that was complete-able.'
He outlined several categories of groups that remain unreached or are not fully resourced. Some people groups have not been exposed to any Christian believers and have no Scripture available in their languages.
Two young women shared about a new and faster approach to getting Scripture to those who do not have it yet in their own language. By using an oral storying approach, story teams help communities translate and deliver a set of essential gospel stories to their communities in their heart language. While this dynamic new strategy does not replace the need for Bible translation, it can quickly bring essential portions of Scripture to these people groups who have had nothing.
Priorities extend to the unreached who are part of the world’s largest religious blocks: Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. ‘After 100 years, they still make up 50% of the world's population,’ said Eshleman. ‘So, despite all of the breakthroughs that we have seen, we need still to be thinking about how we can show love and concern for those people groups.’
The Priority of Urban Areas
For the first time in human history, more than 50 percent of the earth’s population now lives in cities. Many unreached peoples, as well as any people who come from areas where the gospel has penetrated, are among those moving into the world’s mega-cities.
Tim Keller, along with three other panelists, presented an afternoon session on embracing God’s global urban mission. Keller said that urban Church has opportunities to reach out to people who may not be reached in their home setting.
‘Millions of newcomers in burgeoning cities have characteristics that make them far more open to the Christian faith than they were before arriving,’ said Keller. ‘First, they are more open to new ideas and to change in general, after being uprooted from traditional settings. Second, they greatly need help and support to face the moral, economic, emotional, and spiritual pressures of city life. The old kinship support networks of the rural areas are weak or absent.’
Urbanization presents new challenges and opportunities for the global church.
Bishop David Oginde of Kenya said that a challenge of urbanization is that people from rural areas who come into urban areas often are not employed. Their unemployment often puts pressure on local churches, but churches that are willing to broaden their ministries can use this challenge as an opportunity. He said that churches need to help ‘empower people who come into the city looking for employment’ by creating income generating projects. ‘Otherwise you find that your gospel starts to become irrelevant to the needs of the people.’
Moss Ntlha, of The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, said that urbanization has made it easier to follow Jesus’ commandment to go. ‘Urbanization brings everyone closer to you,’ said Moss. ‘We find that the challenge is no longer that we go off to other cities around the world to find the people. They actually come to the city.’