Everything today was BIG! The focus on how to engage other faiths . . . the challenge of bringing work into our concept of ministry . . . the focus on the Middle East and its huge opportunities and finally the focus on urban ministry. Listen to a quick audio report from HCJB Global’s Wayne Pederson that summarizes the agenda for Wednesday here.
But before we jumped into the big issues of the day, John Piper (picture provided by yorkmoore) set the stage with a cosmic-sized message that approached the same topic that Ruth Padilla DeBorst’s presented from a very different perspective.
Bigger than the Cosmos
As you will remember, we talked about how the first day set the stage by affirming our foundation of Truth in Christ. Then on the second day we built on that foundation with “Living Stones” – the incarnational ministry of believers reaching out and engaging in the injustices of our day. Well, today John Piper built out the roof of that holy temple that God has constructed out of our very lives. He showed that while we must be passionate about the issues of the day and reach out in love for our neighbor, there is a cosmic and eternal reality that is just as deserving of our attention. That cosmic reality challenges us to see beyond the physical realities of our day to the eternal reality of God’s holiness. A “both/and” perspective again is critical. Each person may be wired to think more of one or the other, but in the end our God is building His Church with both in mind.
Chris Kidd, blogs about how John unfolds this story and applies this cosmic picture to evangelism.
“There are two truths that are then in tension in the global church today:
- When the gospel takes root in our souls it pushes us to resolve injustice in our world.
- When the gospel takes root it awakes our self to our horrid impending suffering from a perfect just God.
John believes that too often in the church today we love one of these two truths but not both. John would prefer us to have one truth: For Christ’s sake we care about all suffering especially eternal suffering.”
Bigger than the Globe
With that “big picture” in impressed on our hearts, the day also held discussions on the impact of globalization on evangelism. Os Guinness and David Wells wrote the very powerful advance paper (read here) on the issue and engaged the congress in a powerful ways. See the twitter posts below:
- lexloiz The process of globalisation is both the greatest challenge and opportunity for the gospel since the apostles. #lwce #capetown2010 Os Guinness
- Before people lived in a town, a village, now we all live in the whole world – David Wells #lcweglobal #lcwe
Bigger than the Opportunities in the Middle East
While today saw people struggling with the issues of a global culture and how to engage the many unreached peoples and faiths of the world, a very practical example was the focus on the Middle East. Nabil Costa, a Lebanese theologian, shared a powerful challenge of engagement with Islam and the people of the Middle East. View the video here.
Nabil contrasted the fact that while only 5% of people in the region are Christians, 99.9% of the people have an interest in religion. Nabil was hopeful and in the spirit of a cosmic perspective encouraged us to realize that, “There is no minority or majority in God’s language.” In fact, he went on to say that from his perspective the perceived minorities can be extremely critical to the solutions the region is seeking.
Nabil’s strongest challenge was this, “We hate what we ignore. The more we learn from other religions the better we are. The more we talk to them the better we are.” In a world where we tend to stay in our ghettos where we have comfort or at least experience, these words are powerful and true. It is a strange paradox that we live in. All at once we are becoming a global culture and at the same time becoming more and more isolated. The presentations of the day ask us to hold these two forces in check as we seek to engage the world without being lost to its devices.
Bigger than Our Work
Work takes up much of our lives and is one of those BIG forces that we always struggle to understand in the context of our faith. We have to guard against turning work into a silo that is separate from our lives of outreach. The discussions about the role of work in ministry challenged that separation. Mats Tunehag (See video here) spoke about the topic of Business as Mission. He challenged people to see business as part of holistic ministry along with church planting and other key efforts. He defined Business as Mission this way, “BAM is about being a follower of Jesus in business to the ends of the earth and to be faithful in that calling.”
Bigger than the Worlds Great Cities
Just as we received insight into God’s cosmic plan to start out the day, the day ended with the huge needs and opportunities in the world’s cities. Tim Keller shared about urban ministry and Sadari Joy Tira shared about diaspora ministry. See the twitter posts below:
- anderson_scott #capetown2010 “We have an unprecedented opportunity to disciple the diaspora.” Sadari Joy Tira – The nations are coming to us.
- The world of work is critical to city dwellers. What are City Churches doing to equip members for their work life? #lcwe #TimKeller
- The most unreached people in the world are most reachable when they’re in cities #lcwe #TimKeller @CapeTown2010
- RT @BfChrisS: Can we plant urban churches that R ‘committed to evangelism and yet also famous for their concern for social justice’? Keller
On of the Lausanne Blogger Network members, Stephen Murray, summarized his passion for the city in this excerpt, “Nothing less than a robust, gospel-centered church planting agenda is going to address this growing phenomenon. There is an intrinsic link between reaching cities and church planting. If our strategy for urban ministry is an arrow-head then the tip is church planting.” Read his full response to Tim Keller’s talk here.
Bigger than the Internet
Finally, one of the most talked about topics of the day was the announcement that the early technology challenges were a result of a malicious attack on the congress’ infrastructure. This surprising news brings the enormity of the Internet into focus in a very tangible way.
But again, this day proved to be a testimony to God’s surpassing greatness and power – even in the face of the global network that is the Internet. Against this massive attack on the infrastructure of the Cape Town 2010 Congress, God had prepared two volunteers from Bangalore, India and placed them in just the right spot. Their skills were uniquely suited to help resolve the technology issues and get the global conversation online again. Andrew Jones shares their story in his blog post on Outreach Magazine’s site.
Your BIG Next Step
Hopefully by now you have a grasp some simple examples of the BIG deal that is God’s plan for creation. As we wrap up today summary, I hope that you are left with a sense of wonder and amazement at the “Great Cosmic Purpose of God” as John Piper described it and the many BIG ways that we can see God moving in our world today.
As you ponder all of these amazing examples, think about how God is moving in BIG ways in your life and ministry today. Take a moment to thank Him for His working in your life and ask that God will give you a vision for His cosmic purposes.