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The Lausanne Covenant
(1974)
Dennis Bratcher, ed.
The Lausanne Covenant was drawn up in 1974 as an agreed faith
statement for evangelicals, both Protestant and Catholic, participating
in the First International Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Rev.
Billy Graham headed a committee that called the Congress, out of which
eventually developed the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization.
The purpose of the Lausanne Covenant was to establish a common faith
declaration for evangelicals to facilitate the efforts of worldwide
evangelism. More than 2,300 representatives from 150 countries agreed to
the Covenant.
There are several concerns that underlie the Covenant, although the
primary feature is its concern with how most effectively to spread the
Gospel in the modern world. There was deliberate effort to take into
consideration the changing shape of religion in the world, as well as
shifting attitudes and sensitivities among various cultures. In the
development of the Covenant there was concern for issues of social
justice and how evangelism relates to such issues, especially
considering the growing awareness of the problems of poverty and
injustice, and the growing world concern for civil and religious
liberty.
Since the Covenant grew out of a concern for world evangelism, there
was effort to move away from traditional "missionary" concepts of
evangelism. In the face of a post-modern mindset that promotes tolerance
of other religions as well as the hostility toward missionary work by
some international leaders, the Covenant focuses on evangelization that
takes seriously the uniqueness of Christ and, considering the growth of
the charismatic movement throughout much of the world, the work of the
Holy Spirit in evangelism. There was also recognition of the need to
contextualize the Gospel in non-Western cultures, especially in the wake
of the colonial movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.
As a result, the Covenant presents an interesting blending of
evangelical concern to spread the Gospel with sensitivity to differing
cultural and religious traditions. While in one sense the Covenant is
clearly an evangelical document, there is also a spirit of ecumenism
that reflects the complexities of a postmodern world. - Dennis Bratcher
The Lausanne Covenant
We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, from more than 150
nations, participants in the International Congress on World
Evangelization at Lausanne, praise God for his great salvation and
rejoice in the fellowship he has given us with himself and with each
other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our day, moved to
penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of
evangelization. We believe the Gospel is God's good news for the whole
world, and we are determined by his grace to obey Christ's commission to
proclaim it to all mankind and to make disciples of every nation. We
desire, therefore, to affirm our faith and our resolve, and to make
public our covenant.
1. The Purpose of God
We affirm our belief in the one-eternal God, Creator and Lord of the
world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who govern all things according to
the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people
for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his
servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the
building up of Christ's body, and the glory of his name. We confess with
shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission,
by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we
rejoice that even when borne by earthen vessels the gospel is still a
precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the
power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.
(Isa. 40:28; Matt. 28:19; Eph. 1:11; Acts 15:14; John 17:6, 18; Eph
4:12; 1 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 4:7)
2. The Authority and Power of the Bible
We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both
Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written
word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only
infallible rule of faith and practice. We also affirm the power of God's
word to accomplish his purpose of salvation. The message of the Bible is
addressed to all men and women. For God's revelation in Christ and in
Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the Holy Spirit still speaks
today. He illumines the minds of God's people in every culture to
perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes and thus discloses to
the whole Church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God.
(2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21; John 10:35; Isa. 55:11; 1 Cor. 1:21; Rom.
1:16, Matt. 5:17,18; Jude 3; Eph. 1:17,18; 3:10,18)
3. The Uniqueness and Universality of Christ
We affirm that there is only one Saviour and only one gospel,
although there is a wide diversity of evangelistic approaches. We
recognise that everyone has some knowledge of God through his general
revelation in nature. But we deny that this can save, for people
suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. We also reject as
derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism and
dialogue which implies that Christ speaks equally through all religions
and ideologies. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man, who gave
himself as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator between God
and people. There is no other name by which we must be saved. All men
and women are perishing because of sin, but God loves everyone, not
wishing that any should perish but that all should repent. Yet those who
reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to
eternal separation from God. To proclaim Jesus as "the Saviour of the
world" is not to affirm that all people are either automatically or
ultimately saved, still less to affirm that all religions offer
salvation in Christ. Rather it is to proclaim God's love for a world of
sinners and to invite everyone to respond to him as Saviour and Lord in
the wholehearted personal commitment of repentance and faith. Jesus
Christ has been exalted above every other name; we long for the day when
every knee shall bow to him and every tongue shall confess him Lord.
(Gal. 1:6-9;Rom. 1:18-32; 1 Tim. 2:5,6; Acts 4:12; John 3:16-19; 2
Pet. 3:9; 2 Thess. 1:7-9;John 4:42; Matt. 11:28; Eph. 1:20,21; Phil.
2:9-11)
4. The Nature of Evangelism
To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for
our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and
that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the
liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our
Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so
is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order
to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the
historical, biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord, with a view to
persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God.
In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost
of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny
themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new
community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ,
incorporation into his Church and responsible service in the world.
(1 Cor. 15:3,4; Acts 2: 32-39; John 20:21; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2 Cor. 4:5;
5:11,20; Luke 14:25-33; Mark 8:34; Acts 2:40,47; Mark 10:43-45)
5. Christian Social Responsibility
We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all men. We
therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation
throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from
every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of
God, every person, regardless of race, religion, colour, culture, class,
sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he or she should
be respected and served, not exploited. Here too we express penitence
both for our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and
social concern as mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with other
people is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism,
nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that
evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our
Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions of our doctrines of
God and man, our love for our neighbour and our obedience to Jesus
Christ. The message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon
every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination, and we should
not be afraid to denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist. When
people receive Christ they are born again into his kingdom and must seek
not only to exhibit but also to spread its righteousness in the midst of
an unrighteous world. The salvation we claim should be transforming us
in the totality of our personal and social responsibilities. Faith
without works is dead.
(Acts 17:26,31; Gen. 18:25; Isa. 1:17; Psa. 45:7; Gen. 1:26,27; Jas.
3:9; Lev. 19:18; Luke 6:27,35; Jas. 2:14-26; Joh. 3:3,5; Matt. 5:20;
6:33; 2 Cor. 3:18; Jas. 2:20)
6. The Church and Evangelism
We affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the
Father sent him, and that this calls for a similar deep and costly
penetration of the world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical
ghettos and permeate non-Christian society. In the Church's mission of
sacrificial service evangelism is primary. World evangelization requires
the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The Church
is at the very centre of God's cosmic purpose and is his appointed means
of spreading the gospel. But a church which preaches the cross must
itself be marked by the cross. It becomes a stumbling block to
evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living faith in God, a
genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all things including
promotion and finance. The church is the community of God's people
rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any
particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology.
(John 17:18; 20:21; Matt. 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 20:27; Eph. 1:9,10;
3:9-11; Gal. 6:14,17; 2 Cor. 6:3,4; 2 Tim. 2:19-21; Phil. 1:27)
7. Cooperation in Evangelism
We affirm that the Church's visible unity in truth is God's purpose.
Evangelism also summons us to unity, because our oneness strengthens our
witness, just as our disunity undermines our gospel of reconciliation.
We recognize, however, that organisational unity may take many forms and
does not necessarily forward evangelism. Yet we who share the same
biblical faith should be closely united in fellowship, work and witness.
We confess that our testimony has sometimes been marred by a sinful
individualism and needless duplication. We pledge ourselves to seek a
deeper unity in truth, worship, holiness and mission. We urge the
development of regional and functional cooperation for the furtherance
of the Church's mission, for strategic planning, for mutual
encouragement, and for the sharing of resources and experience.
(John 17:21,23; Eph. 4:3,4; John 13:35; Phil. 1:27; John 17:11-23)
8. Churches in Evangelistic Partnership
We rejoice that a new missionary era has dawned. The dominant role of
western missions is fast disappearing. God is raising up from the
younger churches a great new resource for world evangelization, and is
thus demonstrating that the responsibility to evangelise belongs to the
whole body of Christ. All churches should therefore be asking God and
themselves what they should be doing both to reach their own area and to
send missionaries to other parts of the world. A reevaluation of our
missionary responsibility and role should be continuous. Thus a growing
partnership of churches will develop and the universal character of
Christ's Church will be more clearly exhibited. We also thank God for
agencies which labor in Bible translation, theological education, the
mass media, Christian literature, evangelism, missions, church renewal
and other specialist fields. They too should engage in constant
self-examination to evaluate their effectiveness as part of the Church's
mission.
(Rom. 1:8; Phil. 1:5; 4:15; Acts 13:1-3, 1 Thess. 1:6-8)
9. The Urgency of the Evangelistic Task
More than 2,700 million people, which is more than two-thirds of all
humanity, have yet to be evangelised. We are ashamed that so many have
been neglected; it is a standing rebuke to us and to the whole Church.
There is now, however, in many parts of the world an unprecedented
receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are convinced that this is the
time for churches and para-church agencies to pray earnestly for the
salvation of the unreached and to launch new efforts to achieve world
evangelization. A reduction of foreign missionaries and money in an
evangelised country may sometimes be necessary to facilitate the
national church's growth in self-reliance and to release resources for
unevangelised areas. Missionaries should flow ever more freely from and
to all six continents in a spirit of humble service. The goal should be,
by all available means and at the earliest possible time, that every
person will have the opportunity to hear, understand, and to receive the
good news. We cannot hope to attain this goal without sacrifice. All of
us are shocked by the poverty of millions and disturbed by the
injustices which cause it. Those of us who live in affluent
circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple life-style in order to
contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.
(John 9:4; Matt. 9:35-38; Rom. 9:1-3; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; Mark 16:15;
Isa. 58:6,7; Jas. 1:27; 2:1-9; Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 2:44,45; 4:34,35)
10. Evangelism and Culture
The development of strategies for world evangelization calls for
imaginative pioneering methods. Under God, the result will be the rise
of churches deeply rooted in Christ and closely related to their
culture. Culture must always be tested and judged by Scripture. Because
men and women are God's creatures, some of their culture is rich in
beauty and goodness. Because they are fallen, all of it is tainted with
sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel does not presuppose the
superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures
according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness, and insists on
moral absolutes in every culture. Missions have all too frequently
exported with the gospel an alien culture and churches have sometimes
been in bondage to culture rather than to Scripture. Christ's
evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all but their
personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others, and
churches must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory of
God.
(Mark 7:8,9,13; Gen. 4:21,22; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; Phil. 2:5-7; 2 Cor.
4:5)
11. Education and Leadership
We confess that we have sometimes pursued church growth at the
expense of church depth, and divorced evangelism from Christian nurture.
We also acknowledge that some of our missions have been too slow to
equip and encourage national leaders to assume their rightful
responsibilities. Yet we are committed to indigenous principles, and
long that every church will have national leaders who manifest a
Christian style of leadership in terms not of domination but of service.
We recognise that there is a great need to improve theological
education, especially for church leaders. In every nation and culture
there should be an effective training programme for pastors and laity in
doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, nurture and service. Such training
programmes should not rely on any stereotyped methodology but should be
developed by creative local initiatives according to biblical standards.
(Col. I:27,28; Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5,9; Mark 10:42-45; Eph. 4:11,12)
12. Spiritual Conflict
We believe that we are engaged in constant spiritual warfare with the
principalities and powers of evil, who are seeking to overthrow the
Church and frustrate its task of world evangelization. We know our need
to equip ourselves with God's armour and to fight this battle with the
spiritual weapons of truth and prayer. For we detect the activity of our
enemy, not only in false ideologies outside the Church, but also inside
it in false gospels which twist Scripture and put people in the place of
God. We need both watchfulness and discernment to safeguard the biblical
gospel. We acknowledge that we ourselves are not immune to worldliness
of thoughts and action, that is, to a surrender to secularism. For
example, although careful studies of church growth, both numerical and
spiritual, are right and valuable, we have sometimes neglected them. At
other times, desirous to ensure a response to the gospel, we have
compromised our message, manipulated our hearers through pressure
techniques, and become unduly preoccupied with statistics or even
dishonest in our use of them. All this is worldly. The Church must be in
the world; the world must not be in the Church.
(Eph. 6:12; 2 Cor. 4:3,4; Eph. 6:11,13-18; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; 1 John
2:18-26; 4:1-3; Gal. 1:6-9; 2 Cor. 2:17; 4:2; John 17:15)
13. Freedom And Persecution
It is the God-appointed duty of every government to secure conditions
of peace, justice and liberty in which the Church may obey God, serve
the Lord Jesus Christ, and preach the gospel without interference. We
therefore pray for the leaders of nations and call upon them to
guarantee freedom of thought and conscience, and freedom to practise and
propagate religion in accordance with the will of God and as set forth
in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also express our deep
concern for all who have been unjustly imprisoned, and especially for
those who are suffering for their testimony to the Lord Jesus. We
promise to pray and work for their freedom. At the same time we refuse
to be intimidated by their fate. God helping us, we too will seek to
stand against injustice and to remain faithful to the gospel, whatever
the cost. We do not forget the warnings of Jesus that persecution is
inevitable.
(1 Tim. 1:1-4, Acts 4:19; 5:29; Col. 3:24; Heb. 13:1-3; Luke 4:18;
Gal. 5:11; 6:12; Matt. 5:10-12; John 15:18-21)
14. The Power of the Holy Spirit
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent his
Spirit to bear witness to his Son; without his witness ours is futile.
Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth and Christian growth are
all his work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus
evangelism should arise spontaneously from a Spirit-filled church. A
church that is not a missionary church is contradicting itself and
quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization will become a realistic
possibility only when the Spirit renews the Church in truth and wisdom,
faith, holiness, love and power. We therefore call upon all Christians
to pray for such a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all
his fruit may appear in all his people and that all his gifts may enrich
the body of Christ. Only then will the whole world become a fit
instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice.
(1 Cor. 2:4; John 15:26;27; 16:8-11; 1 Cor. 12:3; John 3:6-8; 2 Cor.
3:18; John 7:37-39; 1 Thess. 5:19; Acts 1:8; Psa. 85:4-7; 67:1-3; Gal.
5:22,23; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; Rom. 12:3-8)
15. The Return of Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly, in
power and glory, to consummate his salvation and his judgment. This
promise of his coming is a further spur to our evangelism, for we
remember his words that the gospel must first be preached to all
nations. We believe that the interim period between Christ's ascension
and return is to be filled with the mission of the people of God, who
have no liberty to stop before the end. We also remember his warning
that false Christs and false prophets will arise as precursors of the
final Antichrist. We therefore reject as a proud, self-confident dream
the notion that people can ever build a utopia on earth. Our Christian
confidence is that God will perfect his kingdom, and we look forward
with eager anticipation to that day, and to the new heaven and earth in
which righteousness will dwell and God will reign forever. Meanwhile, we
rededicate ourselves to the service of Christ and of people in joyful
submission to his authority over the whole of our lives.
(Mark 14:62; Heb. 9:28; Mark 13:10; Acts 1:8-11; Matt. 28:20; Mark
13:21-23; John 2:18; 4:1-3; Luke 12:32; Rev. 21:1-5; 2 Pet. 3:13; Matt.
28:18)
Conclusion
Therefore, in the light of this our faith and our resolve, we enter
into a solemn covenant with God and with each other, to pray, to plan
and to work together for the evangelization of the whole world. We call
upon others to join us. May God help us by his grace and for his glory
to be faithful to this our covenant! Amen, Alleluia!
-Dennis Bratcher, Copyright ©
2018, Dennis
Bratcher, All Rights Reserved
(No copyright claims are made for the text of the original document.)
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