Introduction

We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ from more than 150 nations, participants in the International Congress for World Evangelization in Lausanne, praise God because He has given us His salvation and rejoice in the fellowship He gives us with Him and with one another. God’s work in our time moves us deeply. Our failures lead us to repentance. The unfinished task of evangelization challenges us. We believe that the gospel is God’s good news for the whole world. By His grace, we are determined to obey the commission of Jesus Christ by proclaiming His salvation to all mankind in order to make disciples of all nations. Therefore, let us reaffirm our faith and resolve and publicly express our commitment.

1. the plan of God

We reaffirm our faith in the one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the counsel of His will. He has called His people out of the world and sends them back into the world as His servants and witnesses. He has called believers out for the spread of His kingdom, the edification of the body of Christ and the glorification of His name. We confess and repent that we have often been unfaithful to our calling and have not fulfilled our mission by conforming to the world or withdrawing from it. But we rejoice in the fact that the gospel, even if it is contained in earthen vessels, is a precious treasure. Once again, we take on the task of making this treasure known through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹

2 The authority of the Bible

We hold fast to the divine inspiration, the certain truth and authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written Word of God. It is without error in all that it affirms and is the only infallible standard of faith and life. At the same time, we confess the power of the Word of God to realize His plan of salvation. The message of the Bible is addressed to all mankind, for God’s revelation in Christ and in the Holy Scriptures is unchanging. The Holy Spirit still speaks today through this revelation. He enlightens His people in all cultures. In this way, believers recognize His truth ever anew. The Holy Spirit reveals the manifold wisdom of God more and more to the whole church. ²

3. uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ

We affirm: There is only one Savior and only one gospel, but a great diversity of evangelistic modes of operation. While we know that all men can know God from general revelation in nature, we deny that this can save them, for they suppress the truth through unrighteousness. As a disparagement of Jesus Christ and the Gospel, we reject any syncretism and any dialog that pretends that Jesus Christ speaks equally through all religions and ideologies. Jesus Christ, true man and true God, gave himself as the only salvation for sinners. He is the only mediator between God and man. Nor is there any other name by which we are saved. All men are lost because of their sin, but God loves all. He does not want anyone to be lost, but for everyone to turn to repentance. But whoever rejects Jesus Christ spurns the joy of salvation and condemns himself to eternal separation from God. If Jesus is proclaimed as the “Savior of the world”, this does not mean that all people will be saved from the outset or in the end. It is certainly not possible to claim that all religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather, God’s love must be proclaimed to a world of sinners. All people are invited to acknowledge Him as Savior and Lord in personal devotion through repentance and faith. Jesus Christ is exalted above all names. We long for the day when every knee will bow before Him and every tongue confess that He is Lord. ³

4. nature of evangelization

Evangelizing means spreading the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead according to Scripture and that He now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all those who repent and believe. Our presence as Christians in the world is essential for evangelization, as is a form of dialogue that leads to understanding the other through empathetic listening. By its very nature, evangelism is the proclamation of the historical biblical Christ as Savior and Lord. The aim is to move people to come to Him personally and thus be reconciled with God. Those who proclaim the invitation of the Gospel must not conceal the fact that following Him comes at a cost. Jesus calls all those who want to follow Him to deny themselves, take up their cross and identify with His new community. The result of evangelization includes obedience to Jesus Christ, incorporation into His church and responsible service in the world. ⁴

5. social responsibility of Christians

We affirm that God is both Creator and Judge of all people. We must therefore share His concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society. It aims at the liberation of people from all forms of oppression. Since human beings are created in the image of God, everyone, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, gender or age, has inherent dignity. Therefore, they should not be exploited, but recognized and promoted. We repent for this failure of ours and for the fact that we have sometimes seen evangelism and social responsibility as mutually exclusive. Reconciliation between people is not reconciliation with God, social action is not evangelism, political liberation is not salvation. Nevertheless, we affirm that evangelization and social and political action are equally part of our duty as Christians. For both are necessary expressions of our doctrine of God and man, our love for our neighbor and our obedience to Jesus Christ. The message of salvation includes a message of judgment against all forms of alienation, oppression and discrimination. We should not be afraid to denounce wickedness and injustice wherever they exist. When people accept Christ, they enter His kingdom through rebirth. They must seek not only to represent His righteousness, but also to extend it in the midst of an unjust world. The salvation we claim for ourselves should change us in all of our personal and social responsibilities. Faith without works is dead. ⁵

6. church and evangelism

We affirm that Jesus Christ sends His redeemed church into the world as the Father has sent Him. This requires us to penetrate the world just as deeply and sacrificially. We must break out of our church ghettos and penetrate a non-Christian society. In the church’s mission of devoted service, evangelism is paramount. Evangelizing the world requires the whole church to bring the whole gospel to the whole world. The church is at the center of God’s global plan and is His chosen instrument for spreading the gospel. A church that preaches the cross must itself be characterized by the cross. A church becomes a serious obstacle to evangelization if it betrays the gospel, is not in a truly living relationship with God, does not love people enough and lacks integrity in every respect, including advertising and financial matters. The church is not so much an institution as the community of God’s people and must not be equated with any particular culture, social or political system or man-made ideology. ⁶

7. cooperation in evangelization

We affirm that the visible unity of the church is in truth God’s goal. Evangelism also calls us to unity because our disunity undermines the gospel of reconciliation. We realize, however, that organizational unity can come in many forms, but it does not necessarily promote evangelism. But we who share the same biblical faith are to unite closely in fellowship, service and witness. We confess that our witness has sometimes been marred by sinful individualism and unnecessary overlap. We commit ourselves to seek a deeper unity in truth, worship, sanctification and mission. We urge the development of regional and functional cooperation to advance the mission of the church, strategic planning, mutual encouragement, sharing of resources and experiences. ⁷

8. churches in evangelistic partnership

We are delighted that a new age of mission has dawned. The dominant position of Western missions is visibly waning. God has created a great source of world evangelization in the young churches, showing that the responsibility for evangelism belongs to the whole body of Christ. Each church should therefore ask God and itself what it needs to do not only to work in its own area, but also to send missionaries to other parts of the world. A new examination of our missionary responsibility and task should be constantly carried out. In this way, the partnership of the churches will grow and the worldwide character of the one church of Christ will become more evident. We thank God for the ministries involved in Bible translation, theological education, mass media, Christian literature, evangelism, missions, church renewal and other areas of ministry. They too should constantly ask themselves whether their effectiveness can be considered part of the mission of the church. ⁸

9. urgency of the evangelistic task

over 2.7 billion people, more than two thirds of humanity, still need to be introduced to the Gospel. We are ashamed that so many have been neglected; this is a constant reproach against us and the whole Church. However, there is now an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ in many parts of the world. We are convinced that now is the time for churches and inter-church ministries to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to make new efforts for world evangelization. In a country that has heard the gospel, it may be necessary at times to reduce missionaries and money from abroad in order to give the churches in the country the opportunity for independent growth and to release aid to areas that have not yet heard the gospel. Missionaries should increasingly go unhindered from all continents to all continents in a spirit of humble service. The goal should be to use all available means to give everyone the opportunity to hear, understand and accept the good news as early as possible. Without sacrifice, we will not achieve this goal. The poverty of millions shocks us all. We are disturbed by the injustice that causes this poverty. Those who live in affluence must develop a simple lifestyle in order to contribute more generously to aid and evangelization. ⁹

10. evangelization and culture

Developing strategies for world evangelization requires ingenuity in the choice of methods. With God’s help, churches will emerge that are firmly grounded in Jesus Christ and closely connected to their cultural environment. Every culture must be examined and judged again and again from the Scriptures. Because man is God’s creature, his culture contains beauty and goodness in abundance. But because he fell, everything was tainted by sin. Some things came under demonic influence. The gospel does not give priority to any culture, but judges all cultures by its own standard of truth and justice and makes absolute ethical demands on every culture. Missions have all too often exported a foreign culture with the gospel, and churches have sometimes been more bound to a culture than to Scripture. Evangelists of Christ must humbly seek to deny themselves without giving up their personality in order to become servants of others. Churches are to transform and enrich culture so that God may be glorified. ¹⁰

11. training and community leadership

We confess that we have sometimes pursued the growth of the church at the expense of its deepening and have separated evangelism to those far away from the spiritual strengthening of the church. We also admit that some of our mission agencies have hesitated too long to equip and encourage indigenous leaders to assume their rightful responsibilities. Therefore, we affirm the principle of self-reliance and strive for every church to have indigenous leaders who will exercise Christian leadership that is demonstrated not in ruling but in serving. We recognize the need to improve theological education, especially for those who are to lead the church. In every nation and culture there should be an effective training program for pastors and laity in doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, edification and ministry. Such a training program should not rely on template methodology, but should be developed through creative, indigenous initiative according to biblical standards. ¹¹

12. spiritual debate

We believe that we are in a constant spiritual battle with the princes and forces of evil who seek to overpower the church and hinder it in its task of evangelizing the world. We recognize the need to arm ourselves with the armor of God and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth and prayer. For we discover the activity of the enemy not only in false ideologies outside the church, but equally within the church through the preaching of another gospel that perverts Scripture and puts man in the place of God. We must be vigilant and discerning of spirits in order to safeguard the biblical message. We admit that we ourselves are not always immune to worldliness in our thoughts and actions, so we surrender to secularism. Although, to cite one example, careful study of numerical and spiritual growth in the church is right and valuable, we have sometimes ignored it. Sometimes we have watered down our message and pressured our listeners through manipulation in order to achieve success for the gospel. We have placed too much emphasis on statistics and even used these documents dishonestly. All of this is worldly. The church must live in the world, but the world must not dominate the church. ¹²

13 Freedom and persecution

It is God’s mandate for every government to ensure the conditions of peace, justice and freedom under which the church can obey God, serve the Lord Christ and proclaim the gospel without interference. We therefore pray for those who bear responsibility in the nations and appeal to them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience and to ensure freedom to practice and propagate religion in accordance with the will of God, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the same time, we express our deep concern for all those who are unjustly imprisoned, especially our brothers who suffer because of their witness to the Lord Jesus. We pledge to pray and work for their freedom. Likewise, we refuse to be intimidated by their fate. May God help us to rebel against injustice and remain faithful to the gospel, whatever the cost. We do not forget Jesus’ warning that persecution is inevitable. ¹³

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, our witness is in vain. Knowledge of sin, faith in Christ, rebirth and growth in faith are His work. The Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit. Evangelism should therefore grow out of the Spirit-filled church as if by itself. If a church is not a missionary church, it contradicts itself and dampens the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization can only be realized if the Holy Spirit renews the church in truth and wisdom, in faith and sanctification, in love and authority. We therefore call on all Christians to pray for a gracious coming of God’s sovereign Spirit, that all His gifts will enrich the body of Christ. Only then will the whole church be a fit instrument in His hand for the whole world to hear His voice. ¹⁴

15 Second Coming of Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in power and glory to accomplish salvation and judgment. The promise of His coming is a further incentive for our evangelization, for we remember His words that the message must first be proclaimed to all nations. We believe that the time between Christ’s ascension and His return must be filled by the mission of God’s people. We have no right to abort the mission before the end of time. We remember His warnings that false Christs and false prophets will arise as forerunners of the Antichrist. Therefore, we resist the proud and self-assured dream that mankind can ever build Utopia on earth. Our Christian faith rests in the fact that God will complete His kingdom, and we look forward to the day when there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells and God reigns forever. Until then, we commit ourselves to serving Christ and people in joyful surrender to His reign over all our lives. ¹⁵

Commitment

Therefore, in the light of this faith and decision, we solemnly commit ourselves before God and before one another to pray, plan and work together for the evangelization of the whole world. We call on others to join us. May God help us by His grace to remain faithful to this commitment of ours for His glory. Amen.