Tell the World About Jesus

Here’s some exciting news that just hit my inbox – I’m including the ‘press’ release in full

At its biennial leadership meeting in Korea in June, The Lausanne Movement named the expositors for Cape Town 2010. This Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, held in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance, will take place 16-25 October 2010. www.capetown2010.com

The Revd Doug Birdsall, Chairman of the Lausanne Movement,  stated that the six Bible expositors will reflect the demographic, theological and cultural composition of Cape Town 2010. ‘The Congress will be truly global while at the same time being distinctly African in nuance and feel. Two hundred years ago, William Carey proposed a congress of similar scope for Cape Town, South Africa. In a very real sense, Cape Town 2010 will be the fulfilment of his dream. Each day, the Congress programme will begin with expositions from the book of Ephesians. The six Bible teachers we have invited to Cape Town 2010 come from six different regions of the world and represent some of the finest Bible expositors of our generation.’

The expositors have been named as Ajith Fernando, Director of Sri Lanka Youth for Christ; Calisto Odede, Associate Pastor of Nairobi Pentecostal Church, Kenya; John Piper , senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis , US; Vaughan Roberts, Rector of St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford , UK; Ruth Padilla DeBorst, General Secretary of the Latin American Theological Fellowship (Costa Rica); and Ramez Atallah, Director of the Egyptian Bible Society, and his wife, Rebecca, who has a grassroots ministry among children and Sudanese refugees in the ‘garbage village’ in Cairo.

Lindsay Brown, Lausanne Movement International Director, spoke of his hopes for the Congress: ‘We are hoping for clarity on the nature of evangelism; for clear-sightedness on the critical issues to be faced by the Church in the next 20 years; for many new international partnerships and initiatives such as characterise The Lausanne Movement; and for decisive action as the gospel is taken to the ends of the earth, by which we mean both the geographical ends of the earth, and every area of society.’

The Congress will draw 4,000 participants onsite, from 200 nations. In addition, capacity is being built for virtual participation by churches and theological colleges around the world, through the Cape Town GlobaLink. From October this year, the Church on each continent is invited to join The Global Conversation at www.lausanne.org, the first of its kind to draw the world’s evangelicals together in engaging critical issues in world evangelization. Peter Brierley, founder of the UK body ‘Christian Research’ said, ‘I suspect this will be the best-planned, technologically-led global conference ever.’

I’ve heard half of the named speakers teach God’s Word and think this will be an extraordinary conference in addressing the opportunities and challenges the Church faces in making Jesus known around the world.  I’ve been to Cape Town and think it will be an extraordinary conference in an amazing setting.

Living the Dream 8 – Living for the End

Nigel Pollock spoke this morning from Daniel 7: knowing the end transforms how we understand the present.  God has revealed the end of the story for us: we know how history will wrap up. How does that change the way we live in the present, how we live out the dream.

Daniel has a dream which is recorded for us in Dan 7.  Daniel’s dream has parallels to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Dan 2. Both dreams are about successive kingdoms and about God’s Reign. The headlines are that earthly authorities are transitory but God’s Reign, through God’s King, is eternal and unassailable.

In Daniel 1-6 the friends have lived through and won some battles.  But what happens when those battles aren’t ‘won’?  Daniel 7-12 is not like the first 6 chapters: it is thematically compiled prophecies/dreams/material which helps us understand what Daniel learned through his years in exile; what we also need to learn.

Daniel sees God as the ‘Ancient of Days’ before whom the ‘Son of Man’ comes as an eternal and universal King.  The hope is of a Kingdom over all kingdoms – a new Reign under an Eternal Ruler.  God will rule and reign. Our hope is not ethereal and unreal: our hope is to live and serve the King for all eternity. A new heavens and a new earth: a new reality under the Real King.

God reveals the end to Daniel. He sees what he won’t live through but must life for.  Daniel sees that through the crumbling of earthly kingdoms, through the turmoil of history, God’s appointed servant – The Son of Man – Jesus Himself, will rule and reign as the eternal king.  History itself will one day come to an end and at the end we will see what has been in place since the beginning: that God rules eternally as King, Judge, Saviour.

How does Daniel respond? He responds in repentant and hopeful prayer in Chapter 9.  In that prayer Daniel makes it clear that the letter to the exiles written by Jeremiah (Jer 29) is what has framed their understanding of God’s action in history.  Jer 29 is all too often given as a little encouragement in the face of personal disappointment BUT Jeremiah is writing about BIG encouragement that God is at work over a long period of time.  Daniel: 70 years down the line, 70 years of exile living behind him, 70 years of waiting prescribed by God responds in obedience to God’s Word and get’s on his knees: seeking after God as God had commanded 70 years earlier.

How we respond is determined by how we perceive the urgency of what is going on.  Daniel’s prayer is repentant because of the sin which has characterised the response of God’s people.  Daniel’s appeal is to God’s glory: to God’s purpose, to His holiness, to His honour.  The confidence in the prayer arises out of what God has said, in who God is, in how He has revealed Himself.

God honours His Name according to His faithful Word.  Prayer is our response to God’s faithfulness – prayer is not a lack of action BUT the correct action in response to God.

In Dan 12 we see that Daniel does not understand it all but God gives him insight into the end.  God’s plan is to fashion a people for Himself: a people that God will prepare, purify and preserve.  God’s judgement will fall on the wicked, on those who refuse the honour of God.  There will be a time delay – but there is great certainty.

The last words, the last instruction to Daniel:

“Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.” Dan 12:12-13

WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!

Wait with hope.  The more we have invested in this world the harder it is to wait with hope; precisely because the things which we treasure know entangle us in the affairs of today.  Those who are most excited about the coming of the end are those who have the least in this world; they are those who have the most hope in Jesus.

Knowing the end transforms how we live – because we are living as those who wait with hope.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16

Living the Dream 7 – Dreaming together

 

Being at mid-year this week has been a total joy.  It’s not that I enjoy being cold (and it has been) nor away from my family but that I’ve really missed being with the TSCF gang of students, staff, MInterns, graduates, supporters and visitors.  It’s hit me again what a privilege it is that God has called and placed me in this work; it’s reminded me of how painful it’s been over the last year to be away from the work and the people who God has given me to serve.

Students and staff have both said that it’s good to see me again. I’ve not found the words to express how great it is to be here to be seen but also to see, to share with and to be ‘back’ in the work God is doing in TSCF. Mostly I’ve said ‘it’s great to be here!’ which is an anaemic way of saying what I really want to say: that it is amazing to back and I’ve been on the edge of being overly emotional all week with gratitude.

It’s also been brilliant to see this year’s MINTY gang in action.  They have served well with humility, fullness of heart and unstinting faithfulness through the week.

On Wednesday Nigel shared during the TSCF AGM about our dream to share the gospel.  It isn’t a usual experience to hear stuff at an AGM that you find transforming and life re-orientating truth: but Nigel isn’t a usual sort of person and God used him extraordinarily in the AGM. You can read what he said HERE.

We are dreaming together. We are living the dream together.  We are small and despite great weakness, under God’s grace there are great adventures ahead. 

This week has reminded me that I am living the dream – a dream which God planted into my heart: serving Him where he has sent me, doing what he has set for me to do, alongside others who love Him too. It is a mystery to me, a joyful one, how I ended up here because I’m not worthy of so great a privilege. May God be praised for his kindness in Jesus Christ!!!

For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted,  but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:5-10

Living the Dream – Living in a Troubled World

Elaine Pratley (TSCF grad & board member) spoke to the conference today about living in a troubled world.  Pointing to Daniel as an example and inspiration – modelling integrity and courage to us.  We do live in a deeply troubled world and tomorrow, with the end of the conference we’ll be returning to it.

Please be praying for the students and staff know that we will go - as Daniel did – facing much that is hostile but back to a world that desperately needs the hope and truth of the gospel.

It’s been a full on week and it’s not over yet! Nigel Pollock speaks tomorrow morning.  Pray for Nigel – that God will use the final talk of the conference to draw together what he has been saying to His people this week, that the campuses of New Zealand will know the impact of this week.

Living the Dream 5 – Living with Integrity

Today began with the challenge to understand the world in which we live and to live within it with integrity. Colin Day asked us to think through how those who do not believe in the one true God live and experience life.  The primary challenge there was to recognise that not matter how unassailable the circumstances or the individual looks that there is no one who is beyond the call and hope of the Gospel.

Colin pointed us to Daniel and his friends – they faced kings who had real power over their lives: the power to decide if they lived or died.  They lived with integrity and the absolute power of these monarchs was undone by the authority of the King of kings whom Daniel and his friends lived for and did so with integrity.

Andrew Becroft (chair of the TSCF board) spoke about how the life and witness of Daniel has served as a beacon

Daniel worked in exile through several different administrations through ages of cultural shift and pivotal historical transition. He was taken away from Jerusalem and on March 16th 597BC. 8-10k people taken at that point and two smaller groups taken later in 587 & 521. Maybe 15k in total.  What are the options open at this point?

Rebel? Despair? Lose yourself in it? Lock yourself off from it in a ghetto?

Daniel lived in it but remained distinct. Daniel would have known Jeremiah’s preaching and teaching:

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also,  seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." 

Jer 29:4-7, written in 594BC.

The false prophets had said that it was a short term exile – Jeremiah had proclaimed that it was to be a lifetime of exile.  God who sent them into exile also set them in exile: he gave them a purpose in the place of punishment. “if it prospers, you too will prosper”

Daniel fully and completely sought the prosperity of the place in which he lived. Truly he sought it’s welfare: placing God’s first and then living it out.  We too are set in the places where we are for the sake of the glory of God. Our work, our life context, is not simply the platform of our evangelism it is also the place where we are to seek the welfare of the land in which we live: doing so to the glory of our lives.

God is honoured in the whole of our lives – our work is our witness, church is but a small part of our weekly passion: if we see IT as our sole place of service then we serve Him as only a small part of our lives.

The context for our integrity is the life that we live: being wholehearted in the work that we have before us (now and in the future, study and profession) to be the best at the work that we do is the way in which we live out the integrity which speaks of the glory of God. Like Daniel we are to live and to trust in God’s work in our lives: then others will see and respond to the God who is at work in us.

The crisis in integrity comes for Daniel through a plot against him. His enemies seek to entrap him by his integrity.  The core of his integrity was set early in Daniel’s life: his character was built on a lifetime of faithfulness. Daniel get’s to the lion’s den as an old man NOT as a young man.

The culmination of integrity is Daniel walking into and out of the lions den. Those around him witness his integrity in it’s ultimate context: worth dying for and worth living out.  Our integrity is only as good as the mundane and the extreme circumstances in which it is played out.