Week of Prayer - ONWARD WITH the GREAT COMMISSION - Celebrating 50 Years of LausanneSample

DAY 1: CELEBRATING THE TRIUNE GOD (art.1)

THE TRINITARIAN FAITH

Like the creeds of the ancient church faithful to the Word of God, the Covenant of Lausanne begins with an article summarising mission as the plan of the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lausanne does not give voice to a new religious movement but to the biblical, apostolic, and historical faith of Christianity: once and forever handed down to the saints (Jude 1:11) and rooted in the Trinitarian profession of faith. The commitment to the mission is organically linked to the common confession in God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, in God the Son incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, true man and true God, Saviour, and Lord of the world, in God the Holy Spirit who gives life, sustains, and regenerates it. Far from being just an "activity" detached from commitments of faith, mission is an integral part of the Christian faith which recognises that God is the One who has revealed himself in Sacred Scripture. If mission does not arise from here, it may result in a desire for religious dynamism or a humanitarian project, but it is not the Christian mission.

THE MISSION NOURISHED BY THE TRINITARIAN FAITH

How is the mission that arises from the Trinitarian faith expressed? First, it is a faithful and obedient response to God's mission for the world. Before being missionaries, God was the missionary; he is the Father who loved the world so much that he gave his Son so that whoever believes may belong to his people through the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, whoever believes in him cannot fail to respond to his mission except in a missionary way. God's mission precedes, activates, and directs our mission. Second, mission is a personal response, but always connected to God's people. There are no “freelancers” in the mission or people acting in isolation: we are all responding to God's mission as family members, and we do so as part of a people. Just as the mission of the Son is not solitary without the knowledge of the Father and the Holy Spirit, so the mission of the church, nourished by the Trinitarian faith, is always a collective, ecclesial action in which all believers participate as belonging to the one people of God.

THANKSGIVING

Thank you, Triune God, for being the missionary God who precedes, directs, and supports our mission, correcting it if it goes in the wrong direction. Thank you that you are the ultimate guarantor of the mission.

CONFESSION

We ask your forgiveness for the times we neglected the call to respond to the missionary God due to lukewarm, intermittent, and listless commitment or when moved by the desire to "do" without recognising our dependence on the Triune God.

REQUESTS

May our mission not be "anonymous" but bear the sign of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

That in a world where so many have a "mission," ours may honour and obey You so that people may believe in Jesus Christ and be saved.

Leonardo De Chirico

Theology & Dialogue Commission of the Italian Evangelical Alliance