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

DAY 8: ONWARD WITH THE GREAT COMMISSION, FROM LAUSANNE 1974 TO SEOUL 2024

By comparing the parable of the pearl of great price with that of the talents, two simple conclusions can be drawn. First, that giving value to a precious pearl like the Gospel represents a simple fidelity ("faithful in a few things") quite similar to that expressed by the good and faithful servant. The more we understand the value and greatness of the Gospel, the easier it will be to place it at the centre of our lives and all our projects. Furthermore, suppose a pearl like the Gospel is to be placed at the centre of the life of the believer and of the church. In that case, it cannot remain buried as a memory of the past but will constitute the pivot of every activity, the spark of every occasion, and the salt of every context.

The Lausanne Covenant is a significant reflection of the Gospel. It establishes an adequate response to the call of the missionary God, a clear submission to the Word of God, aiming to proclaim "in no one else is salvation" if not in Christ Jesus. And if He is recognised both as "Lord” of our actions and as the “Saviour” of our entire being, then we will want to pass on the baton of the Gospel, bringing it to all the ends of the earth and in all the spheres of life.

Realising how precious the Lausanne Covenant is, it will be natural (“faithful in a few things”) to place it at the centre of our spiritual life. But even here discernment, fidelity, and perseverance are required of Evangelicals. Will we be good and faithful servants? Will we be able to embody the integral mission that the Covenant affirms?

By the grace of God, the trajectory followed up to now, with the Manila Manifesto (1989) and the Cape Town Commitment (2010) have testified to a certain fidelity. Still, our desire and our prayer, also in view of the next appointment in Seoul (2024), is that this spiritual heritage can continue in its entirety to the glory of God for the progress of the Church in the 21st century.

THANKSGIVING

We thank the Lord for the gift of the Lausanne Covenant, certainly the most important evangelical document of the last century. We thank the Lord for the movement that has arisen from the Lausanne Congress and for the declarations Manila and Cape Town produced subsequently. We thank God for the Evangelical Alliance, which since 1846 has embodied the same spirit of evangelical cooperation.

CONFESSION

We ask forgiveness for not having valued the gift of the Lausanne Covenant out of short-sightedness or superficiality. We ask forgiveness for forgetting or omitting some parts, interpreting the evangelical testimony without integrity.

REQUESTS

Let us invoke the Lord for the congress in Seoul, asking that it be an occasion for renewed fidelity to the Gospel and a new missionary vigour.

We pray that the Lord will grant discernment, guidance, and wisdom to the whole Church and global movements such as the Evangelical Alliance.

Giacomo Ciccone

President of the Italian Evangelical Alliance