The Church must embrace every technological tool at its disposal to have interaction with today’s digital world or else lose the following generation, the pinnacle of the Lausanne Movement has said.
Dr Michael Oh laid out the vision for the worldwide evangelical movement during its fiftieth anniversary celebrations in Incheon, near Seoul in South Korea, on Tuesday night.
The celebration was held through the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization that has brought together over 5,000 Christians from over 200 countries, with hundreds more joining virtually.
Dr Oh said during Tuesday night’s celebration that the Church needed to be strategic and intentional in reaching and discipling young people growing up in a digital world.
Identifying three priorities for the following phase of the Lausanne Movement’s work, he called for a commitment to disciple-making on the planet, “disciple-maturing” within the Church, and increased digital engagement.
Towards this aim, the movement is currently developing a set of digital tools to assist Lausanne members collaborate and have interaction digitally.
Dr Oh urged them to make use of the tools as he warned against regarding digital engagement as “a side or specialty ministry” at a time when many young people’s on a regular basis lives are digital.
“We recognise that the world through which we live is increasingly a digital world and one of the best tools to unite us in disciple-making and disciple-maturing are digital,” he said.
“It can be to our great detriment and grave danger to disregard digital – either to disregard it foolishly, or embrace it naively.
“Regardless of how we feel about it, it’s shaping our young people and shaping our world – one billion Tik Tok users, 8.5 billion Google searches daily.
“Digital is shaping what people want, what people know, and what they do. We know that the Gospel is powerful enough to save lots of and shape lives … but young persons are hopelessly inaccessible and lost if we don’t enter their digital world and have interaction them with digital tools.
“We need strategic intentionality to achieve and disciple the younger generations or we are going to lose the longer term.”
It is 50 years because the late American evangelist Billy Graham convened the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization within the Swiss city of Lausanne. That conference effectively launched the worldwide Lausanne Movement with a vision to speed up global missions.
Elsewhere in his keynote address, Dr Oh said that Christians mustn’t be resigned to lamenting the state of the world, but proactively seek to vary it. However, he warned that the time to act was now.
“Ultimately this week shouldn’t be about 2024. It’s concerning the world in 2050 – the world of our youngsters and grandkids,” he said.
He continued, “Shaping the world in 2050 cannot start in 2045. It has to start out now and we’ve a once in a lifetime opportunity to do that now – together.
“That is the facility of movement and collaboration, and that’s the longer term we’re committed to shape because the Lausanne Movement.”
During the evening, greetings were shared by Will Graham, the grandson of Billy Graham, who shared his belief that his grandfather and fellow conveners of the 1974 conference would love nothing greater than to see everyone on the congress exit into the world to spread the Gospel. He urged delegates not to provide up despite the difficult global context.
“Exactly 50 years later, the duty remains to be unfinished. The necessity of proclamation evangelism is as great today as ever,” he said.
“Even though we’re living in a world that at every turn is working to cancel Christ and the Bible with the intention to exalt itself, my friends, we must say: not on our watch.
“Now shouldn’t be the time to face down, it is not the time to provide up, it is not the time to retreat. It’s not a time to show inward. Now is a time to take spiritual ground. Now is the time to face boldly for Jesus Christ and preach Christ unashamedly within the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit.”
