Following the conclusion of the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization held in Incheon, Korea from September 22-28, Christian Daily International had a chance to take a seat down with Congress Co-Chair Rev. Jaehoon Lee for an exclusive interview. Looking back on the historic event that was generously supported by many Korean churches and brought together nearly 5,400 participants from 200 countries and territories, Rev. Lee took a moment to share his reflections. He spoke about historic changes as Lausanne 4 preparations reflected more of the Church’s shift to the worldwide South; his hope for the Korean Church to be truly a part of the worldwide body of Christ; a few of the dynamics surrounding the Seoul Statement; and the one best highlight for him on the event.
Rev. Lee, who serves as Senior Pastor of Onnuri Church in Seoul, began by pointing to his role within the Congress as an indication of how Lausanne 4 was different from previous Congresses from the beginning. It was the primary time in Lausanne’s 50-year history that there was a transparent recognition of the shifting Church landscape to the Global South as they appointed a representative from the host country as Co-Chair of the Congress. There was no such title prior to now, he said.
Rev. Lee’s appointment to this role “means the Lausanne Movement desired to reflect the change within the map of worldwide Christianity, from the worldwide North and West to the worldwide South and East. And at the middle of the worldwide South and East, there may be the Korean Church,” he said.
“They wanted to acknowledge the brand new reality of polycentric mission and emphasize collaboration with us as host country.”
As Co-Chair, Rev. Lee said he had the chance to recommend leaders from Global South regions, akin to Asia and Africa. A particular advice was Dr. Patrick Fung, on the time the director of the Overseas Mission Fellowship (OMF), as Program Chair.
“He planned and designed the entire program based on the book of Acts. From Bible expositions to the assorted Congress topics, all the various program elements were taken from Acts, which could be very biblical and missional,” Rev. Lee said.
The three previous program directors of the Congresses in Lausanne in 1974, Manila in 1989 and Cape Town in 2010 were all Western leaders. This time, it was different, and Rev. Lee was more than happy with this transformation because he felt the worldwide South voices were more strongly represented on the Fourth Congress.
Korean Church could genuinely grow to be a part of the worldwide Church
Asked concerning the Korean participation in Lausanne 4, Rev. Lee said he wanted the Korean Church to learn from the worldwide Church and gain a more global perspective.
“For a few years, the Korean Church has been very isolated from other churches. Korea is homogenic as a nation with one heritage, they usually learned to be one body. For a protracted time, they’ve been very energetic, they usually have grow to be influential on this planet, but they’ve not been global,” Rev. Lee said.
He believes that this global Congress helped Korean Christians to genuinely grow to be a part of the worldwide Church.
“The Korean churches, the leadership and congregations, were exposed to many voices from churches around the globe. Especially once we heard the voices from churches in persecuted nations, we learned lots. And we could also reflect on our past, the time when our own ancestors were persecuted for his or her faith,” he said.
Similarly, he hopes that the Lausanne Movement would help Korean missionaries to grow to be more integrated into global mission networks. As the second largest mission sending force on this planet, hundreds of Korean missionaries have been dispatched to each corner of the world. But Rev. Lee believes they’ve yet to learn to work along with missionaries from other countries.
“They have lacked a spirit of collaboration,” he said, referencing a core theme of the Lausanne Congress this time. “They work together but only inside Korean networks, not global networks that include missionaries from other nations,” he added, and said he hopes they’d extend their collaborative relationships, potentially also through the Lausanne Movement that might function a platform.
Apart from the necessity for collaboration, one other area that Lausanne 4 highlighted this time was the importance of including people within the workplace as participants within the Great Commission. Rather than limiting the duty of sharing the gospel to pastors, church leaders and missionaries, fulfilling the Great Commission requires the participation of everyone within the Church, the Congress heard.
Asked how this emphasis resonated with Korean churches, Rev. Lee said that it’s a difficulty that has already been recognized and plenty of churches have developed workplace-related ministries. “That is why many workplace leaders were invited to the Congress this time. Among the Korean participants, there have been not only pastors and missionaries. Around 30% were workplace leaders,” he said.
State of the Great Commission report & Seoul Statement presented a latest approach
Each of the previous congresses left a legacy in the shape of a document that emerged from the event, including the Lausanne Covenant (1974), the Manila Manifesto (1989) and the Cape Town Commitment (2010). In Korea, many participants were caught by surprise when the Seoul Statement was presented as a final product mere hours before the event was about to start.
The leadership went to great lengths to clarify that unlike the previous Lausanne documents, the Seoul Statement complemented the sooner documents in addition to the State of the Great Commission report that was published in April, and that it was meant to “inform and encourage” conversations throughout the week moderately than summarize the deliberations. Nevertheless, some pointed to the language within the document that suggested it was meant as coming from the Congress on behalf of those that attended.
Then, only a day or two later, edits were made to 2 paragraphs related to the problem of homosexuality, which again raised eyebrows and led to further requests to open the statement to feedback. Ultimately, the Lausanne leadership announced at the top of the week that participants can be invited to share their comments and that Lausanne’s Theology Working Group along with the senior leadership team would discern the following steps.
Asked concerning the dynamics surrounding the Seoul Statement, Rev. Lee acknowledged that “there have been some mistakes in communication.” But he also identified that Lausanne doesn’t have any defined protocol about how statements are formulated, processed and released.
“At Lausanne 1, John Stott wrote the Lausanne Covenant in the course of the event. The second time, it was different. And on the Third Congress, the ultimate document was only released months after the event. So, there isn’t any exact protocol,” he said.
Rev. Lee added that he saw no issue when Lausanne Global Executive Director Dr. Michael Oh released the statement on the primary day, because when requests from participants got here to comment on it, the Lausanne leadership showed itself flexible. “They are open, they wish to receive the feedback from participants, and they’re going to discuss and revise it again in some limited way,” he said.
He also mentioned that there have been several latest approaches seen in Lausanne 4, akin to the publication of the State of the Great Commission report within the lead as much as the Congress. None of the previous events had anything comparable, so he believes this was a very good development.
‘Korean Church could be very desirous to protect the Biblical standard’
Asked more specifically concerning the edits that were made to the document early within the week within the paragraphs related to homosexuality, Rev. Lee said they were made on the request of the Korean churches. He identified that even in other international settings or political events, the host country may influence certain elements of the ultimate document. As this will probably be remembered because the Seoul Statement, the churches from the host nation provided feedback on some facets they desired to see modified.
Rev. Lee identified that Korean churches consider “Europe and North America as very liberal on this matter” and are concerned that “that they had strayed away from the Biblical standard.” In Western countries, the problem just isn’t viewed in the identical way as in other parts of the world, he commented. “In Asian and African contexts, this could be very crucial for shielding society and the Church from happening that path. So, the Korean Church could be very desirous to protect this Biblical standard,” he said, adding that since the Congress was held on this country, he appreciates that the polite request from the Korean churches to make these small changes was granted.
That the problem is significant to Korean believers was also evident when some groups expressed concern about Lausanne within the lead-up to the Congress and on the time when the Seoul Statement was published.
“Some misunderstood the statement since the nuance could be very delicate. The topics of sexuality and gender are very complicated sometimes, and without cultural context, things wander off in translation. But when the finalized version got here out, we could translate it exactly, and I believe the controversy is cleared,” Rev. Lee said.
Focusing on world mission, and reaching the following generation in Korea
When asked what he believes the legacy of the Congress and the Seoul Statement is likely to be, he said he believes “it is determined by how we deliver and communicate this document more widely.”
“Lausanne just isn’t a company, but a movement based on volunteers,” he said. Therefore, he believes they need to primarily be “concerned about collaboration by way of mission work”, emphasizing “we have now to deal with world mission.” He also said that he’s committed to continuing to wish for the movement because it considers the following steps after the Congress.
When the needs inside the Korean Church, one among the problems that stands out is reaching the following generation. Rev. Lee acknowledged that there’s a real need for change.
“First of all, we must correct our manner towards the following generation. We must change and be more humble and sincere to point out the lifetime of the gospel,” he said. He also believes that latest skills needed to be developed “to evangelize the brand new generation that’s growing up within the era of the Digital Revolution.”
“We must develop latest evangelism strategies, especially to succeed in the digital generation, the so-called digital natives,” he said, and emphasized that it’s “a very different culture.” Therefore, reaching out to them requires a type of cross-cultural ministry, he said. “They should not similar to we’re, so we have now to beat the barriers.”
Reconciliation within the gospel
Finally, Rev. Lee was asked what stood out to him as the one best highlight from the Congress. “The communion service with my Japanese counterpart,” he said, referring to the closing session on the ultimate day of the Congress, when he led the communion service along with the Chair of Japan Lausanne, Dr. Masanori Kurasawa.
“It was an emblem of reconciliation,” Rev. Lee said. “We talked about how we were persecuted by Japan, but within the gospel, we could be reconciled to one another. We wanted to point out this reconciliation within the gospel.”
“That was the highlight for me.”
