Lausanne Covenant 08

Continuing our Evangelical Documents Study Series, we'll be examining the eighth portion (ninth, as enumerated in the document) of the Lausanne Covenant, promulgated in 1974 by the first International Congress on World Evangelization. The first segment dealt with the purposes of God; the second segment dealt with the authority and nature of Scripture; the third segment dealt with the unique saving role of Christ; the fourth segment dealt with the nature of evangelism; the fifth segment dealt with Christian social responsibility; the sixth segment dealt with the Church's calling to evangelism; the seventh segment dealt with Christian partnership in evangelism; and now the eighth segment deals with the urgency of evangelism.

9. The Urgency of the Evangelistic Task

More than 2,700 million people, which is more than two-thirds of all humanity, have yet to be evangelised. We are ashamed that so many have been neglected; it is a standing rebuke to us and to the whole Church. There is now, however, in many parts of the world an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are convinced that this is the time for churches and parachurch agencies to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch new efforts to achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign missionaries and money in an evangelised country may sometimes be necessary to facilitate the national church's growth in self-reliance and to release resources for unevangelised areas. Missionaries should flow ever more freely from and to all six continents in a spirit of humble service. The goal should be, by all available means and at the earliest possible time, that every person will have the opportunity to hear, understand, and to receive the good news. We cannot hope to attain this goal without sacrifice. All of us are shocked by the poverty of millions and disturbed by the injustices which cause it. Those of us who live in affluent circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple lifestyle in order to contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.

The first thing that strikes me most strongly here is, as the title conveys, a sense of genuine urgency. It's so easy to lose sight of the massive crisis that should break every heart: the majority of people alive today are trapped in sin rather than freed by the good news that Jesus died to liberate them and rose again so we can share in his triumph. Most people alive today haven't heard about it! And how will they be set free to live for God's kingdom until they hear and have a chance to reply? Now certainly, it may be that those who do not hear in this life may yet have hope - such we may hope in the mercy of God but without presuming - but so many are living their lives in bondage and death when they could have freedom and life!

The document also makes a good point when it urges missionaries to be more mobile. We have precedent for this in the ministry of the apostles. Once a congregation was begun and given initial preparation, it did not continue to depend on the day-to-day presence of the apostles. It began its own life, raising up leadership from within its ranks - though still checked from time to time by apostolic guidance. Today, we need to free up resources so that those countries with a prepared Christian presence within them can be evangelized by their own Christians, while missionaries can focus more on areas yet unreached.

And the third thing that strikes me here is the call for Christians who are relatively more affluent - which, on a global scale, would include anyone reading this - to accept a simpler lifestyle so that we can support the tasks of the kingdom of God. Now, by American standards, I'm by no means well-to-do. I'm a student with mounting debt and no income at the moment who can't always afford to eat. For a while now, I've been trying to figure out how I can effectively simplify my life and divert a bit more of what I do have towards this task. It isn't easy and I'm still trying to figure it out; but there are so many people on earth, even brothers and sisters in the faith, who have so vastly much less than I do. I can hardly imagine it. And still, many of those same believers find ways to give. Surely I - and the rest of us - can do the same.

Lausanne Covenant 07

Continuing our Evangelical Documents Study Series, we'll be examining the seventh portion (actually, seventh and eighth, as enumerated in the document) of the Lausanne Covenant, promulgated in 1974 by the first International Congress on World Evangelization. The first segment dealt with the purposes of God; the second segment dealt with the nature and authority of Scripture; the third segment dealt with the uniqueness of Christ as the only savior of the world; the fourth segment dealt with the nature of evangelism; the fifth segment dealt with Christian social responsibility; the sixth segment dealt with the Church's calling to evangelism; and now the seventh segment deals with Christian partnership in evangelism:

7. Cooperation in Evangelism

We affirm that the Church's visible unity in truth is God's purpose. Evangelism also summons us to unity, because our oneness strengthens our witness, just as our disunity undermines our gospel of reconciliation. We recognize, however, that organisational unity may take many forms and does not necessarily forward evangelism. Yet we who share the same biblical faith should be closely united in fellowship, work and witness. We confess that our testimony has sometimes been marred by a sinful individualism and needless duplication. We pledge ourselves to seek a deeper unity in truth, worship, holiness and mission. We urge the development of regional and functional cooperation for the furtherance of the Church's mission, for strategic planning, for mutual encouragement, and for the sharing of resources and experience.

8. Churches in Evangelistic Partnership

We rejoice that a new missionary era has dawned. The dominant role of western missions is fast disappearing. God is raising up from the younger churches a great new resource for world evangelization, and is thus demonstrating that the responsibility to evangelise belongs to the whole body of Christ. All churches should therefore be asking God and themselves what they should be doing both to reach their own area and to send missionaries to other parts of the world. A reevaluation of our missionary responsibility and role should be continuous. Thus a growing partnership of churches will develop and the universal character of Christ's Church will be more clearly exhibited. We also thank God for agencies which labor in Bible translation, theological education, the mass media, Christian literature, evangelism, missions, church renewal and other specialist fields. They too should engage in constant self-examination to evaluate their effectiveness as part of the Church's mission.

One key element here is a call to Christian unity. This may not take the form of organizational unity just yet - though, whether the drafters of the Lausanne Covenant would agree or not, I think that is an urgent ultimate goal - but must involve a close partnership that centers on the gospel rather than the traditional denominational barriers that we've erected. We need to see close cooperation in evangelistic efforts across all such lines - Presbyterians providing resources for Methodists, Baptists laboring side-by-side with Anglicans, and so forth - as a witness to the world. Another key element here is that 'missions' is no longer what it used to be. The image of a missionary in the popular mindset, both within Evangelicalism and outside as well, is often still that of an American or European traveling a great distance to bring the gospel to some place in South America, Africa, or Asia. But no longer can that be the dominant model. Christianity is no longer a predominantly American or European religion; we have already reached the point where the 'average' Christian is from the so-called Two-Thirds World. And so in addition to missions from the West outward, there are also missions to the West as well, and from one part of the West to another, and from one part of the 'Global South' to another, and so forth. The Lausanne Covenant calls us to forget about traditional notions of 'Christianized' societies and instead focus on making sure that every local body, everywhere in the world, is able to do two things: evangelize in its own area, and send/support missionaries somewhere else.

Lausanne Covenant 06

Continuing our Evangelical Documents Study Series, let's examine the sixth segment of the Lausanne Covenant, promulgated in 1974 by the first International Congress on World Evangelization. The first portion of the document discussed the purposes of God; the second portion discussed the nature and authority of Scripture; the third portion discussed the uniqueness of Christ as the only source of salvation for the entire world; the fourth portion discussed the nature of evangelism; the fifth portion discussed Christian social responsibility; and now the sixth portion deals with the relationship between the Church and evangelism:

6. The Church and Evangelism

We affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the Father sent him, and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian society. In the Church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism is primary. World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The Church is at the very centre of God's cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a church which preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross. It becomes a stumbling block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living faith in God, a genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all things including promotion and finance. The church is the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology.

Even in this fairly brief paragraph, there are a number of salient points. One of the most important ones, I think, is what the church is. The Church is a community of God's people. There are local churches - a particular gathering of God's people in an area - and then there's the Church universal, which is the community of all of God's people in all times and places. This understanding is part of the reason why Evangelicals must acknowledge that no denomination or institutionalized body is, in and of itself, the 'one true church' in any exclusive sense. The Church is simply the community of all Christians, and so all who are Christians are in some sense members of the Church, even if they neglect to participate fully in the Church's life, or even if they are expelled from the assembly for disciplinary reasons for a time, or even if they fail to realize Christ's prayer for Christian unity by rejecting harmony and promoting schisms or heresies. To deny that some person is in any sense a member of the Church is to deny that they are Christians at all; there can, by definition, be no Christians totally outside the Church, even if the fellowship of some Christians with the rest of the Church is marred in some manner. The Church is the people of God, who are the body politic of God's kingdom. The Lausanne Covenant stresses that evangelism is not a task given to only certain segments of the Church. Rather, the task of evangelism is given to the entire Church, because only 'the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world' will live up to Christ's commission to his followers. The Lausanne Covenant is also clear that the Church is indeed charged with presenting the whole gospel, not merely a hollowed-out gospel designed to be easy to swallow. To the extent that the Church or any part of the Church is not presenting the whole gospel or is not presenting it to the whole world, the Church - in whole or in part - is failing to fulfill its missional calling. And the cross is central to the gospel, just as is the resurrection; a crossless Christianity is no Christianity at all, and to the extent that any ecclesial body downplays the cross (both the cross of Christ and the cross we must also bear), it is betraying Christ. The Lausanne Covenant here also calls upon the Church to quit hiding in 'ecclesiastical ghettos' and instead to work itself throughout the world. There's a tendency for some Christians to withdraw from worldly engagement, to set up insular communities of Christians - but this is not the way. Christians are not of the world, but we are most definitely called to be in it; the separatist path is not our calling.

Lausanne Covenant 05

Continuing our Evangelical Documents Study Series, we'll be looking at the fifth section of the Lausanne Covenant, promulgated in 1974 by the first International Congress on World Evangelization. The first portion dealt with the purposes of God; the second portion dealt with the nature and authority of Scripture; the third portion dealt with the uniqueness of Christ as the only savior; the fourth portion dealt with the nature of evangelism; and now the fifth portion concerns Christian social responsibility:

5. Christian Social Responsibility

We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all people. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, colour, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited. Here too we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions of our doctrines of God and man, our love for our neighbour and our obedience to Jesus Christ. The message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination, and we should not be afraid to denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist. When people receive Christ they are born again into his kingdom and must seek not only to exhibit but also to spread its righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous world. The salvation we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and social responsibilities. Faith without works is dead.

Once again, I as an Evangelical find nothing objectionable here. I note with pleasure that the Lausanne Covenant carefully avoids certain buzzwords such as "social justice", which sadly is often enough used as code for certain political agendas that it is no longer a fruitful way of expressing a proper Christian commitment to 'works of mercy' in this age. The Lausanne Covenant here denounces all sorts of evils, including those that would deny the dignity of any human being made in God's image. While making sure to distance itself from certain quasi-religious trends such as those found in certain forms of liberation theology, the Lausanne Covenant also affirms the duty of Christians to seek the liberation of all those who are truly oppressed. And, while avoiding any sort of works-based salvation scheme, the Lausanne Covenant notes that those of us who have been and are being saved ought to be transformed in such a way that we will do works fitting for the kingdom.

Lausanne Covenant 04

Continuing our Evangelical Documents Study Series, let's examine the fourth segment from the Lausanne Covenant, promulgated in 1974 by the first International Congress on World Evangelization. The first portion, remember, discussed the purposes of God; the second portion discussed the authority of Scripture; and the third portion discussed the unique role and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the sole provider of salvation. Now the fourth section will concern the nature of evangelism:

4. The Nature of Evangelism

To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his church and responsible service in the world.

I love how it opens up with a clear, precise statement of what it means to evangelize. Evangelism is sharing the good news. And I love that the Lausanne Covenant is so clear, if brief, as to what the good news is. The good news is that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead and now reigns as the Lord who offers many good gifts - including forgiveness, but not limited to forgiveness - to those who accept it; and this acceptance involves spurning our sins in order to embark on the path of discipleship, which is a path of faith. The Lausanne Covenant is also clear that simply being present - so-called 'lifestyle evangelism' - is important but is not truly evangelism; the same is true of certain forms of interfaith dialogue. The Lausanne Covenant is careful to affirm the importance of those things while also distinguishing them from evangelism, which is a proclamation of Jesus and has a specific purpose, which is to see others become likewise committed to him. Nor is this a commitment to a pseudo-Jesus who never lived; it is a commitment to Jesus as he really lived and as he is described in the Bible. (It must be noted that no statement is here made about precisely how accurate our presentation of Jesus must be in order to qualify as evangelism, nor does it say how far our personal conception of Jesus is permitted to diverge from the truth before we have "another Jesus" in such a way as to exclude us from truly being Christians in a meaningful and substantive sense of the word.) And finally, I love that in this section, the Lausanne Covenant makes so clear that evangelism is a summons to discipleship, and discipleship is a costly venture. We cannot pretend that becoming a Christian is a panacea to all earthly ills; in many cases, it is a headlong dive into danger and difficulty, into trial and tribulation! And the Lausanne Covenant is clear that those who accept Christ as master and become his disciples are to identify themselves with and associate themselves with the community of his disciples.

Lausanne Covenant 03

Continuing our Evangelical Documents Study Series, let's examine the third small segment from the Lausanne Covenant, promulgated in 1974. While the first portion discussed the purposes of God and the second portion controversially discussed the nature of the authority of Scripture, the third section discusses Jesus:

3. The Uniqueness and Universality of Christ

We affirm that there is only one Saviour and only one gospel, although there is a wide diversity of evangelistic approaches. We recognise that everyone has some knowledge of God through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this can save, for people suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. We also reject as derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism and dialogue which implies that Christ speaks equally through all religions and ideologies. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man, who gave himself as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator between God and people. There is no other name by which we must be saved. All men and women are perishing because of sin, but God loves everyone, not wishing that any should perish but that all should repent. Yet those who reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to eternal separation from God. To proclaim Jesus as "the Saviour of the world" is not to affirm that all people are either automatically or ultimately saved, still less to affirm that all religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather it is to proclaim God's love for a world of sinners and to invite everyone to respond to him as Saviour and Lord in the wholehearted personal commitment of repentance and faith. Jesus Christ has been exalted above every other name; we long for the day when every knee shall bow to him and every tongue shall confess him as Lord.

When I read this, I see so much beauty and truth. With this paragraph, the Lausanne Covenant repudiates any view that would position Jesus as just one member of a class of peers, any of whom can offer salvation. He isn't. The Lausanne Covenant here affirms that Jesus Christ, just as the Definition of Chalcedon made clear so many centuries ago, is both God and man. Furthermore, all have sinned and so are in need of salvation, and this can only happen through Jesus the Christ; no other name besides his can be invoked for the sake of our rescue. And to respond to him is to repent of our sins, put faith in him and the power of the atonement he provided, commit ourselves to him, and acknowledge him as crucified Savior and also as risen Lord, the one to whom our loyalty and obedience is truly due. And this is the message that must be proclaimed unto salvation; this is the one and only gospel. All have sinned, and all are culpable because some knowledge of God is available to all; we have suppressed this truth, and so it alone cannot save (though it isn't certain whether this statement allows that one who never hears in this life might yet be saved afterwards if in this life they respond positively to the light they have been given; either way, it is our responsibility to proclaim the clear message far and wide). One cannot, however, say that, e.g., Islam is just as 'valid', salvifically speaking, as the gospel. It isn't. Also, this statement proclaims God's universal love for us in spite of our sin, and his passionate desire to redeem each of us; he doesn't want us to die, he wants us to flourish and live!

Lausanne Covenant 02

Continuing our Evangelical Documents Study Series, let's take a look at the next small segment from the Lausanne Covenant, promulgated in 1974. While the previous portion discussed the purposes of God, the next bit concerns Scripture:

2. The Authority and Power of the Bible

We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We also affirm the power of God's word to accomplish his purpose for salvation. The message of the Bible is addressed to all men and women. For God's revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the Holy Spirit still speaks today. He illumines the minds of God's people in every culture to perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes and thus discloses to the whole Church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God.

Needless to say, this will be a paragraph that in certain respects could not be accepted by Latter-day Saints. It specifically states that the Old and New Testaments, which together comprise the Bible, are the "only written word of God", which would exclude the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. This is a real sticking point. It's not that Evangelicals are necessarily in principle unable to accept the idea of new books of Scripture; we simply aren't persuaded that any has been forthcoming, because we believe that God is working in different ways today. (And, after all, very little has been actually added to the LDS Standard Works these days, in contrast to the frequency of new revelations during the lifetime of Joseph Smith. So even within LDS circles, arguably there's no need for the frequency of new written revelation to remain constant over time; it can vary in accordance with important clustering events in salvation history.) If we were persuaded that God was giving us new books of Scripture, that would seem perhaps a bit odd, but there's nothing I can see that in principle bars us from recognizing them if they ever come along.

Also, we note that there is a clear affirmation that God has not stopped speaking to us; however, his Spirit speaks to us largely through the Scripture that we already have - it is continual witness of the Spirit, even though the text is not being augmented. Now, nothing in this says that this is the only way that the Spirit ever speaks to us these days; actually, many Evangelicals and other contemporary Christians are quite open to the idea of continuing personal 'revelatory' interaction with God, so long as that new revelation does not enter into conflict with Scripture (and is not viewed as on par with it) and so long as it abides by biblical and sensible guidelines. (In other words, we probably would be pretty caught off-guard if someone in the back of the sanctuary stood up and announced that God told him to build a new flag pole out front to keep the grass green; we'd have to consider very carefully whether it seems to us more likely that God has spoken such a thing to/through this person than that they're simply misinterpreting something else.)

The other thing that sticks out to me here is that the Bible is said to be "without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice". In comparison to some rather fundamentalist views, this is a relatively soft stance on inerrancy, because it allows that the Bible could very well contain many erroneous presuppositions that don't affect the main message that God seeks to convey through the text. It's also compatible with the view that our cultural constructions of narrative 'error' may not be the appropriate ones for judging an ancient text. (Also worth noting is that these sorts of statements generally have in mind the original manuscripts, not copies that may contain errors, although we also believe the standard critical reconstructions of the text to be quite reliable for ascertaining the original reading.) In this form, I think that - at least within Evangelical circles - this sort of biblical inerrancy is a relatively moderate one, perhaps one I could conceivably affirm. I'd prefer to put a greater stress on the next part, the Bible as "infallible rule of faith and practice", which I would have written as, e.g., "the sole supremely authoritative rule of faith and practice". Put that way - and I think the authors of this document would concur - there is no peer to the Bible (or, if you like for generality, written Scripture). All creeds must be potentially open to revision in light of correction from the biblical text; the Bible takes precedence - as an authority for faith and practice - over creeds, tradition, etc. This seems compatible with saying that there is a limited distinct authority that can be ascribed to later tradition, or (for those who believe in it) to contemporary non-Scripture-producing prophecy, or any number of other sources. (In case it isn't apparent, I have some prima scriptura tendencies.) To say that the Bible is the locus of such authority is also to rule out the lamentably common trends, especially in more liberal churches, to discard biblical injunctions at will because they conflict with dominant Euro-American cultural trends.

Those are some of the points that I note, at least. What are your thoughts on this paragraph from the Lausanne Covenant?

Lausanne Covenant 01

Our Evangelical Documents Study Series - a series of posts presenting some important documents pertaining to Evangelicalism - is getting a big start with a subseries dealing with the Lausanne Covenant. In the year 1974, the first International Congress on World Evangelization met in Lausanne, Switzerland, to discuss the difficulties presented by evangelism/evangelization and missions work in the contemporary world. One of the fruits of that first congress was the production of a document called the Lausanne Covenant, whereby the attendees agreed to certain principles and commitments. We'll begin with two pieces: the introductory covenant resolution and the statement about the purpose of God.

Introduction

We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, from more than 150 nations, participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, praise God for his great salvation and rejoice in the fellowship he has given us with himself and with each other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our day, moved to penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of evangelization. We believe the Gospel is God's good news for the whole world, and we are determined by his grace to obey Christ's commission to proclaim it to all mankind and to make disciples of every nation. We desire, therefore, to affirm our faith and our resolve, and to make public our covenant.

1. The Purpose of God

We affirm our belief in the one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ's body, and the glory of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that even when borne by earthen vessels the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.

There are so many things here I feel as though I could highlight. The authors are acting specifically in their capacity as members of Christ's own church and as representatives of that church from 150 different nations throughout the world. This is the global church in action. They open, note, with praises directed to God for the opportunity to gather together; if there's one thing that marks Evangelicalism at its best, it's maintaining a truly theocentric focus and a sense of joy in God. The authors make note that God is not silent, nor does he sleep, but he is truly active in our own day and age. The authors note that they are profoundly affected by God's action, but that we as Christians have not kept up with it as we should have. They are not afraid to publicly confess this, nor are they afraid to state precisely the ways in which the church has at times erred. These include a failure to not put more of our energy into spreading God's wonderfully good news to those who haven't yet caught wind of it; and these also include the errors of both liberal tendencies (that is, conforming to the world) and fundamentalist tendencies (that is, withdrawing from the world). They announce that there is no one whom the gospel isn't for; it isn't limited to just one people, but is for everyone, and that this must be first and foremost on our minds.

The authors of this document confess their belief in only one God whose identity we know as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - in short, they affirm the doctrine of the Trinity, of one God in three persons. They also confess a belief that this God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, and that God is both the creator of the whole cosmos and the lord of the whole cosmos, who is sovereign over it all and whose will is being worked out in some way in it. The authors also pinpoint the way in which the church is both a called people and a sent people - we're chosen and selected by God to not be a part of the world, and yet we're sent throughout the world as agent's of God's election, to serve him and bear testimony that he alone is God and that he alone rules as rightful king of the kingdom. There are three reasons it mentions why God has sent us. We are to extend his kingdom (I take this to involve at least living like citizens of the kingdom, proclaiming loyalty to its king, and encouraging others to likewise come to terms with his rule); we are to build up Christ's body; and we are to bring glory to God's name. Although the authors must acknowledge that Christians have often failed in these tasks, they must affirm that it doesn't invalidate their gospel message, which is the treasure stored in earthen vessels; and it is to sharing this treasure that we hereby recommit ourselves.

EvDoc Study Series: Intro and Hub

Apparently I have a short attention span, because I'm ready to inaugurate yet a third major series of posts here. In one series, as you know, we're working our way - slowly but surely - through the Journal of Discourses, which is a large collection of early LDS discourses. But this blog isn't focusing exclusively on LDS issues; it's also meant to explore Evangelical issues. And hopefully not just Evangelical readers but also Latter-day Saint readers will be able to gain a better perspective on what Evangelicals are saying within their own camps. So this new series is going to be exploring major documents promulgated fairly recently within (or in connection with) Evangelicalism - and, perhaps eventually, some older documents that are still held to be important by many Evangelicals. We'll be starting out with the Lausanne Covenant. Because of the length of the documents, I'll be looking at them piece-by-piece, mostly just posting each section and opening it up for comments. As a bonus, these numerous short posts will hopefully provide some relief from the extra-long posts that have so far been dominating the blog.

• Lausanne Covenant (1974)
• Covenant Resolution; The Purpose of God
• The Authority and Power of the Bible
• The Uniqueness and Universality of Christ
• The Nature of Evangelism
• Christian Social Responsibility
• The Church and Evangelism
• Cooperation in Evangelism; Churches in Evangelistic Partnership
• The Urgency of the Evangelistic Task
• Evangelism and Culture
• Education and Leadership
• Spiritual Conflict
• Freedom and Persecution
• The Power of the Holy Spirit
• The Return of Christ; Conclusion
• Manila Manifesto (1989)
• Evangelical Manifesto (2008)
• Cape Town Commitment (2010)