Pattaya 2004:
"A New Vision, a New Heart, and a Renewed Call"
By Theresa Newell, LCJE Area Coordinator for North America"A New Vision, a New Heart, and a Renewed Call"
Theresa Newell participated in Issue Group # 31: Reaching Jewish People with the Gospel
The LCJE Team
Several LCJE leaders celebrated the Feast of Sukkot by making a pilgrimage, not to Jerusalem, but to Thailand. They went, not to trek across the country like some who minister alongside young Israelis who "go east," but to "go home" to the place - Pattaya, Thailand - where LCJE began 24 years ago. The Royal Cliff Resort in Pattaya and Jewish Evangelism seem a strange mix, but in the providence of God, the two are forever combined in the history of LCJE.
It was in June 1980 that LCJE was birthed at the Consultation on World Evangelization (COWE) sponsored by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) in Pattaya. At that consultation, 17 mini-consultations met, including one entitled "Reaching Jews." From that group of 18 people, LCJE was begun. Edwin J. Kolb served as chair and C. David Harley as pre-conference coordinator. David went on to become the first International coordinator of LCJE.
Twenty-four years later, from September 29 to October 5, 2004, seven LCJE members were in Pattaya to serve on Issue Group #31 "Reaching Jews with the Gospel" at the LCWE Forum 2004. This was the third worldwide consultation on world evangelization sponsored by LCWE (1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland; 1989 in Manila with the mini-consultation of 1980).
Three of the '04 group were veterans from the 1980 consultation: Dr. Kai Kjær-Hansen, Denmark; Bishop Ole Chr. Kvarme, Norway; and Susan Perlman, USA. (Jhan Moskowitz, who had also been part of the 1980 mini-consultation, attended Forum 2004 but served in the "Reconciliation" Issues Group.)
Added to their number at Forum 2004 were: Richard Harvey, UK; Bodil F. Skjøtt, Denmark; Tuvya Zaretsky, USA; and, Theresa Newell, USA. The team renamed itself The Jewish Evangelism Working Session or "JEWS," for short.
LCWE Forum 2004
Under the theme "A New Vision, a New Heart, and A Renewed Call," the 2004 LCWE Forum brought together 1530 invited participants from 130 countries of the world, all of whom met simultaneously in one of 31 Issue Groups (IGs). The new face of the world since the last LCWE consultation in Manila in 1989 was evident by the topics tackled by the 31 Issue Groups: globalization, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the role of the media, religious nationalism, medical ethics, understanding Muslims, the persecuted church, poverty, oppression of children, post-modernity, ministry to the disabled, future youth leadership, business as mission, and effective theological education. Work among Jewish people was touched on by many of the topics faced in other IGs and came to light in discussions in the synergy groups which brought several IGs together.
The most fruitful events during Forum 04 were the "synergy groups" which members of JEWS attended on Days 4 and 5 of the seven-day Forum. The synergy groups brought together representative members of three IGs for two hours to discuss any overlap in ministry focus and strategy development that might stimulate each other in areas which might require further thought and where there might be collaborative efforts for the gospel. The first two IGs that JEWS met in a synergy session were Children and Youth Ministries and the Oral Learners group; the second were Prayer in Evangelism and Understanding Muslims.
In the first we found mutuality in several areas: working through the ethical issues of taking the Gospel to children without parental consent; the opportunities to work with people in mixed marriages (particularly where one spouse was Jewish); unchurched families, and those seeking spiritual answers to life. The use of narrative, the telling of the story of salvation for all age groups, and the reintroduction of the Bible as an Eastern, Jewish book opened up ideas for each group. My heart was deepened for children's ministry and the needs of the millions who can only HEAR the Gospel and perhaps never READ it.
In the second synergy group, we found a great deal of sympathy for Jewish evangelism among those reaching out to Muslims! The problem of discipling new believers - Jewish and Muslim - and helping them find suitable worship styles that are culturally sensitive while not becoming syncretistic was a topic which needed further discussion. It was suggested, for example, that the formation of Messianic congregations may serve as a model among new Muslim believers as they explore worship styles that are centered on Jesus as Lord. The necessity of prevailing and persistent prayer for the salvation of each people group where the Gospel has yet to penetrate was underlined in this session. The two hours spent with the synergy groups went by very quickly.
The Team's Task
Each IG was commissioned to produce a 25,000 word report at the end of the Forum updating the state of their area of ministry. The JEWS group was assigned to Room 8, a small square breakout room in the PEACH conference center at the resort. Registration, where each participant had a colored wrist band attached for the duration of the conference, where each day one went through security checks, and where plenary sessions were held all took place in the PEACH building. Our IG #31 also ate lunch there.
Dr. Kjær-Hansen served as convener of JEWS. His responsibilities were to assign papers to be written in the months before the Forum began, to oversee the production of the IG's report, and to liaise with the Forum leadership and other conveners each day. Bodil Skjøtt acted as facilitator/co-convener, and Bishop Kvarme was theologian for JEWS. Our daily reminder of the hospitality extended by the church of Thailand was Som, a young Thai woman and missionary in her own right, who served graciously as our groups' assistant from seeing that papers were copied to filling tea cups. Som was one of eighty Campus Crusade for Christ Thai missionaries who volunteered long hours of service at Forum 04. We were blessed by her presence with us.
The JEWS' challenge was to produce a paper which would speak to the worldwide church on the necessity and importance of Jewish evangelism. We believe our report will encourage and challenge the Church to pray for and support missionaries to do the work of getting the Gospel to the 15 million Jewish people scattered around the world. We reminded ourselves that it was important to keep in mind the "Majority World" church of the global south where the church is growing exponentially but where the least number of Jewish people live.
In writing our paper, we asked ourselves: What scriptural mandates are there to the Church at large about the Jewish people and their need to hear the Gospel? How could we speak through this report in a tone which reflected God's love toward His people and not just theological "facts"? How could we address the errant theologies of the day that say that the Jews do not need Jesus to be saved? How could we best make it clear to the whole Church that If Jesus is not the Messiah for the Jewish people neither is He Christ for the nations?
Our group had the advantage of having a Lausanne Occasional Paper (LOP #7) produced in 1980 titled Christian Witness to the Jewish People. (This paper is available on the LCJE website or through the link to LCWE occasional papers.) While we had LOP #7 behind us, we were nonetheless challenged to articulate today's status of mission to the Jews. The title of the 2004 Paper we produced is: Jewish Evangelism: A Call to the Church. It will also be available on the LCJE website after its final editing is complete.
This paper produced by the JEWS group in those seven days includes these topics: God's Covenant with the Jewish People and Jewish Evangelism; The Jewish World as it Exists Today; Jewish Believers in the Church; Some Challenges Associated with Jewish Evangelism; Strategies and Case Studies in Jewish Evangelism; and, What the Church Can Do . Appendices include a brief bibliography and demographic information on Jewish people today.
The Daily Schedule
Each day of Forum 04 began at 6:30 AM with prayer, breakfast at 7 and corporate worship at 8. The IGs were officially scheduled to spend 20 working hours together during the Forum, but many more hours were spent over computers as the paper took shape through the week.
There were times of good fellowship as well. One evening after dinner, all who were related to LCJE at the Forum gathered on a veranda of the Royal Cliff Grand Hotel to remember the times at the 1980 consultation when LCJE was formed. In addition to the seven on the team those gathered included: Lisa Loden, Israel,; Joseph Steinburg, UK; Heinrich Pedersen, Denmark; Jean-Paul Rempp, France and Jhan Moskowitz. (Byron Spradlin, USA was prevented from being present on this occasion.) We remembered with fondness Dr. Louis Goldberg and Menachem Benhayim who had served on the 1980 team and who are now home with the Lord.
LCJE's Historic Role and The Larger Purposes of LCWE Forum 04
Using the historic statements which have come out of the earlier Lausanne conference such as The Lausanne Covenant (1974) and The Manila Manifesto (1989), the 2004 Forum sought to continue to urge cooperation among worldwide evangelicals to work for the cause of world evangelization. Its mission statement is: Mobilizing the whole church to bring the whole Gospel to the whole world.
LCJE was mentioned in the Forum notebook which each participant received at registration as one of two groups which formed "lasting cooperative movements" to network nationally and internationally under the Lausanne umbrella. It is hoped that LCJE will serve as a model for other groups which were formed at Forum 2004 to continue their work together by networking worldwide in their particular areas of evangelization. LCJE's international conferences and consultations over the years were listed in a diagram of LCWE's networking efforts. The diagram graphically pointed out LCJE as an example of the longest on-going networking group within the Lausanne Movement.
On the last night of Forum 04, LCWE leadership was handed over. Dr. Paul Cedar passed the office of Executive Chair to Rev. Doug Birdsall; Dr. David Claydon turned over the job of International Director to Dr. Ted Yamamori. Birdsall served as a missionary in Japan for 25 years. Dr. Yamamori, who was raised as a Buddhist in Nagoya, Japan, now serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. Six regional deputy directors were also named and presented at the last session of Forum 04.
Some Comments and Summary
I count it a great privilege to have served with the LCJE team at Forum 2004. It was worth all 50 hours of air travel from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Bangkok! To have been part of the JEWS group of scholars will be an experience I will not forget and for which I will always be grateful.
Outside of the IG sessions, I found that some of the most important conversations and contacts were made at the large buffet breakfasts and luncheons. In most of those conversations, the issue of Jewish evangelism was discussed in more ways than there are ways to fix seafood in Thailand. Through such exchanges, I was amazed and edified at all that the Lord is doing over his earth today.
I had conversations with an Iranian former Muslim now ministering in Australia, a minister from Burma (a place I had prayed for on my list of "the persecuted church"), a Nigerian leading a prayer ministry in Poland, a Frenchman working in Chad and Mali with potential small business owners, a Lebanese man working in worldwide food distribution, an Indian pastor working among slum children, an Ecuadorian pastor reaching indigenous tribal groups with the Gospel, and a Romanian who came directly from Jerusalem where he had been part of a prayer team during the Feast of Tabernacles!
A Critique
I felt the emphasis on getting reports out through the IGs was a practical and productive way to use such a Forum. This arrangement gave opportunity for every person to contribute to the final compendium of information on mission as it exists "on the ground" today. The day of large conferences with plenary speakers is passé, and I believe LCWE hit it right with the working agenda that was used in Forum 04.
I know the leadership of Lausanne worked hard to provide scholarships for those who were not able to raise the funds to attend and be represented. They should be commended for their work in this area. I was also grateful to see the heads of large evangelistic groups represented like Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators and others who gave of their time and staff sacrificially and served humbly. It seems that LCWE is one of the few groups that exist that could have pulled off such an event as Forum 04. It will stand as an important event in the history of world missions. The reports which were produced there will undoubtedly propel Gospel work forward.
At the same time, I believe that for the Lausanne Movement to continue and grow, the leadership will need to reflect even more clearly the changing world - a world that has changed in large measure BECAUSE Lausanne happened in 1974. It was the Lausanne vision of Billy Graham, Leighton Ford, John Stott and other leaders which mobilized the whole church to commit to reaching the whole world with the whole Gospel.
At the next Lausanne Forum (there was talk of 2010) I would like to see more young leaders, more women, more faces of color up front. I would like to see in the plenary worship sessions music from around
the world with all the songs and instrumentality that God is raising up among new believers on all the continents and by which He
is being praised. I would like to see the Global South even more fairly represented based on its number of believers and the move of the Holy Spirit manifested through the gifts of worship and word which are so much a part of the growing edge of the church in the "majority world."
May we be generous in our prayers for the new leadership of the Lausanne Movement that they may have His wisdom and grace for the challenging days ahead. May the work of Jewish evangelism be forwarded by what was done by the JEWS IG in Pattaya, to His glory.
Theresa Newell
lcjena@comcast.net