Twenty-Second North American LCJE Meeting, San Francisco, 7-9 March, 2005
LCJE 1980 -2005: A Silver Anniversary in the Light of Earlier Conferences on Jewish Evangelism
By Kai Kjær-Hansen, International LCJE Coordinator
At this LCJE conference here in San Francisco we are going to discuss - among other matters - our differences. No reason to hide that. Therefore it is appropriate to state:
Despite our differences: we need each other inside the framework of LCJE in order to advance Jewish evangelism. Therefore: Greetings in the name of HIM, Jesus our Messiah, who none of us can do without - despite our differences.
We are, as already mentioned, going to discuss highly sensitive subjects where we may have differing opinions and attitudes. But by doing this we are fulfilling one of LCJE's aims, namely to "Stimulate one another's thinking on theological and missiological issues". And we do it on the basis that we take for granted in LCJE: that Jewish evangelism is not an item among many others that can be challenged and questioned. The legitimacy of Jewish evangelism is not something we discuss in LCJE. Jewish evangelism is what binds us together. But the way in which we evangelize, the means and methods we use, all this can be the object of debate and criticism.
May God give us wisdom to conduct a discussion which is worthy of brothers and sisters in HIM, whom we cannot do without, the crucified and resurrected Lord. I suppose HE cannot do without us either … or can he? I doubt that he can - or rather that he wants to. Through the biblical history the God of Israel, the Creator of heaven and earth, has shown that he needs his creation to fulfil his purpose. Nothing has changed when it comes to the new creation in Christ. In Christ we can breathe freely. And there is a lot of fresh air in LCJE. There is room for many different opinions. In the realm of robots there is only one opinion. New creations in Christ are not robots. Members of LCJE are not robots either.
San Francisco 1906 and 2005
This LCJE conference is the first conference to be held in San Francisco. So San Francisco will also get a place in LCJE's history. By the way, and before I address LCJE's silver anniversary: Does San Francisco appear in any documents from the so-called "golden age" of Jewish mission? Indeed it does, although against a very sad background. At the international conference on Jewish mission in Amsterdam April 24-26, 1906, they commented on what had happened in San Francisco on April 18, 1906, with the following words:
Whereas God has visited the beautiful city of the far West, San Francisco, with earthquake and with fire, so that hundreds of thousands have become homeless while many, as yet, and probably for ever unnumbered, have lost their lives ... we direct our thoughts especially to the many thousand Jewish brethren who lost their all in that sad event, and trust that the God of Jacob will comfort and will aid them, and that He will use this sore trouble to open the eyes of many of His ancient people that they may find comfort in the possession of their long rejected Messiah. And we pray that He may succor and aid the two Hebrew Missions in San Francisco, that they, though now deprived of their homes, may be enabled to continue to preach Christ to the Jews as faithfully as heretofore.LCJE 1980- 2005: One Eighth of the Newer Jewish Mission
This is 2005. I am tempted to be nostalgic and reminisce about what happened a quarter of a century ago in 1980 (minus three months). For in June 1980 LCJE was founded in Pattaya, Thailand, in connection with the consultation that the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) held there. I will refrain from doing that, but there is no denying that in 2005 LCJE has existed for 25 years and can celebrate its 25-year anniversary.
Have we done our job well enough? Is there anything to celebrate? The answers depend on the standard of reference we use. It goes without saying that everything can be done better.
8 times 25 years is 200 years. The year 2005 minus 200 and we are back in 1805. In 1809 the London Jews Society was established, the first Jewish mission society. So 25 years is something - one eighth of the history of the newer Jewish mission.
The Lausanne Movement was founded in 1974. And, as already said, since 1980 LCJE has been an independent network within the Lausanne Movement, with the Lausanne Covenant as its foundation. None of the other evangelical networks that were set up in 1980 can show a similar continuous activity or has held as many international conferences as LCJE has. The seventh was held in Helsinki, Finland, in 2003. The eighth is scheduled for 9-14 August, 2007 - in Budapest, Hungary.
So if the standard of reference is the other networks within the Lausanne Movement we have nothing to be ashamed of. But yet: everything can be done better. Add to this consultations in the various LCJE chapters or areas. 22 times in the course of LCJE's 25-year-old history there has been an annual LCJE consultation here in North America. Impressive indeed! On Thursday, 10 March, the eighth European conference begins, this time in Hungary. In May we are going to have the second conference for CEO's near Dijon in France. Germany, Finland and Japan have annual meetings. In Australia an LCJE meeting has been planned for 2006.
When I have said this we cannot hide the fact than in an LCJE context areas like Central and South America and South Africa are in a weak position. The attentive reader of the LCJE Bulletin will have noticed that in the February issue there were no annual reports from these areas. More surprising is perhaps that there was not a report from Israel either. While LCJE Israel has earlier been a major player in LCJE's history, it seems at the moment to be practically non-existent. As international coordinator I regret this development. Perhaps the messianic movement in Israel can do without LCJE - there are in Israel other forums where those questions can be dealt with which in other areas are discussed in an LCJE context. But in my opinion LCJE International needs the input and impulses that LCJE Israel could otherwise give.
LCJE 1980- 2005: One Quarter of the Period with Conferences on Jewish Evangelism
I just noted that LCJE's 25-year history makes out one eighth of the more recent history of Jewish mission. If I multiply 25 years with a number between four and five, I come to the year 1895. (A kabbalist would probably be able to make much more of this piece of arithmetic!) The reason this year is interesting is that from that time we have an entity which LCJE can be compared to, namely an international network that holds international conferences. It is true that Hermann L. Strack refers to the conference on Jewish evangelism that was held in Leipzig, Germany, in 1895 as the fourth international conference. But he admits that the conference in 1895 was the first that could rightly be called "allgemeine", i.e. general or comprehensive. International it was.
Following Leipzig 1895, were international conferences in Cologne in 1900, in London in 1903, in Amsterdam in 1906, in Stockholm in 1911, and then came … World War I. A new start was made in 1927 with two conferences, in Budapest and Warsaw. Five international conferences in 16 years in the period 1895-1911.
We in LCJE can also compete with that: seven international conferences in 25 years. And we can also measure up to them as concerns the number of contributions at a conference. About the 1903 conference in London, le Roi, the leading 19th-century historian on Jewish mission, says that the program for the two-day conference was "reichhaltig, eigentlich zu reichhaltig" - substantial and really too substantial, and he mentions that there were seventeen papers. Look at the program for our conference and count. LCJE can still hold its ground when it comes to the number of contributions!
In terms of international conferences and networking internationally LCJE's history constitutes almost one quarter of the recent history.
"Golden age" and Disagreements
Many people see Jewish evangelism in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries as a "golden age". Perhaps it is a fitting designation. I admit that I cannot quite decide that. I also admit that even though there has been much in this 25-year period when LCJE has been around to rejoice in, I have difficulty to term this period a "golden age", but whether or not it is a golden age: in one essential matter we are as "good" as those in the so-called "golden age".
Good at what?
Good at disagreeing! They do not surpass us, but on the other hand, we can easily keep up with them. It is no merit in the name of piety to deny reality. In my opinion LCJE is a platform where we can discuss our disagreements and together try to find answers to them.
In the so-called "golden age" they did not disagree with each other that Jews needed the gospel for salvation. But they did disagree about strategies and methods for Jewish evangelism. Disagreed about Jesus-believing Jews' relation to the law. Disagreed on the question on whether (continued) Jewish identity should or could come to expression in a Jesus-believing Jew's life. Disagreed whether or not they should organize themselves in independent Jewish Christian congregations or be a part of the Christian church and then have a Hebrew Christian fellowship on the side, etc.
I have no intention to pre-empt the discussions we are going to have at this conference. But it is important for me to say at this moment that we are not the first ones to struggle with these questions. Nor do I think that we shall be the last. We may not reach agreement, but even discussions that do not result in agreement can be fruitful if they create greater understanding of the freedom we have received by grace through faith in Jesus Messiah.
Examples from History
Allow me to mention a couple of examples from history:
At the conference in Leipzig in 1895 the German A. Wiegand had been given the task of answering the question: "What is the right relation of Hebrew Christians to the Law?" His answer was that according to the New Testament there is full freedom for the Jesus-believing Jew to observe or not observe the Jewish law. - Of course, this view was challenged, indeed contradicted, by many participants.
At the London conference in 1903 two speakers were to discuss the question: "What may be inferred from Holy Scriptures regarding the formation of a Jewish Christian Church, its worship and organisation, and its relation to the Law?"
The first contribution came from G.H. Box, a gentile. The second came from A. Bernstein, a well-known Hebrew Christian. Box, the gentile, said yes to a Hebrew Christian Church; Bernstein, the Jewish believer, said no to a Hebrew Christian Church and only wanted Hebrew Christian Fellowships.
So the dividing line was not necessarily between, on the one side, Jewish believers and, on the other, non-Jewish believers.
The same situation is seen at the 1911 conference in Stockholm. The theme for discussion was: "'Ebionitism' in the Jewish Mission?" The first speaker was the Hebrew Christian C.T. Lipshytz, who has given his paper the title "The Relation of Christianity to the National Consciousness of the Jews". He is uncompromising and says, among other things: "The Jewish national consciousness is the consciousness of a nation which still reject Christ". He had considered to have his son circumcised but refrains from it. "No man shall say that I preach Christ and follow Moses." Th. Lindhagen, leader of the Swedish Israel Mission and a gentile takes the opposite stand and repeats Box's words from the 1903 conference: "... may those who cannot give their full and hearty allegiance to such a Church at least refrain from putting hindrances in the way of its free development."
Practically all of those present agreed with Lipshytz. Yet Wiegand was permitted to read aloud a Declaration in several points, a moving defence for the Jesus-believer's right to retain a Jewish identity.
To See Things in Perspective
As mentioned about, the participants at the conference in Amsterdam 1906 sent a greeting with a promise of prayer for "the two Hebrew Missions in San Francisco, that they, though now deprived of their homes, may be enabled to continue to preach Christ to the Jews as faithfully as heretofore."
I do not know which views these two Hebrew Missions here in San Francisco had on the establishment of independent messianic congregations or the relation to the Law.
If they were forthat view, I refuse to believe that those who for theological reasons were against this view at the Amsterdam conference did not want to be included in this greeting.
If they were against that view, I refuse to believe that those who for theological reasons were for this view at the Amsterdam conference did not want to be included in this greeting.
The important thing is to see things in perspective. And in Christ.
Kai Kjær-Hansen
lcje.int@gmail.com