Philippine Lausanne Catalyst, Vol. 1, No. 1, January-April 2008
Every Filipino, a Great Commission Christian
David S. Lim, Ph.D.
Each of us can be used by God to help transform the world for His glory!
As we enter 2008, let us be aware that about 27% of the world have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, and about 67% of the world are not baptized Christians yet, meaning, they can not celebrate Christmas and Holy Week meaningfully with us yet!
Yet the Lausanne Movement since 1974 has been reminding the Body of Christ worldwide that WORLD EVANGELIZATION is an urgent and a joyful task that should and can be done! And lately, we are told that if done properly, its impact and end-result is the TRANSFORMATION of all nations! After all, our Lord Jesus declared, “I will build my Church and the gates of hell can not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18)!
During our Lausanne Philippines Congress last Oct. 25-27, 2007, we signed the Manila Declaration that commits us to pray and work together for community transformation (CT), national transformation (NT) and world transformation (WT). It is basically to make disciples of Jesus who are equipped to obey the Great Commandment (to love God with all we’ve got, and love our neighbors as ourselves) and the Great Commission – to do this in our respective Jerusalems (our community), our Judeas (our nation) and to the ends of the earth (at least one other nation or people group) by the power of the Holy Spirit!
This simply means that for CT, each of us (esp. our church leaders) can be “elders of the city” (preferably in a ministerial fellowship) who can help transform their barangays into models of “caring and sharing communities” (bayanihan!). For NT, each professional and business-person can be trained to start a marketplace ministry though organizing a small group (for prayer and Bible reflection) in our place of work (or school in the case of students). And for WT, we can equip every Filipino who goes overseas to be a tentmaker (self-supporting missionary) wherever God sends them!
Each of us just needs to develop a lifestyle that “finds a need and fills it” in Jesus’ name – in our neighborhood, in our workplace and hopefully among the nations! We can not have impact if we do it alone, of course! But just partnering with “one or two” (perhaps just your family) to pray and work together will be powerful enough, for the agape-love of God (the fruit of the Spirit) will surely empower any believing group to do exploits for Him, as ambassadors of His kingdom on earth! Each one of us can be a Great Commission Christian!
Please contact us and enroll in our mailing list so that you can receive Catalyst regularly, so you can be updated on how the whole Filipino church is sharing the whole gospel with the whole world! Please attend one of the regional Lausanne Phil. Congresses that will be held in your region this year.
May God use each of us to be His agents of transformation locally, nationally and globally for His glory!
