Seoul Highlights

Here are some of my highlights from the congress:

Scattered throughout the week, we heard stories from the Lord's people around the world, both from the stage and on video. It is always encouraging to hear how the Lord is working in people's lives.

The theme for the Wednesday was on the Persecuted Church and Mission. It was sobering to hear first-hand accounts of persecution. We have many brothers and sisters who face violence and death on a regular basis. It was a delight to hear pastor Farshid Fathi, from Iran, talk about how he had attended the last congress in Cape Town, and how he had been thrown in jail on his return. He ended up staying in jail for five years. He told stories of his time in jail and how the Lord answered prayer for other prisoners, while he had to wait longer for his release. And he said all that with a smile on his face! We look forward to the day when our brothers and sisters in Iran are free to worship and share their faith without fear and continue to esteem them for their faithful stand.

One of the participants at the first Lausanne Congress was Ramez Attalah, from Egypt. He had been a student at the time. He recounted the time he had talked and prayed with a man who introduced himself as 'a pastor' from Africa. It was only as Ramez was returning home that he looked at the introduction card that he had been given: the pastor was Festo Kivengere, Archbishop of Uganda, who had suffered much for his faith under Idi Amin. As he told the story, Ramez was so moved by his recollection of that encounter, he could hardly go on: he just managed, "I wanted to be like Festo". How powerful such an encounter can be that it can have such an impression, 50 years on!

This was the first congress that could be attended by men and women from China. It would be easy for the church in China to hunker down in the midst of the ongoing official oppression they experience. But one of their number spoke of the vision of the church in China to send 30,000 cross-cultural missionaries by 2030. What a challenge!

Some of the morning expositions were very good. Phil Ryken's exposition of Acts 20, focussing on Paul as a servant leader, was very helpful. It was faithful to the text, clear, warm, and challenging. For a world church that has experienced so much abuse from its leaders, this was a very important session. When it is posted online I will try to create a link to it. I missed Ronaldo Lidorio, from Brazil, on the last morning, as I had to leave early for my flight to Nepal. I have enjoyed his writing: here it is.

There were a number of short talks each day, too. Vaughan Roberts spoke on sexuality on the Monday night. It was a master class in the format - he was given just 15 minutes. There are those, especially, I think, from Africa and Latin America, who criticise any talk around this subject, and some would say that Vaughan should not be in ministry because he experiences same-sex attraction. They are burying their heads in the sand, as if this is not an issue where they come from. I was very glad that Vaughan was given this slot and that he handled it in such a brilliant way.

The brightest highlight of the week for me was the presentation by leaders of the church in Korea on the Thursday evening. Using audio-visuals, one after another spoke of the way the Lord had helped the church in Korea, often through terrible suffering, since it began 140 years ago. It could have been triumphalistic, but in fact the most poignant moment was when a senior pastor shared how church growth had plateaued off from the 1990s, and how this had led them to search their hearts, and confess the sins of pride and competition and obsession with numbers. The way back for the Korean church is repentance and the plea for revival. This was so refreshing to hear and I think resonated with many others around the hall.