Navigating the future of evangelism: Rev Jaehoon Lee reflects on Lausanne 4

Following the conclusion of the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization held in Incheon, Korea from September 22-28, Christian Daily International had an opportunity to sit down with Congress Co-Chair Rev. Jaehoon Lee for an exclusive interview. Looking back at the historic event that was generously supported by many Korean churches and brought together nearly 5,400 participants from 200 countries and territories, Rev. Lee took a moment to share his reflections. He spoke about historic changes as Lausanne 4 preparations reflected more of the Church’s shift to the global South; his hope for the Korean Church to be truly part of the global body of Christ; some of the dynamics surrounding the Seoul Statement; and the single greatest highlight for him at the event.

Rev. Lee, who serves as Senior Pastor of Onnuri Church in Seoul, began by pointing to his role in the Congress as a sign of how Lausanne 4 was different from previous Congresses from the start. It was the first time in Lausanne’s 50-year history that there was a clear recognition of the shifting Church landscape to the Global South as they appointed a representative from the host country as Co-Chair of the Congress. There was no such title in the past, he said.

Rev. Lee’s appointment to this role “means the Lausanne Movement wanted to reflect the change in the map of global Christianity, from the global North and West to the global South and East. And at the center of the global South and East, there is the Korean Church,” he said.

“They wanted to recognize the new reality of polycentric mission and emphasize collaboration with us as host country.”

As Co-Chair, Rev. Lee said he had the opportunity to recommend leaders from Global South regions, such as Asia and Africa. A specific recommendation was Dr. Patrick Fung, at the time the director of the Overseas Mission Fellowship (OMF), as Program Chair.

“He planned and designed the whole program based on the book of Acts. From Bible expositions to the various Congress topics, all the different program elements were taken from Acts, which is very biblical and missional,” Rev. Lee said.

The three previous program directors of the Congresses in Lausanne in 1974, Manila in 1989 and Cape Town in 2010 were all Western leaders. This time, it was different, and Rev. Lee was very pleased with this change because he felt the global South voices were more strongly represented at the Fourth Congress.

Korean Church could genuinely become part of the global Church

Asked about the Korean participation in Lausanne 4, Rev. Lee said he wanted the Korean Church to learn from the global Church and gain a more global perspective.

“For many years, the Korean Church has been very isolated from other churches. Korea is homogenic as a nation with one heritage, and they learned to be one body. For a long time, they have been very energetic, and they have become influential in the world, but they have not been global,” Rev. Lee said.

He believes that this global Congress helped Korean Christians to genuinely become part of the global Church.

“The Korean churches, the leadership and congregations, were exposed to many voices from churches around the world. Especially when we heard the voices from churches in persecuted nations, we learned a lot. And we could also reflect on our past, the time when our own ancestors were persecuted for their faith,” he said.

Similarly, he hopes that the Lausanne Movement would help Korean missionaries to become more integrated into global mission networks. As the second largest mission sending force in the world, thousands of Korean missionaries have been dispatched to every corner of the world. But Rev. Lee believes they have yet to learn to work together with missionaries from other countries.

“They have lacked a spirit of collaboration,” he said, referencing a core theme of the Lausanne Congress this time. “They work together but only within Korean networks, not global networks that include missionaries from other nations,” he added, and said he hopes they would extend their collaborative relationships, potentially also through the Lausanne Movement that could serve as a platform.

Apart from the need for collaboration, another area that Lausanne 4 highlighted this time was the importance of including people in the workplace as participants in the Great Commission. Rather than limiting the task of sharing the gospel to pastors, church leaders and missionaries, fulfilling the Great Commission requires the participation of everyone in the Church, the Congress heard.

Asked how this emphasis resonated with Korean churches, Rev. Lee said that it is an issue that has already been recognized and many churches have developed workplace-related ministries. “That is why many workplace leaders were invited to the Congress this time. Among the Korean participants, there were not only pastors and missionaries. Around 30% were workplace leaders,” he said.

State of the Great Commission report & Seoul Statement presented a new approach

Each of the previous congresses left a legacy in the form of a document that emerged from the event, including the Lausanne Covenant (1974), the Manila Manifesto (1989) and the Cape Town Commitment (2010). In Korea, many participants were caught by surprise when the Seoul Statement was presented as a final product mere hours before the event was about to begin.

The leadership went to great lengths to explain that unlike the previous Lausanne documents, the Seoul Statement complemented the earlier documents as well as the State of the Great Commission report that was published in April, and that it was meant to “inform and inspire” conversations throughout the week rather than summarize the deliberations. Nevertheless, some pointed to the language in the document that suggested it was meant as coming from the Congress on behalf of those who attended.

Then, only a day or two later, edits were made to two paragraphs related to the issue of homosexuality, which again raised eyebrows and led to further requests to open the statement to feedback. Ultimately, the Lausanne leadership announced at the end of the week that participants would be invited to share their comments and that Lausanne’s Theology Working Group together with the senior leadership team would discern the next steps.

Asked about the dynamics surrounding the Seoul Statement, Rev. Lee acknowledged that “there were some mistakes in communication.” But he also pointed out that Lausanne does not have any defined protocol about how statements are formulated, processed and released.

“At Lausanne 1, John Stott wrote the Lausanne Covenant during the event. The second time, it was different. And at the Third Congress, the final document was only released months after the event. So, there is no exact protocol,” he said.

Rev. Lee added that he saw no issue when Lausanne Global Executive Director Dr. Michael Oh released the statement on the first day, because when requests from participants came to comment on it, the Lausanne leadership showed itself flexible. “They are open, they want to receive the feedback from participants, and they will discuss and revise it again in some limited way,” he said.

He also mentioned that there were several new approaches seen in Lausanne 4, such as the publication of the State of the Great Commission report in the lead up to the Congress. None of the previous events had anything comparable, so he believes this was a good development.

‘Korean Church is very eager to protect the Biblical standard’

Asked more specifically about the edits that were made to the document early in the week in the paragraphs related to homosexuality, Rev. Lee said they were made at the request of the Korean churches. He pointed out that even in other international settings or political events, the host country may influence certain elements of the final document. As this will be remembered as the Seoul Statement, the churches from the host nation provided feedback on some aspects they wanted to see changed.

Rev. Lee pointed out that Korean churches consider “Europe and North America as very liberal in this matter” and are concerned that “they had strayed away from the Biblical standard.” In Western countries, the issue is not viewed in the same way as in other parts of the world, he commented. “In Asian and African contexts, this is very crucial for protecting society and the Church from going down that path. So, the Korean Church is very eager to protect this Biblical standard,” he said, adding that because the Congress was held in this country, he appreciates that the polite request from the Korean churches to make these small changes was granted.

That the issue is important to Korean believers was also evident when some groups expressed concern about Lausanne in the lead-up to the Congress and at the time when the Seoul Statement was published.

“Some misunderstood the statement because the nuance is very delicate. The topics of sexuality and gender are very complicated sometimes, and without cultural context, things get lost in translation. But when the finalized version came out, we could translate it exactly, and I think the controversy is cleared,” Rev. Lee said.

Focusing on world mission, and reaching the next generation in Korea

When asked what he believes the legacy of the Congress and the Seoul Statement might be, he said he believes “it depends on how we deliver and communicate this document more widely.”

“Lausanne is not an organization, but a movement based on volunteers,” he said. Therefore, he believes they should primarily be “concerned about collaboration in terms of mission work”, emphasizing “we have to focus on world mission.” He also said that he is committed to continuing to pray for the movement as it considers the next steps after the Congress.

When looking at the needs within the Korean Church, one of the issues that stands out is reaching the next generation. Rev. Lee acknowledged that there is a real need for change.

“First of all, we must correct our manner towards the next generation. We have to change and be more humble and sincere to show the life of the gospel,” he said. He also believes that new skills needed to be developed “to evangelize the new generation that is growing up in the era of the Digital Revolution.”

“We must develop new evangelism strategies, especially to reach the digital generation, the so-called digital natives,” he said, and emphasized that it is “a totally different culture.” Therefore, reaching out to them requires a form of cross-cultural ministry, he said. “They are not the same as we are, so we have to overcome the barriers.”

Reconciliation in the gospel

Finally, Rev. Lee was asked what stood out to him as the single greatest highlight from the Congress. “The communion service with my Japanese counterpart,” he said, referring to the closing session on the final day of the Congress, when he led the communion service together with the Chair of Japan Lausanne, Dr. Masanori Kurasawa.

“It was a symbol of reconciliation,” Rev. Lee said. “We talked about how we were persecuted by Japan, but in the gospel, we can be reconciled to each other. We wanted to show this reconciliation in the gospel.”

“That was the highlight for me.”

Photo: Hudson Tsuei