The gospel of Jesus Christ is unique, wonderful, powerful and true. It is the greatest message in the history of the world. That is why we’ve met together. What will be the legacy of this Congress? Only God knows - we don’t, at this stage. But I can tell you our four-fold vision and hope.
Firstly, for a ringing re-affirmation of the uniqueness of Christ and the truth of the biblical gospel, and a crystal clear statement on the mission of the Church — all rooted in Scripture. We cannot engage in mission unless we know what we believe. The historic missionary conference of Edinburgh 1910 set in motion great missionary endeavour. But it had a flaw — the organisers sidelined doctrine. So they aimed to launch a missionary movement without biblical consensus. That’s folly. We need to have clarity, especially on four things: (i) the exclusive claims of Christ; (ii) the meaning of Christ’s death; (iii) the necessity of conversion; (iv) the lostness of humankind. The Cape Town Commitment seeks to give this clarity.
Secondly, to identify key issues which the Church needs to address in the coming decade. The mission statement for this Congress was that ‘we would seek to bring a fresh challenge to the global Church to bear witness to Jesus Christ and all his teaching, in every part of the world — not only geographically, but in every sphere of society, and in the realm of ideas’. I love the words of Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian and prime minister, who said: ‘There is not one centimetre of human existence to which Christ, who is Lord of all, does not point and say “that is mine”.’
