CHRIST OUR RECONCILER
Gospel/Church/World
IVP. 208 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 1 844 745 777
Christ our Reconciler is a selection of summaries of testimonies and talks given at the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation, grouped under the themes for the six days of the congress: truth, reconciliation, world faiths, priorities, integrity and partnership.
The main session were expositions through Ephesians — the ones by John Piper and Vaughan Roberts were particularly good; also Calisto Odede’s, with an enjoyable African flavour! Some chapters raised more questions than answers, but were none the worse for that: Equipping Christians to be disciples in the workplace, How (or how not) to reach Muslims, Discipleship and mission in the age of globalisation, and an interesting piece on ethnicity by Dewi Hughes. Tim Keller and Rebecca Manley Pippert did their usual respective (and stirring) bits, enthusing us to reach mega-cities, and share the gospel. Nigel Cameron on ‘Ethics, emerging technologies and the human future’ was an eye-opener, as was a solemn retrospective on ‘What went wrong in Rwanda’. Os Guinness’s feisty ‘Why we need a high view of truth’ provided stirring encouragement; Ajith Fernando on expecting suffering (and particularly interpersonal frustration) was also helpful.
Hot potatoes
The various interspersed testimonies were brief, but it is always a blessing to hear of God’s work in individuals. There were also a couple of extracts from The Cape Town Commitment, a doctrinal statement and ‘call to action’ produced in conjunction with the congress, under Chris Wright’s supervision. The section on homosexuality was mercifully biblical and pastorally sensitive, but lacked the Romans 1 exposure of a societal symptom of rebellion. The section on women in leadership tended to let general principles trump the specific texts. The general exhortations to evangelical unity sometimes gave the impression that things disagreed on were fairly minor — I am not so sure. One oft (and rightly) repeated theme throughout many of the talks was the need for our lives to match the gospel we preach.
Oriental cuisine
I was initially sceptical when receiving this book to review; reading transcripts is always inferior to hearing the talks, so surely a book of summaries of talk transcripts would be even less appetising! Some of the summaries did feel a little wooden, but overall the effect was like one of those oriental meals with dozens of small courses: not all equally good, but most enjoyable taken as a whole. Enjoyable is the wrong word — thought-provoking and stimulating would be better: it was a good opportunity to ponder, or be reminded of, a wide number of issues, and to get a flavour for what was undoubtedly a memorable event. Praise God for his global church!
Phil Heaps,
elder at Grace (Baptist) Church, Westerleigh, South Gloucestershire, UK, Europe, The World
