L4 Seoul: Day 1

I’m here in Incheon, South Korea for Lausanne 4. The theme this round is is “Let the Church Declare and Display Christ Together.” I’ve decided to blog about each day (Like I did for Lausanne 3 in Cape Town), just offering some unrefined thoughts through the fog of jetlag. Please evaluate my writing and analysis in that light!

This morning I toured the Korean DMZ and went deep inside Tunnel #3. Pretty amazing stuff.

I had a fun dinner with Emanuel Prinz, Ed Stetzer, and David Garrison. Then walked into the main hall for all 5,000 attendees from over 200 countries. The room is very nice with a huge curved screen (80 meters wide) and digitally very impressive with wonderful Korean worship. Interestingly, I have bumped into dozens of friends and colleagues which is really fun for someone who works for home these days.

Of all the main speakers on this first evening, none were Western. One of the thoughts going through my mind was how Lausanne would deal with the word “mission.” For some, it is reductionistic to claim that mission is about “reaching the unreached.” For others, “Fulfilling the Great Commission” is basically the totality of mission.

CEO and Lausanne Executive Director, Michael Oh, is a Korean American. Wearing a traditional Korean robe, he described Incheon as the first place missionaries landed and established churches on the Korean Peninsula, and his mother still attends the first the church established by said missionaries. Importantly, Oh’s focus was on the importance of workplace ministry, meaning that everyone has a role to play in mission. However, he also said that Christians being faithful in their vocations/settings is simply not enough to fulfill the Great Commission; we need to go to the unreached as well. I thought it was a good balance.

I am curious what tomorrow holds after this opening session. There are “Gaps” and “Issue Networks.” The two I have signed up for are Islam and Church Planting, respectively.

You can also watch LIVE: https://congress.lausanne.org/live/

Today, the Seoul Statement was released. I am curious why it is so long, as I thought the Cape Town Committment was still very much a relevant document. I will be interested and seeing some analysis between the two.