Two of My Recent Publications

Note: Recently, I have received two of the publications to which I have contributed lately. Here are a few details about each of them.

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Intentional Discipleship and Disciple-Making. An Anglican Guide for Christian Life and Formation is a publication of The Anglican Consultative Council, aiming to revive interest in the ancient discipline and practice of disciple-making within the Anglican Communion.

My friend, Rev. Mark Oxbrow, asked me to write about the practice of discipleship within the Orthodox Christian tradition. My initial text had to be shortened, in order to fit a very limited space, in which a variety of topics was discussed.

I attach below my short text. Time allowing, I intend to publish on my blog a more extended discussion of this important topic.

Lausanne Orthodox Initiative – 2014 Consultation Report Published

“The Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative continues to be an inspiring and unique ecumenical dialogue” say joint report authors Dr James Stamoolis and Fr Eric Tosi. They go on to say, “the impact is on a personal level; person to person, community to community, two different Christian traditions reconciling with each other after years of mistrust and misunderstanding. It is on this level that common ground can be discovered and conflicts can be resolved; each acknowledging their genuine differences but each also acknowledging their common faith in Christ.”

The full consultation report was published this week and may be downloaded here:

LOI 2014 Consultation Report

(Source, LOI website)

Lausanne Orthodox Initiative Announces 2015 Consultation Dates

Next Lausanne Orthodox-Evangelical meeting will take place on 1-4 September in Helsinki, Finland

The LOI Steering Committee is pleased to be able to announce that its 2015 Consultation will be held in Finland at the invitation of the Orthodox Church of Finland and with the warm support of the Evangelical Alliance. Finland has the rare distinction of having two ‘state Churches’, Lutheran and Orthodox, and makes an ideal setting for our third LOI consultation.

We will be meeting from lunchtime on Tuesday 1 September until the afternoon of Friday 4 September 2014 at the Sofia Cultural Centre close to Helsinki (see map).  The Sofia Cultural Centre is a comfortable and convenient venue for the 60-70 participants who are expected to gather for next year’s consultation which will build on the work done at St. Vlash, in Albania, in 2013 and 2014.

The Willowbank Report – A Lausanne Consultation of Gospel & Culture

The complex and often ambiguous relationship between Gospel and culture was discussed a lot since the beginning of the Christians Church and continues to trouble many Christians, as a recent debate among Romanian evangelical, around the legitimacy and compatibility of pos culture – whatever we mean by that, and the Christian ethos.

The Willowbank Report, an important Lausanne Movement document, in which the hand (and mind) of John Stott is very obvious and which I have translated into Romanian about 30 years ago from the French translation, remains a standard for all those interested in this topic.

You may read the text online HERE. I could also sens anybody interested a copy  of the text in .mobi, which could be read on a Kindle. Just ask

God bless.

Consultation Images | Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative

Consultation Images | Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative.

This is the website of the Lausanne Orthodox Initiative, dedicated ti the cooperation in mission between Orthodox and Evangelical believers.

An Interview with Os Guinness on the Global Charter of Conscience

In this article Lausanne Global A Editor David Taylor (DT) interviews Os Guinness (IOG) about the charter, its genesis and his hopes for its impact and how Christian leaders will use it.

DT:  What was the impetus and origin of the Charter?

IOG:  Many years ago, I was privileged to help draft the Williamsburg Charter, which was a celebration and reaffirmation of the Religious Liberty Clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  That, however, was limited to America.  The Global Charter came out of more recent discussions at the EastWest Institute in New York as to what might benefit the whole world in the global era.

DT:  What are the main points of the Charter?

IOG:  It would be impossible to summarize the twenty-nine articles in the Charter.  But essentially they are a reaffirmation and expansion of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in light of all the current controversies over religion and public life.  For example, in light of certain misguided Muslim attempts to pass blasphemy laws, the Charter stresses that freedom of conscience is a protection for believers.  It does not protect beliefs. 

Lausanne Movement – Cape Town 2011 Congress Documentary – short version

Doug Birdsall & Lindsay Brown – John Stott, Home with the Lord

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

For all of us who were together in Cape Town for the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, we will remember the moving tributes given to the two giants of The Lausanne Movement, Billy Graham and John Stott. They were personal friends who loved and admired one another, and they were the defining figures of global evangelicalism for the last sixty years.

Today (27 July 2011) “Uncle John” went home to be with the Lord. (Read more) He is now with the One who he served all his life and in whom he had total confidence.

John Stott impacted the church around the world in many ways. Perhaps his greatest contribution was to articulate clearly and to defend robustly the evangelical faith which he always understood to be biblical faith, grounded in the New Testament. Evangelicalism was to Stott an expression of historic, orthodox Christianity.

Global Survey of Evangelical Protestant Leaders – Pew Research Center

Global Survey of Evangelical Protestant Leaders – Pew Research Center.

Pew Research has published the results of the survey of Evangelical leaders psrticipating in the last Lausanne Congress in Cape Town.

The result is an up to date image of world Evangelicalism.

Using the Cape Town Commitment

Using the Cape Town Commitment.

Suggestions from Lindsay Brown on the way to use the Cape Town Commitment.

Here is the summary:

Cape Town Commitment 1 | Jesus Creed

Cape Town Commitment 1 | Jesus Creed.

Scot McKnight begins with this a series of posts on the Cape Town Commitment. They are worth following. Those interested could subscribe to Scot’s blog, to receive email signals when new post are published.

View Online | The Lausanne Standards

View Online | The Lausanne Standards.

The Lausanne Standards for giving and receiving money for missions.
An important set of rules for establishing financial integrity in missions.

The Standards document can be downloaded on the site above.

Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action

The Lausanne Movement has published today the final document of the Lausanne II Congress in Cape Town. Here is the message I have received from Doug Birdsall, the executive leader of this movement:

Dear Danut,

I’m pleased to let you know that the completed ‘Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action’ is now available online at www.lausanne.org/ctcommitment.

Our thanks to Dr. Chris Wright and the Statement Working Group for their tremendous work in drawing together what was said at Cape Town 2010 so this document could be a true reflection of the Congress voices.

Al treilea congres al Miscarii Lausanne

In perioada 16-25 octombrie a acestui an va avea loc la Capetown, Africa de sud, al treilea congres al Miscarii Lausanne (primele doua au avut loc in 1974, la Lausanne, Elvetia si 1989, la Seul, Coreea de sud). Cei interesati pot gasi AICI detalii despre acest important eveniment pentru lumea evanghelica.

Circa 4.000 de delegati, din peste 200 de tari, vor participa la acest congres. Un mic grup de lideri evanghelici, mai ales tineri, vor reprezenta Romania la acest eveniment.

The Whole World – Epilogue

‘The whole world’ is a big place and a big topic! While we have merely scratched the surface of some vast and complex issues, we trust it is clear that if the whole church is to take the whole gospel to the whole world it needs to think in more than merely quantitative terms.  We conclude our theological reflections with 5 main commitments:

1. a commitment to proclaim in word and deed that care for creation is a gospel issue. If Christians around the globe understand it as such the witness of the church will be more biblically faithful and fruitful.

The Whole World – D. The World of Sin and Redemption

1. We live as broken and sinful people in a broken, sinful world. Our conference touched on several major areas where that brokenness intrudes:

•  the negative effects of globalisation (alongside its acknowledged benefits);
•  continuing global poverty and economic injustice;
•  the challenges of population growth and the huge urban centres;
•  the destruction of the natural environment and human-generated climate change that is already affecting the world’s poorest;
•  the scourge of HIV-AIDS;
•  the cultures of violence that pervade society from domestic to international levels;
•  the threat of nuclear disaster;
•  the dangers of terrorism and its underlying causes;
•  the stoking of ethnic and religious dividedness.

The Whole World – C. The World of Cultures and Religions

1. We are committed to bearing witness to Christ in the whole world, which means among all people on the planet. The world of humanity exists, by God’s clear intention, in nations, tribes, and languages – in other words, in cultures. Human cultures are religious in varying forms and degrees. The distinction between religion and culture is far less clear than often portrayed. For all religions exist within cultures, permeating and shaping them. For that reason religions also share in the radical ambiguity of all human cultures.

The Whole World – B. The World of God’s Creation

1. We human beings ought never to forget that we are part of God’s creation – we are of the earth: Adam from ’adamah. As such, we take our part in the worship of God that is the proper function of all creation. We do so in uniquely human ways, of course, as the one creature made in God’s image. But the goal of bringing glory to God in worship is intrinsic to creation as a whole.

The Whole World – Preamble

Last month I had the privilege of participating, together with other over twenty Evangelical theologians in the last meeting of the Lausanne Theology Working Group (TWG), under the able leadership of Dr. Chris Wright, before the Third Lausanne Congress that will take place in October 2010 in Capetown, South Africa.

Here is the final statement of this important theological reunion.

Valdir Steuernagel – More Partners at the Table

Valdir Steuernagel is Theologian-at-Large for World Vision International and a Lausanne Movement leader.

I met him for the first time in 1994, in Oradea, at a theological consultation. Hew was the person I was most impressed with at that event. He appeared to me as a passionate, imaginative and prophetic type of missions theologian.

A Lausanne Statement On Prosperity Teaching

The Lausanne Theology Working Group, of which I have the honour of being a member, has issued recently a statement of the so-called ‘prosperity-gospel’, a heretical movement that plagues large parts of Evangelicalism, especially in its charismatic quarters.

The Statement has been published by Christianity Today and can be found HERE.