The Cape Town Commitment: A Call to Action: A Study for Small Groups

By LAUSANNE MOVEMENT

The Cape Town Commitment is the main document that resulted from the 3rd Lausanne Congress in 2010, and outlines the role of the church for evangelicals today. This Cape Town Commitment curriculum gives churches, individuals, and small groups the opportunity to study this document together and learn how to better love the gospel, the church, and the world in a group setting.

An adaptable curriculum that can be used in a variety of settings, such as through Bible studies and Sunday school, home groups and campus fellowships; this multimedia study leads participants through 12 sessions which include prompts for meditation, discussion, and prayerall in order to develop a greater love for God, neighbors, and creation. Sessions include video clips from the 2010 Congress, vital testimonials from key Christian leaders in strategic ministries, targeted spiritual practices that correlate with the topic or issue addressed, and resource links for next-step engagement in the call to action.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Release date: May 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781619701236

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The Cape Town Commitment—A Call to Action: A Study for Small Groups (eBook edition)

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

In Section 1, The Cape Town Commitment: Twelve Studies for Small Groups: unless otherwise noted, all Scriptures are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

In Section 2, The Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action: unless otherwise noted, all Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Some material taken from or adapted from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. Copyright © 2005 by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, PO Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com.

Due to technical issues, this eBook may not contain all of the images or diagrams in the original print edition of the work. In addition, adapting the print edition to the eBook format may require some other layout and feature changes to be made.

First eBook edition — June 2013

The Cape Town Commitment issued from The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Cape Town, South Africa, 2010). This Congress was held in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance.

Contents

Copyright

Introduction

Section 1: The Cape Town Commitment: A Call to Action: Twelve Studies for Small Groups

Session 1: The Third Lausanne Congress and the Cape Town Commitment

Session 2: Truth and the Person of Christ

Session 3: Truth and the Workplace

Session 4: Building the Peace of Christ in Our Divided and Broken World

Session 5: Christ’s Peace for the Poor and Oppressed

Session 6: Living the Love of Christ among People of Other Faiths

Session 7: Discerning the Will of Christ for World Evangelization—Cities

Session 8: Priorities in Discerning the Will of Christ—Children

Session 9: Calling the Church Back to Humility, Integrity, and Simplicity

Session 10: Wealth, Poverty, and Power

Session 11: Partnerships in the Body of Christ

Session 12: Living an Integrated Faith—Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation

Section 2: The Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action

Foreword

Preamble

Part I: For the Lord We Love: The Cape Town Confession of Faith

1. We Love because God First Loved Us

2. We Love the Living God

3. We Love God the Father

4. We Love God the Son

5. We Love God the Holy Spirit

6. We Love God’s Word

7. We Love God’s World

8. We Love the Gospel of God

9. We Love the People of God

10. We Love the Mission of God

Part II: For the World We Serve: The Cape Town Call to Action

Introduction

IIA. Bearing Witness to the Truth of Christ in a Pluralistic, Globalized World

IIB. Building the Peace of Christ in Our Divided and Broken World

IIC. Living the Love of Christ Among People of Other Faiths

IID. Discerning the Will of Christ for World Evangelization

IIE. Calling the Church of Christ Back to Humility, Integrity, and Simplicity

IIF. Partnering in the Body of Christ for Unity in Mission

Conclusion

Closing Address to the Congress

INTRODUCTION

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. (Revelation 2:11)

Through the Holy Spirit, God speaks with a voice we can understand. Let us be willing to listen to that voice, so our Church can better serve the world God loves, and for which Jesus died.

The Church is called to be the face of Christ to the world; yet we, Christ’s followers, may obscure his beautiful face if we are not confident that he is unique above all others. We may be certain of this because the Bible, which bears testimony to Christ throughout its pages, gives us authoritative truth. Too often Christians turn from the Bible and surrender to a privately held faith based on personal behavior and beliefs. This inward focus betrays the true gospel, and diminishes Christ. Further, it results in a Church that ignores the larger issues ravaging our world.

God’s love remains unknown and God’s Word is still unheard by billions in this world. Friends, it need not be this way. There are strategic opportunities for Christians to bring the presence of Christ into the workplace, and into the public arenas. Let us be open to finding them, and using them to the full.

What This Study Offers

God’s Holy Spirit was at work in the Third Lausanne Congress held in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2010. It was the widest gathering of the Church ever, with 4,200 participants from 198 countries. One of the key documents to come out of that event was The Cape Town Commitment. Through The Cape Town Commitment, we worked to capture the voice of the Holy Spirit as the gathering worked to discern God’s priorities for his Church.

The first half of this book presents a twelve-session curriculum based on The Cape Town Commitment (The CTC). The text of this two-part document—its Confession of Faith and its Call to Action—comprises the second half of this book. We recommend that you read The Cape Town Commitment (beginning on page 91 of this volume) prior to meeting for the first session. This will provide a solid foundation for study sessions that follow.

As you study The CTC together, we trust you will hear the Holy Spirit speaking with words of conviction and clarity that lead you and your church to the source of love himself. Through this, we believe you will see more of God’s plan and purpose for the world, and be equipped to share and live out the gospel in society. In this way, you will find yourselves engaged in God’s mission and empowered as a Christian community that is spiritually alive.

What to Expect

You are invited to engage in a twelve-week curriculum with your Sunday school, campus fellowship, or Bible study group. Each one-hour session begins with a video clip from the Cape Town Congress. This clip reveals a disturbing world reality or a distressing dissonance between God’s call and the actual practices of the Christian believer. This may give rise to concern, evoke sadness, or simply raise awareness of the disconnect between what the Church believes and professes and what it proclaims and embodies. Resolution will come through reorientation in God’s Word. In each session, you will hear a call to action and be offered resources to respond. Each session provides a form of prayer that allows you to grow into a holistic life that is shared with God.

The goal is to bear more effective witness to Christ and all his teaching through our love for the whole gospel, our love for the whole Church, and our love for the whole world.

Matt Ristuccia and Sara Singleton

SECTION 1

THE CAPE TOWN COMMITMENT

A CALL TO ACTION

TWELVE STUDIES FOR SMALL GROUPS

SESSION 1

THE THIRD LAUSANNE CONGRESS AND THE CAPE TOWN COMMITMENT

And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless.

—Philippians 1:9–10

Opening Reflection

Who are the people who have shown you great love at points in your life? How did their love make a difference in your life? What difference would you like God’s love to make in you through this study?

The Challenge

We, the Church, have been entrusted with Christ’s message of reconciliation for a fractured and alienated world. But when Christians look more like the culture around them than they look like Christ, how is the gospel credible? In a world of multiple faiths and competing truths, how is the gospel believable? And with so many people groups, children, and spheres of society that don’t have believers bearing witness to Jesus, how is the gospel heard?

* * * * *

VIDEO CLIP

VIEW SESSION 1: Cape Town 2010: A Short Documentary. (14:00). Cape Town Congress, October 16–25, 2010.

Summary

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization was the widest gathering of Christian leaders in church history. Some 4,200 participants representing 198 nations came to worship and pray, listen and learn, discuss and decide. They were joined by hundreds of thousands more in seven hundred satellite locations. From the Congress emerged The Cape Town Commitment, a major document in two parts. Part I lays out our evangelical convictions, fashioned in the language of God’s covenantal love. Part II sets out clear calls to action, in response to that love. The Cape Town Commitment expresses what we believe to be priorities for the Church in the next ten years. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelation 2:11).

Talking It Over

1. What role has the Church played in helping you come to faith as a Christian?

2. How has the Church helped you grow as a follower of Jesus?

* * * * *

Taking It to Heart

READ the Foreword from The Cape Town Commitment (The CTC).

The Cape Town Commitment will act as a road map over the next ten years. As a Christian, what are you aiming for ten years from now? What road map are you using?

READ the opening paragraph and The Realities of Change from the Preamble of The CTC.

The Lausanne Movement is committed to the task of bearing worldwide witness to Jesus Christ and all his teachings.

What do you believe is your primary purpose as a Christian? How well does your life express your core beliefs?

* * * * *

The Scope of Our Love

God’s love is the foundation of the Christian life. We never outgrow or outdo God’s love. We can simply receive it. When we make a lifelong practice of receiving God’s love, we are more and more filled with God’s very character, which is love. Love is the DNA of the authentic Christian (1 John 4:7–8). Our love for God is just giving back what we first receive. In The Lausanne Covenant (a document shaped by John Stott from discussions at the first Lausanne Congress in 1974) we are reminded that love for God must be expressed practically as well as in words. Our love embraces the whole Church—around the globe and through all time. And our love goes out to the whole world, for Christ died for the sins of the whole world. No one is left out for being too far away, too young, too insignificant, or too bad.

Are you being filled with the love of God? This needy world hopes you are!

* * * * *

Examining Our Faith

READ Unchanged Realities and The Passion of Our Love from the Preamble of The CTC. Three great truths provide biblical support for ordinary Christians to be extraordinarily prepared to bear witness for Christ wherever, whenever, and however they can.

1. Human beings are lost.

Do we really believe this? What then is the underlying need or predicament of every human?

2. The gospel is good news.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:16–21. As an ambassador, what good news do you have for others?

3. The Church’s mission goes on.

What is your understanding of the Church’s mission?

Do you experience joyful urgency? If so, explain.

* * * * *

Living Our Faith

1. Over the coming week, think about a country, place, or people that you’ve dreamed of visiting. Where is it? Who are they? What is your interest?

Share this dream with others in your group.

Write down your dream and hang on