Christian Today Australia recently caught up with Reverend Daniel Willis, CEO of Bible Society NSW as well as being the International Deputy Director for the Oceania region of the Lausanne Movement, to discuss his role in the Australian Lausanne Committee Australia and its relation with the Australian Evangelical Alliance.
This is the edited transcript on the interview being conducted on Friday with Reverend Willis.
CT: How did you become involved in the Lausanne Committee here in Australia?
DW: I was invited to participate in the 2004 Forum to be held in Thailand. For about 18 months prior to the forum I worked together with the participants in the Leadership track.
As a result of the 2004 Forum , I was invited to become the International Deputy Director for the Oceania or South Pacific region. As the IDD for the region I automatically became a member of the Australian Lausanne Committee which has always been a strong committee in the Lausanne movement .
CT: Tell us what initiatives has the Lausanne Committee here taken to spread the Gospel?
DW: The Australian Committee have looked at issues that are facing our country and how we might contribute to some of those things. We identified a number of issues that needed to be thought about and brought into the public arena; and have run some discussion groups on them.
One of the key issues facing the world today is the uniqueness of Christ. We have look at running some discussion groups across Australia to raise awareness of the difficulties encountered around the world in dealing with this. On August 4th we are co-sponsoring a conference called 'Better Together' which is exploring how men and women use their gift together for the purposes of God. The conference is being held in Sydney. Dr. Graham Cole, a professor of the Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical University, Deerfield Illinois USA, will be the main speaker .
We've partnered with the Langham Partnership Australia to promote a visit by Dr. Chris Wright, Langham Partnership's International Director, to address the issue of theology and how that works out in redeeming our country.
Later this year in November and December, there will be an evangelism conference at which Rebecca Manley Pippert from Salt Shaker ministries in the U.S., will be speaking. Seminars will be held in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as well as a couple of country areas in NSW.
CT: Can you please tell us more about the oral initiative which the Lausanne Committee undertook in its recent Congress?
DW: One of the big concerns that came out of the forum in Thailand was the fact that one-third of the world population is illiterate, so they will never read. There is another third that don't and won't read. Research has shown that 56 % of high school and 42% of university graduates in the Western World will never read another book.
If this is true we must ask ourselves how do we help the two thirds of the world's population who can't, don't, and won't read come to a living relationship with Jesus. So the oral communicators of the world, a major group, are thinking and devising strategies, coming up with solutions to help them these people the Gospel and be able to respond to it in a way that takes in more senses than just reading and writing.
CT: Sidetracking for a moment, do you think that Harry Potter is a good evangelism tool?
DW: I think it is a good tool to evangelise. To say that we shouldn't read Harry Potter is a fallacious argument because everybody in the community is (reading it). And if we want to be able to communicate with the community we must have a point to connect with them…this last book in the Potter series has addressed an issue that the community is really grappling with, that is, death and what happens after death.
The Christian community has the answer. It is the great hope of Christianity. When we talk about hope it's not just a 'pie-in-the-sky thing' but it is a certainty that after death in this world, those who are in Christ rise to new life with Him. They will live for eternity in the presence of God…
Here is a prime opportunity for the Christian community to connect with those who are outside (and) who are struggling with the issue of what happens after death. Christians have the answer and they can bring that answer to bear on a huge portion of our population who are reading the Potter series. Christians do have the answer and there's the point of connection.
Unfortunately we're slow on the uptake. We don't really look at the opportunity to grapple with these issue and come forward with a very clear focused mind and a way of speaking into the situation
CT: Can you please explain about the Lausanne Committee in the Oceania regions?
DW: We realised in the Lausanne Leadership internationally that if we are going to draw people together who are concerned about evangelisation (and) network them together in a so they talk to one another and share resources and sharpen one another's thinking; we need to have more people connected at a grass-root level to build the international network.
Where there has been a strong committee in a country that link has been very stable and there are great things happening; and as a result, people are networking and sharing resources, dialoguing and building relationship.
What we want to do across the Pacific region is to try and strengthen some of those networks and by means of growing a local committee.
We want to grow a local committee in New Zealand and another one in the Islands. The issue that faces Australia and New Zealand might be similar but there are differences in our culture and there are differences that need to be addressed by Christians in those countries. In the Island (region), the issues they are facing are again different to what we face in Australia or New Zealand.
To just say that one committee can deal with the issues of the whole region is to really underestimate the contribution that others have to make and doesn't recognise the distinct (issues) they face and need to grapple with. So we want to open that up and establish a local committee that can be clearly linked to the international body; and which can have a voice at the international level as well as regionally.
(This ensures) that we are not just relying on one person having a complete understanding of what is going on in the region but that person is able to call on others to draw on their experience and their wisdom (as well as identifying) the opportunities that exist (which helps) them link into and to network across (the Lausanne international forums).
CT: Can you please outline some of the agendas which you think the 2010 Lausanne Committee might discuss in Cape Town?
DW: We actually don't have that finalised yet. At the International Leadership meeting in Budapest in June 2007 a possible list of topics for the program was canvassed. There were many more than can be handled in one congress. One of the difficulties we face is what is important and key to a particular country, or region, may not be a key issue in another place We need to distil out the global issues that can be addressed from a plenary situation and how that issue can be discussed with a particular regions concerns.
some of the issues that have been RAISED AND are highly significant to world evangelisation are:
HIV/AIDS, urban evangelism, holistic mission, using the communication revolution –at the whole phenomena on the web AND the virtual world, reaching Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, environmental issues, migrant/refugees, religious pluralism, the uniqueness of Christ, (and) trafficking of people like children at risk.
These are just some of the issues and of course, there are the ongoing challenger such as:
Gender issues, theology of suffering and martyrdom and lack of morality.
There are opportunities that the Congress presents such as, encouraging the re- evangelisation of the West and in particular Europe where Christianity is almost dead. In many of the Western countries Christianity appears to be on the decline but it is certainly on the increase in the global south and in Asian countries. So what do we do about re-evangelising the West, which at one time was the bastion of Christianity - people went to their death in those countries for the sake of Christ. Now the churches are empty and what should our response be?
Training leadership in urban areas, the ongoing issues of women in leadership roles, treating them as full partners and bringing women out from under oppression, the Diaspora (and) learning from the Diaspora church, and learning from Southern Churches especially African churches (and its) history.
The really key issues need to be distilled so that (the Lausanne) World Congress (is) on global evangelisation and key issues that globally need to be addressed. In the end Lausanne is about the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world and so it is global issues we must address. There will always be a myriad of issues but what are the key strategic ones affecting us at this time that it would be important to bring 4000 people together to discuss .
The delegates must be strategic people who are thinking globally not those who are simply talking about these things but those who are actually doing and achieving and who are strategic in thier work.
CT: The Lausanne Committee and the World Evangelical Alliance seem to be forging a closer relationship, is this trend being followed here in Australia?
DW: We had an Australian committee meeting (on Thursday)… and we are talking about what we are doing with the Evangelical Alliance here in Australia. The Better Together conference is such a joint venture.
We are both really about the same course, that is, world evangelisation. I think the Christian world is keen to see organisations work together as we cannot do it alone. Together we can achieve far more than being separate.
CT: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.