The fulfillment of the Great Commission requires a complete surrender to serving God and others in the current era, delegates heard at the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Incheon, Korea.
Dr. Philip Graham Ryken, a member of the Lausanne Board of Directors, and the eighth president of Wheaton College, also a board member for the National Association of Evangelicals and The Gospel Coalition, issued the challenge during a morning plenary session entitled, “Christlike Servanthood: Lessons from Acts.”
Ryken said that each believer had a unique gift to serve the kingdom of God within the diversity of the global Church. Even so, he believed that there was only “one kind of a Christian” able to carry forward the Great Commission in the spirit of true evangelism, whether preacher or pastor, church planter or mission strategist, or marketplace mobilizer – “and that is someone who embraces Christlike servanthood as a way of life.”
The calling to servanthood is true individually but also corporately and communally, according to Ryken. He believed that serving was so essential to evangelism that it defined the very definition of biblical leadership.
This argument, by Ryken’s own admission, comes from the Bible itself. He highlighted how Jesus showed by his actions in the gospel of Luke, that His way is servanthood. This focus on servanthood is further exemplified through the Holy Spirit working in the apostles, recorded in Acts.
“You might think of the book of Luke as volume one, the book of Acts as volume two and what Jesus is doing in the world right up to this present Congress as volume three. If that is true, if we are about doing his work and carrying his message, we have to do it in his way and his way is always servanthood.”
Ryken stated that servanthood was such a key tenet of the Christian faith that unless “we are servants too” there is in fact an abject failure to fulfilling the Great Commission. For the simple reason that Jesus himself “always sought the lower place, taking the very nature of a servant.”
Referencing the fact that Jesus humbly washed the feet of his church, Ryken thus issued a challenge to delegates and the wider church: “Hear the [Holy] Spirit’s call to serve the way your Savior serves.”
This proclamation of servanthood for the church must be supported by practice, not only in relaying the message of salvation but also in applying the “method” of love. Ryken outlined how the first disciples gave an example of this practicality of serving to show the gospel: in the healings of Peter and John, and the hospitality of Priscilla and Aquila, for example. The apostle Paul, Ryken argued, showed aspects of this servanthood “maybe more clearly” than others.
Paul surrendered his life to the gospel and proclaimed grace. He trusted the effect of the word of God which he shared with others and Ryken compared this to the words of Martin Luther who once said he simply preached and “did nothing: the Word did everything.”
However, this surrender to servanthood and trusting the Word carried, and does carry, a price: persecution.
Ryken reminded delegates that servanthood for many Christians meant being a suffering servant, even resulting in death. He recalled talking with a Nigerian brother in Christ recently at Lausanne 4: “When he accepted Christ calling to discipleship, he recognized he was also signing his own death warrant. As we all do when we testify with the apostle Paul that the gospel is more precious to us than the lives we are ready to lay down. As Stephen did [in the book of Acts], as almost all the apostles did.”
Another aspect of Paul’s ministry was serving the Holy Spirit. This meant waiting for His presence, as the believers experienced at Pentecost, and then confirming moves in ministry by petitioning and interceding with Him. Paul’s farewell to the Ephesians, Ryken argued, shows how he surrendered to the Holy Spirit, saying he was “compelled” by him to travel on to Jerusalem. He did not make “independent plans for ministry,” added Ryken wryly, “and then ask God to endorse them, as some of us do.”
Ryken emphasized the importance of not resisting or running ahead of the Holy Spirit but resting in Him and then seeing Him work with power. He added that believers depended on the Spirit’s empowerment: “He’s the life giver, He’s the sinner advocate, the heart transformer.”
“We trust the Word to do the Word’s work. We trust the Spirit to do the Spirit's work and maybe the clearest evidence of the Spirit's power in us is Christ-like servanthood,” Ryken added. “When the Spirit makes us more like Jesus, we always become more servant hearted.”
This means laying down our lives for each other, argued Ryken, as Paul did for the Ephesians giving them “his very self.” The apostle worked at a day job, tentmaking or leathermaking, but evangelized to the lost at the same time. He wanted the Ephesians to replicate his example, in order to become Christlike leaders.
Ryken further said that in this serving way of life, we must not forget loved ones at home: wives, husbands and children: “Don't serve God at the expense of family life, but out of the strength of family life,” he added. “That's where service begins. Turn your servant heart toward home before you turn to serve the church in ministry.”
Servanthood also means loving other leaders and Ryken referred to Paul’s support for the young leader Timothy, “one of the apostle’s true sons in the faith.” He supported the ministry of others too, not just Timothy but also Epaphroditus and John Mark. “Paul was just passing along to others the same kind of investment that others had made in him,” said Ryken.
He felt inspired by the servanthood example of modern day leaders such as the late Billy Graham and John Stott, founders of the Lausanne Movement. “Really, the spirit of Lausanne is Christlike servanthood.” This meant personally but also “ecclesiastically, organizationally, internationally.”
“Maybe the most important question for us to take away from this Congress,” Ryken then challenged delegates, “is not what is God calling us to do or where is God calling us to lead? But who is God calling us to serve?”
Whatever gifts you have, share it with the global Church, urged Ryken, giving examples of ministries where help is needed. “This gathering is the hope of the apostles,” he added. “This is the answer to their ancient prayers and we honor their legacy when we lay down our lives for one another.”
Ryken summarized his reflections on Acts by saying servanthood was for the sake of the lost. The gospel is for “every tongue and tribe, from every people and nation.” Paul himself helped many to know Jesus but the Bible does not record all their names.
Similarly, those present at Lausanne 4 were standing in the gap “for the people who are not here” enjoying the conference’s worship of Jesus but this fact should compel delegates, Ryken argued, to “complete the race we need to finish. We want the lost to join us in this worship.”
Paul’s concern for the lost, serving them body and soul, led to his contemporaries being saved. This same dynamic is at work “transforming the world today. One lost soul at a time.”
Jesus himself served “in all the ways” discussed at Lausanne 4. He served the Holy Spirit and the church and its leaders, “the church that he loves so much that he bought her with his own blood.”
“And now, global Church, will you make His servanthood your style of leadership, your way of life?” pleaded Ryken.
