Hope will be evangelist’s mission theme

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 3

Hope will be evangelist’s mission theme

Christianity was a "culturally loaded term,” the Church leader, international preacher and evangelist, Dr Leighton Ford, said in Christchurch yesterday. “I want to bring Christ rather than Christianity to people. A rope has been let down from heaven but it has become unravelled at one end. People assume that each individual thread is their way to heaven," Dr Ford said soon after arriving for a five-day series of rallies and meetings, * at the Queen Elizabeth II Park stadium. The theme of Mission Christchurch is hope — hope for an age of anxiety, hope for the restless young and hope for love in a hurting world.

The chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation, former vice-president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and author of six books yesterday acknowledged criticism of evangelistic missions.

“I realise that people look on evangelism, especially from the United States, as being commercial and full of hype. But I don’t want them to be like this. This mission is a celebration of hope; a way for individuals to find hope.

“Like the celebration of a marriage, the missions must lead on to something else. I’m sure that there are ongoing results reflected in changed lives; lives which have been touched and changed by

Christ” The Lausanne Committee had grown from a meeting of international Church leaders — “a cross-cultural group wishing to see co-operation among the Churches; a group wanting to see Christians working and praying together.

“Churches have developed in different parts of the world. Christianity has become a culturally loaded term and this has confused people. We now have to focus on the unravelled rope from heaven.”

In 1981, Dr Ford’s son, Sandy, died after heart surgery. His death had a profound effect on the evangelist’s work and attitudes.

“The question was not why had this happened to us, but why had it happened to Sandy? There was an overwhelming sense of disappointment that a life so full of promise and hope had ended. It was a time of great testing, and I did not know all the answers.”

Sandy Ford’s death allowed his father to have a closer identification with other bereaved parents and families.

"It helped me identify with those people who are hurting. A few days ago I was talking to the family of a young South African who was recently killed.

“I still don’t understand all the whys, but I am able to identity and minister to these people; people who want to find hope in Christ”