It draws together the reflections of some 4,000 evangelicals from 198 countries who met in Cape Town, South Africa, last October for the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation.
Part 1 of the statement was released to delegates at the time, but today is the first time that the Cape Town Commitment has been published in full with Part 2, the Call to Action.
The first part of the Cape Town Commitment is a Trinitarian statement drawn up by senior evangelical theologians, emphasising that Christians are called to love because God first loved us.
It commits Christians to the "integral and dynamic exercise of all dimensions of mission to which God calls his church" and compassionate care for those in need and all of God's creation.
"In response to God’s boundless love for us in Christ, and out of our overflowing love for him, we rededicate ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit, fully to obey all that God commands, with self-denying humility, joy and courage. We renew this covenant with the Lord - the Lord we love because he first loved us," it reads.
Part 2 draws heavily from the discussions that took place at the Cape Town Congress, and stresses the most urgent priorities for evangelicals in fulfilling the task of taking the whole Gospel to the whole world.
It makes a number of specific calls, including the call to proclaim the truth through word and deed, to be ethical in evangelism, and to return to “humility, integrity and simplicity”.
Part of this return includes renouncing false gods and idols, including the idolatry of "disordered sexuality", power, success and greed.
It also emphasises the need to equip the church in walking in the ways of the Lord.
It states: "We challenge one another, as God’s people in every culture, to face up to the extent to which, consciously or unconsciously, we are caught up in the idolatries of our surrounding culture. We pray for prophetic discernment to identify and expose such false gods and their presence within the Church itself, and for the courage to repent and renounce them in the name and authority of Jesus as Lord."
Another significant aspect of the statement is its emphasis on partnerships and the need for the different parts of Christ's body to work in unity in mission.
"A divided Church has no message for a divided world. Our failure to live in reconciled unity is a major obstacle to authenticity and effectiveness in mission," it states.
"We lament the dividedness and divisiveness of our churches and organisations. We deeply and urgently long for Christians to cultivate a spirit of grace and to be obedient to Paul’s command to ‘make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
The Rev Dr Doug Birdsall, Executive Chair of The Lausanne Movement, said the Cape Town Commitment was intended as a “clear and engaging declaration of belief”.
“With this as our basis, we wrestled with some of the toughest issues imaginable – within the church, in global mission strategy, and in the public arena,” he said.
