Such high praise from one of the most respected Christians in the world is testimony to Dr Wright's lifelong commitment to planting God's word firmly in the hearts and minds of people worldwide. Prior to joining Langham, he was an assistant pastor in Kent, a teacher at a leading seminary in India, before becoming academic dean at All Nations Christian College in leafy Hertfordshire.
Although he is a member of the ministry team at All Souls Church in central London, Dr Wright's work with the Langham Partnership takes him regularly to Majority World countries where the ministry works to equip churches for mission and spiritual maturity through the training of indigenous Christian pastors and leaders.
Dr Wright, who is also the Chair of the Lausanne Theological Working Group, spoke to Christian Today about the state of mission today, the challenges and opportunities facing Christians as they strive to carry out the Great Commandment of Jesus to make disciples of all nations.
CT: Langham Partnership raises local Christians to be teachers of the Gospel. Where do you see the greatest need in the worldwide church today?
CW: I think the greatest need is for the church to be what the church is supposed to be, which is to be a community of disciples who actually live like Jesus and follow what he taught and take seriously what he said. When the church lives like that it has a kind of attractiveness that people come to anyway. The message has to be communicated of course but the church has to live the Gospel as well as teach the Gospel.
The church in so many places isn't doing that, especially in those parts of the church that call themselves evangelical. They are often in great need of radical reformation over abuses and unchristlike behaviour and corruption, which is such a bad witness.
I think the parable of the sower is for our times in the sense that we know that there is a great deal of growth around the world. But as Jesus said, seed will grow very fast in shallow soil. The problem is that it doesn't bear any fruit and it just withers away. I think we are seeing great growth of Christianity in many parts of Africa and Latin America for which we can be very thankful to God, but if it is only growth in shallow soil without any real depth then in the long run it doesn't bear fruit and doesn't actually last. It just withers away as fast as it grows. And so you get this phenomenon of churches being planted and dying away, of people being swept into a kind of experience of Christianity and then abandoning it before very long.
Therefore we at Langham certainly see the greatest need to help the church to grow in depth as well as in numbers, to grow in maturity and discipleship. That's not something of course that you can manufacture. It's a long-term thing. But it is something you can help with resources. That is why we provide resources for better biblical preaching and better training of pastors, better resources of indigenous evangelical literature written by people who know their own culture. These are only small things but they are things we think will help the church to grow in maturity as well as numbers.
