Resolution on Dedication for Our Times - 1961

Since a new sense of urgency has gripped our hearts as we have been together under God in this Conference,

Be it resolved

That we dedicate ourselves afresh to Christ so that:

1. as the possibility of nuclear war and the destruction of empires hover over mankind, we may yield our lives to work with God in the building of the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ,
2. as white dominance declines in our world, we may call men into the fellowship of Christ in which the walls of partition are broken down,
3. as the western world begins to reap its possible harvest of judgment and the vengeance of the centuries rolls back upon the unrepentant nations of the west, we may confess the selfish living and unclean lips of the people among whom we dwell and pour out our lives even unto death in loving Christian service to the underprivileged peoples of the earth,
4. as rising nationalisms release new torrents of tension and misunderstanding upon our world, we may call men into the fellowship of divine love which embraces men of faith from every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation,

Be it further resolved

That in these perilous times the mood of our brotherhood should not be defensive reaffirmation or retrenchment, but rather an aggressive dedication to the world mission of the church; that each of us in his day-to-day living seek to witness fervently in word and deed to everyone in his personal world; and that by sacrificial giving we may undergird our mission boards as they enter new fields and expand new frontiers, not for selfish purposes, but that Christ may be all and in all.