In June 2025, the Lausanne Leadership Journey (LLJ) reached a significant milestone with the first face-to-face gathering of Cohort 2, held in Nairobi, Kenya. Over five Christ-led days, 20 Christian leaders from 17 countries came together for a deeply transformative week focused on Christ-centered identity and Christ-centered calling.
A Program Rooted in Transformation
The Lausanne Leadership Journey is not simply about improving leadership skills—it’s about spiritual formation, healing, and life transformation. The sessions in Nairobi were formational—designed to meet each leader where they were and guide them into a deeper understanding of who they are in Christ and how they are called to lead.
The opening day set the tone with a welcome and orientation, followed by foundational teachings that emphasized leadership must flow from being, not just doing. These sessions anchored the group in God’s global mission and spiritual identity.
Identity Work: The Heart of the Journey
Day two focused entirely on exploring personal identity in Christ. Through Scripture, storytelling, reflection, and life-mapping, participants examined how family history, past experiences, and cultural influences shaped their leadership.
That evening, ‘Release Stations’—interactive, prayer-based spaces—helped leaders release burdens, lies, and pain, replacing them with God’s truth. For many, it was a breakthrough moment of spiritual healing.
Freedom and Community
Wednesday included a visit to Nairobi National Park and time for fellowship. These shared experiences deepened bonds and created a family-like atmosphere among the cohort.
That night’s session on Freedom in Christ contrasted living in performance with living in grace. Leaders explored how to walk as beloved sons and daughters of God. An interactive evening exercise, MBTI-My Personality in Community, on personality and team dynamics applying the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, helped them understand how their God-given wiring impacts collaboration and leadership.
Calling, Conflict, and Leadership in Community
Thursday continued in relational leadership. Sessions on Conflict and Forgiveness and Vocational Calling offered practical and spiritual tools for navigating interpersonal tensions and discerning God’s call in every area of life.
A panel discussion on Leadership and Teamwork provided global insight on humility, collaboration, and Spirit-led service. These discussions grounded leadership not in titles but in character.
These discussions grounded leadership not in titles but in character.
Commissioned and Sent
By Friday, hearts were full. Worship and Scripture gave space to reflect on the week’s deep work. A final session on application and multiplication challenged leaders to bring what they had learned to their own communities and contexts.
The commissioning ceremony was a sacred, joyful moment. Prayers, blessings, and a final celebratory lunch closed the week with gratitude and hope.
Testimonies from Around the World
Personal testimonies highlighted the transformative power of the week:
- From Botswana: A participant came feeling frustrated and withdrawn but left renewed, healed, and reconnected through friendship and fellowship.
- From India: A man found freedom to ask God boldly after realizing how past disappointments had silenced his prayers.
- From Singapore: One described the week as an ‘earthquake’, breaking down insecurities and renewing confidence and clarity in Christ.
- From Uganda: A leader expecting strategy sessions instead encountered identity healing and spiritual breakthroughs, including a symbolic experience of parental blessing.
- From Nairobi: A skeptical leader left transformed, now free from the burden of performance-based faith and grounded in identity.
- From India: A woman found freedom through confession and forgiveness and embraced her true identity as God’s daughter.
- From Pakistan: A leader burdened by ministry to 245 volunteers arrived empty but returned recharged, especially by teaching on sonship and grace.
- From Burundi: One young man formed a brotherhood with his roommate and found tools to lead through grace rather than performance.
A leader burdened by ministry to 245 volunteers arrived empty but returned recharged, especially by teaching on sonship and grace.
Why It Matters
Few programs foster such authentic, Christ-centered transformation. These leaders—many of whom serve in isolation or high-pressure contexts—found healing, vision, and renewed purpose. They return home not just refreshed but re-formed.
There is a strong hunger among emerging leaders globally for this kind of holistic, Spirit-led training. LLJ provides more than leadership principles—it offers identity, fellowship, and spiritual grounding in Christ.
this is the kind of leadership the global Church needs now—formed by grace, guided by purpose, and anchored in Christ-centered identity and Christ-centered calling.
The seeds planted in Nairobi will bear fruit in churches, communities, and movements worldwide. And this is the kind of leadership the global Church needs now—formed by grace, guided by purpose, and anchored in Christ-centered identity and Christ-centered calling.