I’m thrilled to share that the next major Lausanne gathering will be the Lausanne Global Workplace Forum (GWF) in June 2019 in Manila, Philippines.
The Lausanne Global Workplace Forum will bring together all streams of the Movement in order to mobilize the whole church—in every corner of the workplace—as bearers of the gospel.
GWF represents Lausanne’s most concerted effort to date to address the false ‘sacred-secular divide’ that has ‘permeated the Church’s thinking and action’, telling us that ‘religious activity belongs to God, whereas other activity does not’ (The Cape Town Commitment). At GWF, we will reclaim the biblical truth that all legitimate work is intrinsically valuable and integral to the missional work of God’s kingdom.
Our 2017 Wittenberg gathering focused on Lausanne’s first two vision points: the gospel for every person and an evangelical church for every people. The third vision point, Christ-like leaders for every church, was the focus of the 2016 Younger Leaders Gathering. The hope is that through the 2019 Global Workplace Forum, momentum will be built for a new missional model that will enable all believers to work together toward Lausanne’s fourth vision point, kingdom impact in every sphere of society. For this vision of radically transforming the world can only become reality if all Christians in the workplace, in every sphere of society, embrace their roles in full-time ministry and are mobilized as gospel bearers.
GWF will involve a diverse spectrum of participants, including at least 50% from the workplace—the highest percentage of any major Lausanne gathering to date—with special representation of voices that have typically gone unheard, such as blue-collar workers and ‘no-collar’ workers (ie those working in the home or as volunteers). Participants will explore current research and resources to develop new regional, local, and issue-specific initiatives for how all God’s people might ‘live, think, work, and speak from a biblical worldview and with missional effectiveness’ (CTC II-A-3C). Participants will also seek to find ways to urge church leaders to understand the strategic impact and potential of ministry in the workplace and ‘to mobilize, equip, and send out their church members as missionaries into the workplace’ (CTC II-A-3D).
Learn more about the Lausanne Global Workplace Forum, and stay tuned for more information when the open nomination process begins in the coming weeks.
Please be praying with me for GWF and the vision of seeing the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world!