Mountain climbers gain their greatest thrills and highest levels of adrenalin as they ascend to the summit of a soaring peak. However, every mountaineer knows that the final goal is not getting to the summit. Rather, a climb is only successful if the climbers descend safely to the base of the mountain.
Cape Town 2010 was a thrilling experience for all of us who were there. Who can forget the bliss of arriving in such a beautiful city on the southern tip of a vast continent? Who can forget the sound of the drummers meeting us at the airport, or the warmth of hospitality extended by our South African hosts and their amazing efficiency of registering a global gathering of participants in a period of twenty-four hours?
Do you remember the joy and surprise we experienced as we encountered friends – old and new – from all around the world?
So many memories and images come to our minds: Opening Ceremonies; daily Bible expositions; joyful worship; powerful testimonies including the young lady from North Korea; Table Group discussions; morning plenaries focused on the six issues of the Congress; multiplex and dialogue sessions; the evening sessions with regional reports of “God is on the Move” and; the deeply moving and spiritually rich Closing Ceremonies. As we celebrated the Lord’s Supper on that last night, it was as though we reached the summit of our shared experience. Then we proceeded out of the auditorium as a reminder that we are yet a pilgrim people.
Was it worth the effort of the climb? Should we have expended all the time, energy and money not to mention all the “blood, sweat and tears,” to convene a ten day global Congress? How will it be evaluated and how might it be compared to Lausanne 1974 and Edinburgh 1910? Will Cape Town 2010 prove to be a Congress of global significance and eternal consequence?
Fortunately, those of us who were involved in leading the “expedition” are not burdened by these questions. We had a clear calling, an experience of global teamwork, and we have an abiding sense of peace that we gave it our all and did our best. We took time all along the way to seek God’s guidance and to praise him for the many evidences of his presence and blessing. We also knew the Congress would have shortcomings. The leadership team, staff and volunteers were comprised entirely of human beings, and thus subject to limitations! Hopefully this perspective enables us to handle success as the material for praise, and disappointment as the material for humility, perseverance and hope.
Rather than being burdened by the questions that assess the past, we are energized by the quest that energizes our future. We work and pray to see the vision of the ten day Cape Town 2010 event translated into solid progress in world evangelization during the coming ten years of The Lausanne Movement.
The Cape Town Commitment (CTC) will be our road map for the coming decade. This document, written in the elevated prose of covenantal love, represents the purposeful consensus of the Church around the globe with respect to our priorities for world evangelization. It has now been translated into more than twenty languages.
To ensure that we stay focused on the priorities articulated in this document, we will appoint one Lausanne Senior Associate for each the 30-plus issues. In turn each of the Senior Associates will be assisted by an existing organization or network. A new CTC Study Guide, a curriculum for use in colleges and seminaries and another curriculum for use by local churches and adult study groups will soon be completed.
The unfolding of events in this first year since the Third Lausanne Congress provides strong indication of God’s hand of blessing. One of the clearest indications of the vitality of a movement is to look at the caliber of people who are attracted to serve on its board, and to assess the quality of people who volunteer to provide a global presence with engagement at the local level. The twenty-one people who comprise the new Lausanne Board are tantamount to a global “council of elders” guiding the Church with respect to its global mission. We are blessed with women and men from every major stream of the Church, from all 12 regions of the world and who come from churches, missions, academic institutions, as well as government, business and the professions. We are also blessed outstanding leaders who serve as the International Deputy Directors (IDDs) in the 12 regions of the world.
Lausanne is a Movement. In order for Lausanne to be useful to the Church, it must continue to provide information and a steady stream of fresh ideas and rich intellectual capital. At the same time it must continue to connect leaders who will assimilate the ideas and generate fresh initiatives and catalyze new partnerships.
We often say that “the fruit of The Lausanne Movement always grows on someone else’s tree!” This is taking place all around the world, every week of the year. Consultations are being held. Books are being published. Partnerships are being launched. We rejoice and give God thanks.
Do It Again, Lord
I am writing to you today from Oxford. It was in this city that I first received the vision for the Third Congress as I was studying here at the Bodleian Library on a Saturday night in January 2004. That night I simply prayed, “Do it again, Lord. Unite us. Energize us. Use us. Do something great in our generation.”
That prayer was answered in ways that were beyond anything I could have asked or imagined seven years ago. Let me just mention five matters for which I give praise to God:
- The mere physicality of gathering the church together from around the globe gave us opportunity to forge friendships, to see what we look like as the world’s most global entity, to hear what we are thinking about and how we speak, and to get a sense that together we are something much greater than most of us would realize.
- The daily exposition of God’s Word gave us a renewed sense of the “Blessedness of the one who delights in the law of the Lord.” Hearing voices from six parts of the world served to reinforce the centrality of the Word of God as the authoritative source of truth that informs all we do.
- The overarching Congress theme of reconciliation, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,” together with the bonds of fellowship around the tables of six, and then articulated in The Cape Town Commitment in the language of love, served to provide hope for the Church as reconciled people and the reconciling agents.
- The priority given to bearing witness to Christ among Muslims and those of other faiths helped us regain our nerve for evangelism. The priority given to 21st Century realties such as mega-cities, Diaspora people, and children at risk helped us sharpen our focus; and the opportunity to hear stories of faith, courage and modern day martyrdom helped us to intensify our resolve to serve Christ to the ends of the earth and even unto death.
- The call to authenticity is one that reverberates in my heart and mind every day. How I pray that indeed we will be H.I.S. church as we seek to be people of Humility, Integrity and Simplicity.
Cape Town 2010 is now part of history. The Congress has been successfully completed by God’s grace. The Movement has been globally revitalized for God’s glory.
It is our prayer that historians will say of us, “They were like the men of Issachar who understood their times and knew what the people of God should do,” and they were like King David who “fulfilled the purposes of God in their generation.”
May it be so, to the glory of God.
Doug Birdsall is an Honorary Co-Chair of the Lausanne Movement and previously served as the Executive Chair.
This article was published as part of the Anniversary reflections one year after Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization.