My heart leaped with deep sense of joy and encouragement, when in February 2007, during a meeting with 65 Church and mission leaders in Abuja, Nigeria, Rev. Doug Birdsall (Executive Chairman of The Lausanne Movement) confirmed that Africa would be the host Continent for Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010. In my mind’s eye I saw myself nearly hitting the ceiling as I leaped with so much joy inside my heart in thankfulness to God and the global Christian community for identifying with the Church in Africa with this hosting right.
The Church in Africa has been experiencing tremendous growth over the last 3-4 decades. We have seen an unprecedented commitment to personal evangelism by students on the campuses and Church members who are taking the challenge seriously, to share their faith in love. Today Churches from Lagos, Nigeria to Accra, Ghana, Nairobi, Kenya to Kampala, Uganda, from Addis Abba, Ethiopia to Abuja, Nigeria, from Lusaka, Zambia to Kumasi, Ghana, from Bujumbura in Burundi to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, from Jos, Nigeria to Cape Town, South Africa, people are turning to Christ and churches are filled to the brim. Africa hosting the world to me represents a recognition and celebration of what God has done, is doing and will continue to do on the African Continent. This has implications for world evangelization. An aspect of what God is doing which thrills me most is that the Church in Africa has a missionary vision. This is what The Lausanne Movement and the spirit of Lausanne is all about.
The world does not know much about the great things coming out of the African Continent, or of how the Church has been a social vanguard of so many good things taking place in Africa today. The popular media is more interested in the many “woes” coming out of Africa. Most times it seems to me that the old journalism adage which says, “Where it bleeds, it leads,” is even truer in world news coverage of Africa than of any other continent. Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010 will show the world a different Africa where God is at work in a redemptive and transformative way.
For me, playing a small part in all this as the Lausanne International Deputy Director (IDD) is both humbling and exciting. In my visits to several African countries, I see a Church genuinely interested in contributing to the spread of the gospel now more than ever before. I see a Church in Africa very eager to take on the world with the message of the Cross. The principled stand of the leaders of the Anglican Communion (Episcopal Church) in Africa regarding same-sex marriage is a pointer to the uncompromising commitment of the Church in Africa to living biblically. As I travel around to mobilize Africa to host the world, I see a willingness and commitment to make the most of the moment. That The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization is being hosted by Africa is seen as a Kairos moment – an opportunity to make the Church more relevant in society. In fact, with South Africa hosting the greatest world soccer fiesta (the FIFA world cup) in June and the Church also hosting the world in Cape Town 2010 in October, the hope is that Africa can show case a healthy balance between the secular and the sacred in the spirit of promoting peace and reconciliation in a much troubled world of today.
More thoughts next time.
Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam of Nigeria serves as the Lausanne International Deputy Director for English, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Africa. Gideon is also the Regional Secretary for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in English and Portuguese Speaking Africa (IFES-EPSA).