The Lausanne Movement Caribbean Group met twice in Guyana at CONECAR 2011, the tenth Conference of Evangelicals in the Caribbean. CONECAR is the acronym for Conference of Evangelicals in the Caribbean and is the premier event hosted by the Commission on Evangelism and Mission of the EAC (Evangelical Association of the Caribbean). The EAC links 11 national evangelical alliances and a growing number of denominations and agencies working among more than 5-million evangelicals in the Caribbean Region. It is the Caribbean Regional grouping of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
Representing Lausanne at the Congress were Las Newman (International Deputy Director for the Caribbean), Judith Johnston, (Communications Manager for the Caribbean) and Evangelist Errol Rattray (Coordinator/Mobilizer of Evangelism and Discipleship Projects for Lausanne Caribbean).
IDD Las Newman was, during the first morning Plenary, given the opportunity to address congress participants on the role of Lausanne in the Caribbean. He highlighted four main items: The Cape Town Commitment; World Pulse, Lausanne’s major communication link; Mission Caribbean, the real focus of the Caribbean work; and Lausanne’s Global Conversation, the resource tool that encourages and engages dialogue on key issues facing the church in the 21st century. Las also used the opportunity to speak briefly about the history of The Lausanne Movement, providing a context for those who were not familiar with Lausanne, and he shared as well a few highlights of Cape Town 2010. From the platform the invitation was extended to members who attended Lausanne and those who had an interest in the work to attend a more intimate meeting over lunch on the same day.
Luncheon Meeting – Day 1
Fifteen persons were in attendance, representing six Caribbean nations. Time was short and so Las quickly provided an overview of the resources available and the role the Lausanne Team would play in facilitating individuals and groups with an interest in engaging in evangelism and discipleship projects. The Cape Town Commitment was highlighted and each team member was given the opportunity to briefly explain his/her portfolio responsibilities. Errol used the opportunity to invite persons with definite interest in moving forward with the Mission Caribbean Project to attend a meeting the following afternoon.
Meeting – Day 2
Thirty persons, representing ten Caribbean nations, attended this meeting. Evangelist Rattray shared that over the next 5-7 years Mission Caribbean was expecting to penetrate the 31 nations (four major language groups) of the Caribbean with the focus initially being the Caribbean evangelizing and discipling the Caribbean but moving beyond that eventually to evangelizing and discipling other nations of the world. He indicated that he needed to have Coordinators in each nation who would function with a Committee. Each national committee would establish prayer for the work and would consider timeline and methodology for reaching their nation. Monthly meetings would be held via Skype with all Coordinators and within six months there would be a full meeting of Coordinators in Trinidad. The goals of Mission Caribbean, he said, would be to increase unity within the Caribbean, to increase the membership of local churches, to have discipled people discipling others and to move the Caribbean from mission field to mission force. Work, he said, would be done collaboratively with national evangelical alliances and other established agencies.
Devon Linton, Regional Director for Evangelism Explosion (EE), shared about the resources available through EE and the fact that they were poised and ready to engage the discipleship training process. They already had networks across the Caribbean. Lloyd Cooke, a missionary from Jamaica, was introduced as someone who could provide statistics on unreached peoples of the Caribbean. This information would be made available to nation states.
Resources for the work across the Caribbean would be raised by respective nation states and where possible from multinational sources who partner with us in the work of discipleship and evangelism.
NOVEMBER MEETING IN JAMAICA
The Jamaican meeting will take the form of a 1-day symposium for pastors and leaders. It will take place at Hope Fellowship Church on 23 November and will target between 200 and 250 Pastors and Christian Leaders. The first half of the symposium will address issues of evangelism and discipleship, and the second half will address Mission Caribbean and The Cape Town Commitment, the foci of Lausanne Caribbean.