The Bridge Leaders Initiative (BLI) is a global Lausanne community serving leaders aged 35-50.
As a Christ-centered relational community, BLI creates space for leaders to be known in friendship, formed for faithfulness, and strengthened for long-term fruitfulness.
BLI walks alongside Lausanne’s Younger Leaders Generation (YLGen) and wider generational vision, while remaining a distinct community for leaders in the 35-50 season.
Why This Matters
Many leaders in the 35-50 season carry significant responsibility in ministry, work, church, and family. They are often leading teams, mentoring others, navigating transition, and bridging generations, cultures, and networks.
Yet this can also become an isolating season, especially when leaders are expected to keep giving without regular spaces for friendship, prayer, and honest encouragement.
BLI sustains bridge leaders as they continue serving God’s mission with resilience and hope.
A Community for the Journey
A space where leaders:
Build trusted friendships
Share honestly
Stay rooted in Christ
Serve faithfully
Within Lausanne’s broader Generations ecosystem, bridge leaders help connect generations, strengthen peers, invest across generations, and continue serving God’s mission with resilience and hope.
Five Expressions of BLI
BLI takes shape through five relational expressions that help bridge leaders build friendship, pray together, encourage one another, and remain faithful in the work God has entrusted to them.
1. Friendship Circles
Small, trusted groups of 5-6 leaders meeting regularly for prayer, encouragement, honest conversation, and shared life.
2. Bridge Leaders
Connect Calls
Quarterly global calls
for encouragement,
prayer, and shared vision.
3. Intergenerational Friendship & Mentoring
Relationships with younger, peer, and more seasoned leaders.
4. Ongoing
Encouragement
Monthly rhythms of connection, prayer, reflection, and support.
5. Relational Retreats
& Collaboration
Restful, relational spaces
for bridge leaders to reconnect with God,
one another, and shared mission.
The Difference BLI Makes
Through God’s grace, BLI is cultivating a growing global community of bridge leaders who are:
Rooted in Christ
Connected in trusted friendship
Strengthened for faithful leadership
The vision is to see 50 Friendship Circles established globally, each with 5-6 committed leaders walking together over time.
Early Friendship Circles are already forming across regions, including Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Korea, Philippines, Eurasia, and beyond, demonstrating a growing hunger for this kind of community.
Friendship in Action
After participating in BLI Friendship Circles, Andrea Espírito Santo (Brazil) discovered that this was not simply another leadership initiative, but a space for prayer, honest friendship, and renewed strength.
Andrea described Friendship Circles as a place where she could let her guard down, open her heart, and not walk alone. Through that space, she found encouragement, clarity, and renewed attentiveness to the presence of Jesus in her life and leadership.
Her story reflects the heart of BLI: bridge leaders strengthened through trusted friendship.
The BLI Leadership Team
The Bridge Leaders Initiative is led by a global team serving across regions and expressions of Lausanne.
Executive Team
Caleb Davison
BLI Co-Lead
(United Kingdom)
Nana Aba Adu-Mensah Pimpong
BLI Co-Lead
(Ghana)
Bosco Tung
Engagement & Connections
(Canada / Hong Kong)
Jiyoung Yoo
Communications
(South Korea)
Ole-Magnus Olafsrud
Mentoring & Missional Families
(Norway)
Esther Chengo
Connect Calls
(Kenya)
David Cooke
Friendship Circles
(United States)
Khara Collymore-Lashley
Selection & Onboarding
(Barbados)
Advisory Team
Nana Yaw Offei Awuku
(Ghana)
Alexey Shabinskiy
(Mexico / Russia)
Ramez Attalah
(Egypt)
Najee Chua
(Philippines)
Josh Yeoh
(Singapore / Malaysia)
Attila Nyari
(Hungary)
Support Bridge Leaders
Help strengthen leaders who are investing
in others and shaping the future of
the global church.
Stay Connected
Receive updates and learn how to engage
with the Bridge Leaders community.
Pray With Us
Pray for leaders navigating this critical
season of life and leadership.
Find Us on the Action Hub
BLI walks alongside Lausanne’s Younger Leaders Generation (YLGen) and wider generational vision, while remaining a distinct community for leaders in the 35-50 season.
Join the Bridge Leaders
Learn More
YLGen
Is a 10-year commitment to strategically partner with younger leaders and to connect them more intentionally to Lausanne issue networks, regions, resources, and mentors, as well as to one another through peer groups.
Lausanne Generations
Exists to equip younger leaders for global missions and foster intergenerational collaboration across the Lausanne Movement and beyond.