Global Issues – Global Conversations – Global Solutions
Today on nearly every continent, the Body of Christ is faced with major challenges to not only its physical survival, but also attacks on the very tenets of the Christian faith. How should the church respond to these challenges and what issues require the attention of the global church?
“The church is facing important global issues that require global conversations to find global solutions,” says Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall, Executive Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (Lausanne Movement).
At the urging of evangelical leaders worldwide, the Lausanne Movement, with the participation of the World Evangelical Alliance, hosted Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa, 16-25 October 2010. Cape Town 2010 provided a global forum – before, during and after the Congress – in which leaders from around the world explored issues facing the church and God’s world. Together leaders continue to prayerfully seek God’s guidance in responding so that God’s name may be honored and many more men, women and young people will be able to hear and respond to the message of Christ presented in a relevant and culturally appropriate manner.
Over 4,000 leaders from 200 countries attended Cape Town 2010. The Participant Selection Team, made up of leaders worldwide, established specific criteria to ensure that the Congress included men and women from a broad spectrum of nationalities, ethnicities, ages, occupations and denominational affiliations.
Lausanne 2004 Forum For World Evangelization – Pattaya, Thailand
The vision for Cape Town 2010 was birthed at the Lausanne 2004 Forum For World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand. The 2004 Forum brought together more than 1,500 Christian leaders from around the world to focus on thirty-one issues related to the task of global evangelization.
The thirty-one issues were chosen as the result of a world-wide survey of Christian leaders by Christian Research (CR). CR contacted some 4,000 senior Christian leaders including Anglican Bishops throughout the Communion, Baptist leaders in the Baptist World Alliance, Methodists in the Methodist World Federation and key Christians leading church and intra-church agencies. Certain leaders in more sensitive countries were also approached individually.
Leaders were sent a form asking what they considered to be the most important issues concerning world evangelization at the beginning of the 21st century. Respondents were asked not only to list topics they felt were important, but also on a scale from 1-10 to rank the importance of the topics. A large variety of topics were suggested, which CR sorted into suitable groupings that were then presented to the Lausanne Administrative Committee with information on not only how many leaders had suggested specific topics, but also an indication of the average importance ranking. This allowed the Administrative Committee to choose not only topics that commanded the greatest numbers in response but also those that were deemed to be especially important even if only supported by a minority of respondents. A complete list of the issues chosen for discussion at the Forum is available online.
It was anticipated that some of the topics discussed at the 2004 Forum, and in the 2004 Forum Lausanne Occasional Papers produced subsequently, would warrant additional global attention at Cape Town 2010.
Lausanne Global Gatherings
Input from Christian leaders on topics to be discussed at Cape Town 2010 was done in an intentional manner through a series of Lausanne gatherings including:
- 2005 Lausanne Biennial Leadership Meeting – Hong Kong
Seventy-five Christian leaders came together in June 2005 to assess the status and strength of the Lausanne Movement in light of the progress made in the movement since the 2004 Forum. The desire was to chart the course of the movement toward 2010 including the need for a Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Leaders at the meeting included the eleven newly appointed Lausanne International Deputy Directors, the six chairs of the Lausanne Working Groups, Lausanne national and regional representatives and the Lausanne Administrative Committee. - 2006 Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering – Port Dickson, Malaysia
550 younger Christian leaders from over 100 countries gathered in September 2006 to focus specifically on global evangelization and their role as leaders. They learned about the opportunities and barriers to sharing the Gospel and made recommendations to Lausanne about the issues important in their regions, nations and ministries. Out of this meeting came greater involvement by young leaders in each of the Lausanne Working Groups and on the Lausanne Administrative Committee. As part of the Gathering and a Lausanne Strategy Working Group (LSWG) meeting the week before the Gathering, the LSWG released a document that highlighted fourteen priorities in world evangelization. - 2007 Lausanne Theology Working Group – Limuru, Kenya
Twenty-five members of the Lausanne Theology Working Group (LTWG) met in February 2007, with the overall theme of “Following Jesus in our Broken World.” The group released six papers together called “The Limuru Pointers.” The pointers do not constitute an official declaration or statement by the LTWG but rather are the result of thinking surrounding the overall theme. It was also decided that leading up to Lausanne III in Cape Town 2010, the LTWG would explore the three phrases in the Lausanne “slogan” (which comes from the Lausanne Covenant – “the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world”). - 2007 Lausanne III Programme Consultation Meeting – Oxford, UK
Theologians, strategists and communications specialists met in January 2007 to talk about matters related to the Lausanne III Congress including issues that could be addressed, the design of the programme, possible speakers and locations. - 2007 Lausanne III Exploration Meeting – Cape Town, South Africa
In February 2007 Doug Birdsall, in the company of two others, traveled to Cape Town to explore an invitation from area church leaders to host Lausanne III in Cape Town. In addition the group visited the Cape Town International Convention Centre and met with the Mayor and other leaders to get a sense if Cape Town would be the appropriate place. There was an overwhelming confirmation from all involved that Lausanne should proceed with the Congress in Cape Town. - 2007 Lausanne Biennial Leadership Meeting – Budapest, Hungary
Over 300 Christian leaders representing 60 countries met in June 2007 in plenary sessions and breakout discussions to confer on fundamental questions related to opportunities, challenges, priorities and collaboration on global evangelization efforts. Leaders agreed that some of the most significant challenges facing the church include: maintaining the importance of evangelism; increased involvement by leaders from the Majority World; reaching the next generation; marginalized people and children at risk; the importance of urban evangelists; hunger; poverty; and HIV/AIDS. - 2007 Lausanne Cape Town 2010 Leadership Meeting – Cape Town, South Africa
Leaders from Lausanne and World Evangelical Alliance met with African church leaders in October 2007 to learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the African church. African leaders pointed to the following: the need for greater emphasis on discipleship in the church; ongoing reconciliation matters between races and tribes; poverty; HIV/AIDS; and a need for a Biblical response to the growing prosperity gospel movement. African leaders also expressed their desire to share the lessons they have learned in these areas and others, along with the enthusiasm and vibrancy of the African church, with the global Body of Christ through Cape Town 2010. Later that week, the first meeting of the Cape Town 2010 Leadership Team brought together newly-appointed Committee Chairs and Directors and Lausanne leadership to focus on the Congress. - 2008 Lausanne Theology Working Group Meeting – Chiang Mai, Thailand
The Lausanne Theology Working Group (LTWG) convened its working consultation February 2008 on “The Whole Gospel” in partnership with the World Evangelical Alliance – Theological Commission. This was the first in a three-year series focusing on the whole gospel (2008), the whole church (2009), and the whole world (2010), discussing key theological and missiological challenges facing the church in preparation for Cape Town 2010. Thirty-one participants representing 20 countries (with 60% of the countries represented from the Majority World) were in attendance, including members of the Lausanne Strategy Working Group. - 2008 Lausanne Cape Town 2010 Programme Consultation Meeting – Oxford, UK
A select group of leaders who had helped plan other major global Christian gatherings were brought together in February 2008 to advise Lausanne concerning the programme content, design and issues to be discussed at Cape Town 2010. Lausanne’s International Deputy Directors met simultaneously with this meeting and interacted with the Consultation Group to share national and regional perspectives on the issues that they believe should be addressed at Cape Town 2010. Those issues include: the need for discipleship in the church; racial and tribal reconciliation; poverty; the growing Majority World church; the persecuted church and issues related to freedom of religion and belief; the challenge of engaging other religious faiths; encouraging Christians to live a more simple lifestyle; the need for Christians to connect their faith with practice; reaching urban areas with the gospel; ministering to the Diaspora; and equipping leaders, among others. - 2008 Lausanne Regional Consultation – Abuja, Nigeria
Leaders from Eastern, Southern and West Africa met for one week in April 2008 to consider the key theological, missiological and other issues confronting the African Church and the African Continent and the impact on the church in terms of growth, discipleship, social concerns, and etc. Leaders also discussed Cape Town 2010 and gave input to programme preparation, talked about the involvement of the church in Africa in the Congress and desired outcomes following 2010 for the church in Africa. - 2008 Lausanne Leadership Meeting – Buenos Aries, Argentina
Four Lausanne leadership groups will come together in June 2008 to review plans for the ongoing work of Lausanne and more specifically the plans for Cape Town 2010. The Lausanne Administrative Committee, Lausanne International Deputy Directors and the Cape Town 2010 Committee will meet independently and jointly to review plans for the Congress. The groups will also be joined for part of the time by Latin American leaders who will be asked to share their input into the programme, issues to be discussed and other related matters. - During 2008 and 2009, Lausanne held additional meetings around the world
Lausanne leadership, the Lausanne Working Groups and Cape Town 2010 leaders and committees continued to engage leadership teams to determine the relevant issues of today and the future pertaining to the church and worldwide evangelization and holistic ministry. These meetings helped Lausanne gain the wisdom and insight of national, regional and global Christian leaders on the topics to be discussed at Cape Town 2010, potential speakers and participants.
Virtual Participation
Unique to Cape Town 2010 was the potential for many more thousands of leaders to participate in the Congress online (lausanne.org) and through other technology. Lausanne worked to extend the reach and impact of the Congress beyond the 4,000 leaders onsite in Cape Town to literally thousands of others who aren’t able to attend. Online discussion groups, chat rooms, email, streaming audio and video, SMS/MMS and other mobile and Internet technologies were being explored and utilised by Lausanne.
This document is also available in Chinese.