Since 1974 the Lausanne Movement has served as a platform for voices from across the global church to champion the cause of God’s global mission. To mark the milestone of the 50th anniversary of the Lausanne Movement, we have curated 50 powerful quotes. Taken from stages at global gatherings to thought-provoking articles, podcasts, and videos, and major landmark statements, these are just a small sample of the rich content that Lausanne has published over the last half century. We are grateful for the thousands of men and women whose rich insights and valuable contributions have helped shape the global discipleship of believers around the world.
As you explore these quotes, may you be both encouraged and challenged to take your next step in the opportunities that God has set before you.
We came to Lausanne as messengers, as proclaimers, as evangelists, as teachers, as pastors, as professors, as theologians, but in a sense, we are all evangelists.
Billy Graham | The King Is Coming
True intergenerational leadership emphasizes missional friendships, which are side-by-side, facing outwards by engaging common interests towards a common goal
Micaela Braithwaite | God’s Purpose in Intergenerational Leadership
We can learn from people with disabilities. They have experienced much and they can share much with the rest of the body of Christ.
Victor Nakah | Disability Concerns
The solitary leader who stands alone fighting for their cause is a myth. In reality, a lone leader is a dangerous leader. If we lead from an ivory tower, then we are a danger to ourselves, those we lead and the gospel itself.
Tim Tucker | We Need New Leaders: Responding to the cry of the 21st century
Christianity cannot be held captive to any geographical location or domesticated by any people because its nature is to break free of the prisons we enshrine it in. Christianity is a faith on the move, always has been and always will be.
Sam George | People on the Move
Generous living and giving ultimately flow when people get a perspective of what God can do through their generosity.
Sas Conradie | Christian Generosity Trends and the Future of Christian Giving
If you do it alone you may get the job done faster but you will never do more.
Jiyoung Yoo | Collaborative Action Teams: Mobilising the Church to Close Gaps and Seize Opportunities in Global Mission
When our lives are far from our preaching, it alienates our audience.
Rabbi Jayakaran | Delivering the Good News to Hindus
In such a context of social and political upheaval and spiritual hostility, we will not easily minister unscathed.
Michael Cassidy | Commitment and Sacrifice in World Evangelization
We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it.
The final frontier is not a physical border or a forbidding cultural, political, or religious “line.” It is instead our lack of obedience to him who saved us and our lack of passion for souls! The greatest heresy is a church that does not love!
Brother Andrew | Evangelism in Challenging Settings: The Church That Loves
We must build a bridge to unite the rapidly growing charismatic movement with the more traditional forms of Christianity. The one emphasizes the supernatural power of God operating in spiritual gifts and signs and wonders, while the other underscores the Word of God. We need both the power of God and the Word of God.
Luis Bush | The Challenge Before Us
The gospel advances at the rate of relationships.
Jurie Kriel | Collaborative Action Teams: Mobilising the Church to Close Gaps and Seize Opportunities in Global Mission
As we proclaim the love of God we must be involved in loving service, as we preach the kingdom of God we must be committed to its demands of justice and peace.
Whether we are speaking to ten people or ten thousand, to children or to university students, to business professionals or to disenfranchised youth, to civic leaders or to refugees, the good news of Jesus must be proclaimed and heard, listeners given an opportunity to respond, and new followers of Jesus Christ embraced and encouraged.
Blair Carlson | Is There A Future for Proclamation Evangelism?
Jesus calls us to always be an influencer rather than being influenced.
Jianbi (Jay) Chen | Web3 Revolution: The Church’s New Frontier
When women around the world have stepped forth as global leaders, they consistently bring hope, change, and unity.
Mary Ho | Growing Global Women Leaders from the Majority World
Christ commands us to take the gospel to all peoples. The task is urgent. We are determined to obey him with joy and hope.
Suffering is an essential mark of Christian life, but suffering is not its goal.
Miroslav Volf | The Devil’s Mask on the Face of God
Our world stands in need of a gospel carried in the power of the Spirit. This way of doing ministry should not be considered confessional or denominational but rather the way Jesus Christ did his ministry.
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu | Signs, Wonders, and Ministry: the Gospel in the Power of the Spirit
Christ sends us into the world to serve. For he came to serve. Not just to seek and to save, nor just to preach, but more generally to serve.
John Stott | The Biblical Basis of Evangelism
Every individual church fellowship and denomination throughout the world needs to find ways of enabling Christians to be awake to the challenges of Islam and to opportunities for witness to Muslims.
John Azuma | Foundations and Priorities for Christian Engagement with Muslims and Islam
When our dreams are tossed and blown, and when success eludes us, and stress enfeebles us, authentic ideas of God serve as a bulwark of defense and a source of comfort and counsel. God never abdicates his throne or abandons history.
Manuel Scott | God at Work in Areas of Unknown Possibilities
To a generation that is starving for human connection, the greatest gift the church can offer is relationship.
Thilini De Visser, Joseph W. Handley | From Generation to Generation: Modeling and Mentoring to Build the Kingdom
In too many places, the blood of ethnicity, tribe, racialism, sexism, social class, or nationalism flows stronger than the waters of baptism and our confession of Christ.
The workplace is ideal for embodying the Gospel, living a life that reflects grace and truth. There are very few evangelistic outreaches where this is possible.
Willy Kotiuga | People at Work: Preparing to be the Whole Church
Lausanne is not an organization to join. It is a global Movement, a thought leader for world evangelization, and a catalyst for new initiatives and partnerships.
Doug Birdsall | Second Anniversary of Cape Town 2010: An Update from Doug Birdsall in Cape Town
His peace was not the absence of problems, but the presence of himself. It was a peace that was costly.
Leighton Ford | Proclaim Christ Until He Comes
Diligence to provide for your own spiritual nourishment is a necessary qualification for leadership.
Pablo Martinez | Feel Guilty When You Rest?
If we embrace creation care as discipleship, then our response emerges from our identity as God’s image-bearers rather than as ‘saviours’ of the planet.
Lalbiakhlui Rokhum, Jasmine Kwong, and Dave Bookless | Climate Crisis and God’s Creation: Calling Global Christian Leaders to Act
The mission of God flows from the love of God. The mission of God’s people flows from our love for God and for all that God loves. World evangelization is the outflow of God’s love to us and through us.
All children are at risk. There are about two billion children in our world, and half of them are at risk from poverty. Millions are at risk from prosperity. Children of the wealthy and secure have everything to live with, but nothing to live for.
Business has an innate God-given power to create dignified jobs, to multiply resources, to provide for families and communities and to push forward innovation and development in human society.
Jo Plummer | Business as Mission and the Global Workplace
We cannot afford to unreflectively muddle through the digital age.
Jonas Kurlberg | Church in a Digital Age
Spiritual conversations become more compelling—to non-Christians and Christians alike—when we view evangelism as a process that builds on earning the right to be heard, building trust, and showing before telling.
Jerry White and Bill Peel | Workplace Evangelism for the 99 Percent
The mobilisation of laypeople is the greatest missing link to world evangelisation.
Bishop Ephraim Tendero | Every Christian a Minister, Every Workplace a Ministry
Proper rest, including Sabbath rest, is the biblical antidote to burnout.
Glenn Davies | The Biblical Antidote to Burnout
God is raising up a laity that refuses to be limited to the confines of an institutional church and whose ministry refuses to be counted, created, or controlled.
Lee Yih | A Theology of the Laity
The solution for nominalism in the church is discipleship. It is not more teaching about the basics of faith. It’s personal, relational, intentional discipleship to produce fruit and multiply the number of believers.
Jaume Llenas | Nominalism
The beauty of culture manifested in local artistic forms is an essential part of the worship expression of people around the world.
Héber Negrão | The Arts Are Not a Universal Language
Modernity has done more damage to the church than all the persecution in Christian history put together.
Os Guinness | Capitalism Makes Converts but Not Disciples
2000 years ago faithful disciples of Jesus Christ took risks for you and I to be here today. What risks will we take for the generations to come to be moved by the gospel?
Anne Zaki | Restoring Peace
In a time of conflict and war how come the power of God that raised Jesus from death is not more powerful than our ethnic loyalty?
Salim Munayer | The Ministry of Reconciliation: Bridging Divides between Israelis and Palestinians
The Scriptures declare that God himself is the chief evangelist. For the Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth, love, holiness, and power, and evangelism is impossible without him.
Wherever the church fails as a prophet it also fails as an evangelist.
Rene Padilla | Evangelism and the World
Love for those who are like us is ordinary. Love for those who are unlike us is extraordinary. Love for those who dislike us is revolutionary – that is the kind of love that our Lord God calls us to.
Vaughn Roberts | A World that Is as One
How we treat God’s creation is our most basic act of worship because, ‘The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it’ (Ps 24:1).
Dave Bookless | Creation Care and the Workplace
The most effective ministry to a child is to equip their parents to disciple them.
Nathan Hoppe | Exploring Orthodox Missions Growth in Albania
As fundraisers we stand in the middle of connecting God’s people to God’s causes.
Redina Kolaneci | Unlocking Generosity: Biblical Stewardship & Fundraising Strategies for Ministry Leaders
There are so many Christians today who have a very monocultural Christianity. It’s a tiniest slice of the faith that we have in Jesus Christ.
Michael Oh | How Global Is Your Faith?
