Lausanne 4 Congress Seoul, Incheon, South Korea
This year, the Lausanne Movement celebrates its 50th Anniversary. Yet even after 50 years, many people may know little about Lausanne, what it does and what it can offer us as believers who have a heart for God’s mission and want to continue to reach our world with the Gospel.
Let me share some of the history behind Lausanne and this up-coming Global Gathering.
The First International Congress on World Evangelisation was held in Lausanne, Switzerland in July 1974. It was the result of Billy Graham sensing the need to gather people to consider Christian mission in the midst of a world of social, political, economic, and religious changes, and brought together 2,500 people from 150 nations.
This Congress concluded with the signing of the ‘Lausanne Covenant’ which was developed under the leadership of John Stott. It was to be a Covenant with God, publicly declared, and a Covenant with one another; it has proved to be one of most widely-used documents in modern church history. The Covenant has helped to define evangelical theology and practice, and has fostered many new partnerships and collaborative initiatives. https://lausanne.org/statement/lausanne-covenant
The Second Lausanne Congress (known as Lausanne ll) was held in Manila, Philippines in July 1989. This Congress gathered 3,000 participants from 170 countries, including for the first time, countries from the former Soviet Union. Three hundred initiatives of collaboration in global mission resulted from Lausanne II.
The Third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2010 gathered 4,000 people and from 198 countries. The Cape Town Commitment, written by the Theology Working Group under the leadership of Chris Wright, provided a fresh affirmation of evangelical faith, framed in the language of love, and a renewed call to action with regard to world evangelisation.
Lausanne today is described as a ‘Movement’ with its impact reaching into 200 nations.
The Fourth Lausanne Congress will take place this September (22nd- 28th) in Incheon, Seoul, South Korea. It has been described as a once-in-a-generation Global Gathering of believers from around the world, (on site and online) and will consider how the global church is fulfilling the Great Commission given by the Lord Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
The themes for Lausanne 4 were developed through a four-year global listening process. The purpose is to ‘listen’ to people around the world about what is happening in their country regarding mission. It is vitally important to Lausanne to listen to voices from all around the world to gauge how to disciple the nations effectively.
Five questions were used in this process:
What are the most significant missional gaps and remaining opportunities?
What promising breakthroughs and innovations can accelerate global mission?
In what areas is greater missional collaboration most critical?
Where is further research needed?
Whom else should we be listening to as part of this process?
It has been exciting for me to have helped and lead some of these Listening Calls in Europe with Evangelical leaders, young people and leaders from different diaspora groups and hear their voices on the questions listed above. The information gathered is so rich and informative. To think this has happened in regions all around the world is incredible!
The information from these Calls was gathered and then analysed by leading researchers and the results have helped to shape ‘The State of the Great Commission Report’ and is freely accessible to everyone online: https://lausanne.org/report
The Lausanne 4 Congress is significant not just because people will attend from almost every nation in the world (5,000 people from 200 nations) and thousands more will connect via Satellite sites based in the different countries, but also because of the research that has been carried out in preparation. The results of the research will be published and available to the Global Church to consider, reflect and act upon during the years ahead even until 2050!
It is significant because the Scripture Engagement will focus on the Book of Acts and participants have already been encouraged to engage with the Book of Acts in preparation for participating in the Congress.
Prayer also makes the Congress significant because of all the prayer initiatives already happening as the Congress draws closer. It is also significant because believers all around the world will have access to information that will help “the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world”.
It is also significant because the results of the research in publications such as The State of the Great Commission Report, along with other documents made available after the Global Gathering, will all be available online.
How can you participate in Lausanne 4?
Attend in person - There will be a small team travelling from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to participate.
Attend a Satellite Site – You can sign up to attend a satellite event local to where you live.
You can access The State of the Great Commission Report and all other resources regarding different aspects of global mission and the other documents to be published after the Global Gathering: https://congress.lausanne.org
Laura Sanlon
Lausanne Global Listening Team
Lausanne Europe Diaspora Discovery Team
