December 2010 - Evangelicals Now - Christian Newspaper

Lindsay Brown, International Director of The Lausanne Movement, gave the closing address at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation.

The first hope of Congress leaders was, he said, for ‘a ringing affirmation of the uniqueness of Christ, and the truth of the biblical gospel; and a clear statement on evangelism and the mission of the Church — all rooted in Scripture’. The Congress drew 4,000 evangelical leaders and influencers from 198 nations. In addition, the event extended its reach to 650 GlobaLink sites in 91 countries.

‘The centrality of Christ and Scripture was beautiful’, said Ian Buchanan, Executive Director of Langham Partnership UK. ‘No one was left in any doubt about the centrality and finality of the biblical story and Jesus Christ’s pivotal position in human history.’

Working together

This was a working Congress. Each morning began with a study in Ephesians. ‘We want to see the Congress marinate in Ephesians’, said Lindsay Olesberg, director of the morning sessions, at the beginning of the week. The expositors met in Cairo in February to work together, so the whole of Ephesians was brought to the global community by a global community of God’s people. The expositions may be heard online.

The Congress was based around table groups of six, who met each other on the first day. This model, untested in any Congress of such a size and nature, worked well. Table groups provided a home and place for discussion among peers from different continents, bringing different insights to the Body of Christ.

Each afternoon, participants chose from four major ‘multiplex’ sessions. The Programme Committee, chaired by Ramez Atallah, Director of the Bible Society of Egypt, had worked hard to include cutting edge areas, relevant to the life and witness of the Church in the next ten years. In addition was a smaller global think tank of senior players in government, business and academia.

Evenings focused on God’s work across regions of the world. The first was Asia. Mainland Chinese participants, who would have formed the second-largest national church grouping, had not been permitted to leave the country, and were deeply missed. As a symbolic gesture, participants all stood behind their chairs for a moment, to demonstrate that seats were left empty which should have been filled. It was moving for the whole Congress to listen to a hymn recorded by Chinese Christians, declaring love for Christ, and willingness for costly sacrifice.

Congress online

Many sessions will remain online, for free use by churches, mission agencies and CUs.

Throughout the week, Dr. Terry Cas no, a Filipino theologian, led a 24-hour data-mining operation, to process all responses to the Congress from around the world. These came from 96 countries, China being the fifth most active. The Lausanne Global Conversation, launched in advance of the Congress and the first of its kind, has gained significant momentum and will continue. It was complemented during the Congress by a series of radio programmes, now being broadcast across the Global South.

At the start of the Congress there were malicious cyber attacks on the Congress website, routed through multiple countries. Our servers were brought down for two days, and we were unable to feed GlobaLink sites for this time. Once the main site was restored, it received 100,000 unique visits.

A second malicious attack, released by someone who managed to get into the building, targeted our network control tools and hardware, hampering staff operations and the 100 onsite press / media. The way this second attack was identified (and resolved) gave an indication of the quality of those humbly serving as volunteer stewards. Cousins from Bangalore were helping the IT team with basic IT tasks. In God’s providence, one of them, now a pastor, had recently completed a PhD in computational biology, and had served as a Senior Security Officer with a leading global software company, dealing with the precise points used in the local attack.

Cape Town Commitment

The two-part Cape Town Commitment, issuing from the Congress, will stand in the historic line of the Lausanne Covenant. Part One, a beautifully crafted Trinitarian statement of belief, was drawn together in advance of the Congress by a group of senior evangelical theologians from around the world. Presenting this to the Congress, Lindsay Brown described it as ‘rich in theology and missiology’ (available now at www.lausanne.org). Chris Wright, chief architect, is working with others on Part Two, the ensuing call to action, to reflect the outcome of Congress discussions. The completed two-part Commitment will be available as a free download, and will be published with a study guide in The Didasko Files series at the end of January 2011, for use in church groups, CUs or for personal study. ‘We would like The Cape Town Commitment to be seen as a gift to the local church from representatives of the global church’, said the Rev. Doug Birdsall, Chairman of the Lausanne Movement.

Global and local

Congress organisers had joined our Capetonian hosts in praying for blessing on the city as a result of this unique gathering of the world’s Church. As with all God’s work, results are rarely seen quickly, but two small vignettes were offered to us. A local police colonel reported that the last two days of the Congress saw hardly any crime in Cape Town; and drivers for a bus company, half of whom were Muslim, said that in all their years of driving, they had never had such appreciation expressed.

On the first Sunday morning, participants worshipped in local churches across Cape Town, and the local church was never out of view. The Congress closed with a celebration of Holy Communion, led by Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda. For this, 100 communion sets had been borrowed, each from a local church and brought by a participant, to represent the remembering of Christ’s death across many nations.

May God work mightily through new partnerships, ideas, and not least through local churches, to strengthen world evangelisation as a result of this Congress.

Lausanne gives clear call

Working together

Congress online

Cape Town Commitment

Global and local

Julia Cameron

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