History and Heritage of the Lausanne Movment PDF Print E-mail
The story of Lausanne begins with Rev. Billy Graham. A powerful preacher, Graham quickly rose to prominence in the 1940’s and 50’s to become America’s foremost evangelist. As he began preaching internationally, Graham developed a passion to “unite all evangelicals in the common task of the total evangelization of the world.” 
 
In 1966 the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, in partnership with America’s Christianity Today magazine, sponsored the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin. The Congress brought together 1,200 delegates from over 100 countries and inspired a number of follow-up conferences in places such as Singapore and Bogotá. 

Just a few years later, Graham perceived the need for a larger, more diverse congress to reframe the Christian mission of evangelization in a world rife with social, political, economic, and religious upheaval. He shared this idea with 100 world Christian leaders, and the affirmation of the need for such a Congress was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

The Congress    

In July 1974 some 2,700 participants and guests from over 150 nations gathered in the Swiss Alps for ten days of discussion, fellowship, worship and prayer. The Congress achieved an unprecedented diversity of nationalities, ethnicities, ages, occupations and denominational affiliations. In fact, TIME magazine described the Lausanne Congress as “a formidable forum, possibly the widest-ranging meeting of Christians ever held.”

Congress participants heard addresses from some of the world’s most respected Christian leaders of the time, including Graham, Samuel Escobar, Francis Schaeffer, Malcolm Muggeridge, and John Stott. Ralph Winter’s plenary address, in which he introduced the term “unreached people groups” was hailed as “one of the milestone events in missiology.” In contradistinction to those calling for a moratorium on foreign missions, Winter argued that because thousands of groups remained without a single Christian witness, cross-cultural evangelization should be the primary task of the church. Dr. Scott Moreau (Evangelical Missions Quarterly) and Dr. Mike O’Rear (Global Mapping) have called the people groups concept “the most significant development in evangelical mission strategy over the last 25 years” (Moreau 1998).
The Covenant   
One of the major undertakings of the 1974 Congress was the development of the Lausanne Covenant. Drafted in large part by a committee chaired by Stott, the Covenant is a stirring articulation of Christian conviction and mission and helped set the stage for new collaborative efforts among Christians. On the last day of the Congress, the Covenant was signed by Graham and Anglican Bishop Jack Dain and subsequently affirmed by an overwhelming majority of participants. To this day, the Lausanne Covenant serves as a basis for unity and a call to global evangelization. 
 
Reflecting on the tremendous lasting and expanding impact of the original Lausanne Congress, Stott writes, “Many a conference has resembled a fireworks display. It has made a loud noise and illumined the night sky for a few brief brilliant seconds… What is exciting about Lausanne, however, is that its fire continues to spark off other fires.”
The Committee   
At Lausanne 1974, organizers also received a strong mandate from participants to establish a Continuation Committee that would build on the momentum created at the Congress. In 1975 the Continuation Committee held its first meeting in Mexico City. Committee members expressed a wide variety of viewpoints regarding the future of the movement. Some leaders pressed for a singular focus on evangelization, while others favored a more holistic approach. In the end, the Committee agreed to “further the total biblical mission of the church, recognizing that in this mission of sacrificial service, evangelism is primary.” 
 
The Committee appointed Ghanaian leader Gottfried Osei-Mensah as its first General Secretary, and renamed itself the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation (Lausanne Movement). The fledgling Committee was united by the Lausanne Covenant and by what Graham and others have called the “spirit of Lausanne” a spirit exemplified by humility, prayer, study, partnership and hope. According to Leighton Ford, the Committee’s first chairman, “the Lausanne spirit was a new and urgent commitment to world evangelization in all its aspects, a new attitude of cooperation in the task, and a new cultural sensitivity to the world to which we are called.” 
Continuing Impact
Throughout its history, the Lausanne Movement has intentionally avoided building a large bureaucratic organization.  Instead it strives to be a dynamic, catalytic force that propels a movement of like-minded missional Christians who pray, plan and work together on global evangelization. 
 
Since 1974, dozens of Lausanne-related global, regional, and topical conferences have been convened all over the world. Global gatherings include the Consultation on World Evangelization (Pattaya 1980), Conference of Young Leaders (Singapore 1987), Lausanne II (Manila 1989), The Forum for World Evangelisation (Pattaya 2004) and The Younger Leaders Gathering (Malaysia 2006). Lausanne has also inspired a constellation of regional networks and topical conferences such as the Asia Lausanne Committee on Evangelism (ALCOE), Chinese Coordination Center for World Evangelisation (CCCOWE), three Nigerian congresses on world evangelization, and eight international consultations on Jewish evangelism. 

Many Lausanne gatherings have produced landmark documents known as Lausanne Occasional Papers (LOPs). Most of the early LOPs focus on Christian witness to specific groups such as Hindus, Buddhists, refugees and nominal Christians. The 2004 Forum in Pattaya generated 31 LOPs on topics as varied as bioethics and business-as-mission to the persecution of Christians and globalization.

Cape Town 2010
At the urging of evangelical leaders worldwide, the Lausanne Movement has unanimously decided to hold the Third Congress on World Evangelisation in Cape Town, South Africa, 16-25 October 2010. The goal of Cape Town 2010 is to re-stimulate the spirit of Lausanne represented in the Lausanne Covenant: to promote unity, humbleness in service, and a call to action for global evangelization. 

It is anticipated that over 4,000 leaders from 200 countries will attend. The Participant Selection Team, consisting of leaders worldwide, is establishing criteria to ensure that the Congress will include men and women who represent a broad diversity of nationalities, ethnicities, ages, occupations and denominational affiliations.
In the three years leading up to this event, the Lausanne Working Groups will engage leadership teams to determine the relevant issues of the day pertaining to the church and worldwide evangelization and holistic ministry. These issues will be discussed before and during  Cape Town 2010 with the hope that new strategies and new collaborative efforts will be started so that 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.