Lausanne Movement

In This Issue:

• An Exchange of Joy – Towards 2010 Blog
• CT2010 Information Online
• Lausanne Regional Consultation – Anglophone Africa
• Overwhelming Response to Evangelistic Campaign in Poland
• Internet Evangelism Day – 27 April
• Praise and Prayer
• April Lausanne World Pulse

Recently our Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010 Programme Committee Chairman, Ramez Atallah from Cairo, and our Program Director, Joshua Wathanga from Nairobi, convened a consultation in Oxford, England.  That same week our Lausanne International Director, Lindsay Brown, gathered together the International Deputy Directors from twelve regions around the world.

Two things struck me during the days that the 30 of us were together from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.  The first factor would have been obvious to anyone in the room.  The leadership for Lausanne has become truly international.  The second factor had to do with the quality of careful listening and mutual respect that characterized the time of interaction.  This was true during our times of scheduled meetings as well as during the times around the meal tables and in the spontaneous and informal connecting that took place all week.

Why is this so significant? ...



More than a dozen leaders from across Africa will participate 22-25 April in a Lausanne Regional Consultation in Nigeria.  The Consultation is being organized by Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam, Lausanne International Deputy Director for Anglophone Africa.  According to Gideon, topics for the Regional Consultation include:   

1. Identifying the top issues confronting the African Church today
2. The Role of The Media: Top Issues & Towards 2010 Awareness
3. Critical Issues on the Continent: How These Impact the Church
4. After 2010: What Mission Roadmap For Africa?
5. The Church and The Great Commission
6. Prayer Mobilization & Finance
7. National Committees & Participant Selection

Please be praying for these leaders – for safety in travel and for God’s wisdom as they meet on these very important topics.

By Wolfgang Polzer, Special to ASSIST News Service

 

The response to the evangelistic campaign ProChrist in Poland has overwhelmed the organizers.  Approximately 20,000 visitors began a new life in Christ.

Roughly 80,000 took part in the event, 6-13 April.  Programs were transmitted via TV satellite from Katowice in Southern Poland to 103 venues throughout the country.

More than 26,700 persons flocked to the sports arena "Spondek" in Katowice to witness the Polish programs.  Only the sermons by German evangelist Ulrich Parzany were translated.  Roughly 10,600 decisions for Christ were registered in Katowice alone.

During the closing night, Parzany asked only those to come forward who wished to make a decision to follow Christ for the first time in their life.  As a result, 1,500 went to the Cross near the platform.  Parzany said he had never witnessed such a strong response.  Two-thousand visitors asked for spiritual counseling.

The evangelist also praised the cooperation among churches in Katowice.  Fifty-two local churches, in this city of 320,000 inhabitants, will offer spiritual follow-up courses.

Parzany is deeply impressed with the fact that he was invited to speak in Poland.  With respect to the heavy burden caused by the Nazi era he regarded the invitation as a "special gift" and a "deeply felt sign of reconciliation and affection."

ProChrist in Poland was a joint venture of Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches in cooperation with the regional Ecumenical Council as well as the Catholic Fokolar Movement and the initiative "Light and Life."

ProChrist started in 1993, when Billy Graham preached in Essen, Germany.  Since then five major international campaigns have been held with Parzany.  More than 1,250 venues in Europe were involved in 2006, when ProChrist was transmitted from Munich.

By Tony Whittaker

As more churches and ministries recognize the mission field represented by the Internet, many are asking for help in using the Internet to share the gospel.  A worldwide “web evangelism focus dayâ€� is helping to provide answers.

Sunday, 27 April, has been designated as a worldwide Internet Evangelism Day (IE Day).  Churches can download free materials from the Internet Evangelism Day website (www.internetevangelismday.com).  These materials, including a PowerPoint presentation, video clips and drama scripts, make it easy for churches to create a short presentation about online outreach on or near that Sunday.

The Internet Evangelism Day team emphasizes that web evangelism is for anyone, not just the technically gifted, with many options to share the gospel online – through websites, chat rooms, podcasts and email.

The IE Day website also offers churches a free way to evaluate their own websites.  After answering a simple online questionnaire, users are then given a customized report on their website, ready to print or save.  The report's recommendations are tailored with specific practical suggestions on how to enhance the evangelism component of a website, based on the answers to the questions. View the evaluation tool here: http://ied.gospelcom.net/church-site-design.php

IE Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition (www.webevangelism.com).

By Sarah Plummer, Chair of the Lausanne Intercession Working Group

 â€œHe who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress my God in whom I trust.  Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.â€�

vs 15 “The Lord says ‘He will call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.  With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.â€�
Psalm 91

Praise God for his shelter.
Praise God for his faithfulness.

Please Pray For:

• The sustaining power of Christ in each Committee and Director planning the Cape Town 2010 Congress.
• God to indeed cover each person in leadership within Lausanne and the World Evangelical Alliance with his wings.
• The resources to sustain the needs of the Congress.
• The upcoming Lausanne leadership gathering in Argentina, that God's Name will be exalted and the things of his heart will be known.
• The many nations who are having a national day of prayer and participating in the Global Day of Prayer.  As people humble themselves and pray, we ask that God would heal our lands, and that salvation will be brought to every man, women and child.  To the praise of his Glorious Grace.

Amen


This month in Lausanne World Pulse (LWP) church leaders from the Global South speak on missions and evangelism:

• “As good evangelicals, we have kept a central focus of our reflection on Jesus Christ; however, in the Global South we have tried to deepen our understanding of this basic Christology.  As we consider the missionary pattern modeled by Jesus, and the meaning of his death and resurrection, we face the uniqueness of his person and work.  We must acknowledge that it is a scandalous truth, a puzzling reality,â€� writes Samuel Escobar, who helped draft the Lausanne Covenant. 
  
• “It is time church leaders realize the third action step is the spiritual-depth imbuing component of the Great Commission.  Because the command to ‘teach’ is yet to be interpreted and pursued with any sense of urgency, spiritual decline has set in,â€� says U. Obed, international coordinator of the Apostolic Discipleship Movement.  
  
• “The Evangelical Church in Latin America is experiencing a unique missionary awakening in Protestant history.  The poor are engaged in missionary activity and are investing their potential, talents, and resources in fulfilling the universal missionary call of the Church,â€� writes Valdir Steuernagel the international vice-president of Christian Commitments for World Vision.   
  
• “Pentecostal mission has demonstrated its genius in two specific areas of mission engagement and they roughly correspond with the development of the Pentecostal movement itself,â€� remarks Wonsuk Ma, executive director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. 
  
  Ma also states that “Pentecostals need to be involved in mission engagement that aims at justice in social, economic, political, racial, and environmental areas.â€� 
  

Other articles include:

• “The Paradigm Is Changingâ€�: Bible Translation and the Church of the Southern Continents. 
  
• The Challenge of Missions in the Twenty-first Century. 
  
• The Echo of a Saint: Signs of Hope in a Slum Community.   
  
• The Past Five Years of Christian Growth Worldwide.  
  
• The European Church Today: Reflections on Her Context.   
  

In May, LWP will look at Building a Solid Foundation for Mission Policy and Praxis.