| Lausanne Connecting Point - March 2007 |
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In This Issue:
Growing concern over the environmental care of the Earth is evident all around us in the news today. As evangelicals, what should be our response? What does scripture say about caring for creation and how does caring for creation impact our witness for Christ? Those issues and more are addressed in the March issue of Lausanne World Pulse (www.lausanneworldpulse.com) focused on Environmentalism and the Gospel. Here is a sample of the articles you will find this month:
You will also find articles on:
The April issue of Lausanne World Pulse will focus on Contextualizing the Gospel. Questions or comments about Lausanne World Pulse may be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . For more information on how to submit an article, please visit www.lausanneworldpulse.com/submit.php.
ICETE has long maintained a collaborative involvement with initiatives of the Lausanne Movement, including participation in LCWE’s 1989 Manila Congress and in the Lausanne 2004 Forum for World Evangelization in Thailand. The ICETE Council of Reference is composed of distinguished leaders in the international evangelical world. Other members of the ICETE Council of Reference are: Rolf Hille of the Albrecht-Bengel-Haus in Tübingen, Germany; Peter Kuzmiè of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia; Emilio Nuñez of the Seminario Teológico Centroamericano (SETECA) in Guatemala; Wilson Chow of China Graduate School of Theology in Hong Kong; and Chris Wright, director of John Stott’s Langham Partnership International, based in the UK. ICETE is a global community, sponsored by eight continental networks of theological schools, to encourage international interaction and collaboration among all those concerned about the enhancement of evangelical theological education worldwide. ICETE was founded in 1980, and operates under the auspices of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
Chris Rice, Co-Director of The Center for Reconciliation, calls the website, “. . . a wonderful new space to share and learn about the vision and work of the Center—not only programs, events, and resources of the Center, but pointing to the good news of what others at Duke, in Durham, and throughout the world are doing, writing, teaching and, most importantly, embodying as signs of hope in a broken world.” Rice was the convener of the Reconciliation track at the Lausanne 2004 Forum for World Evangelization and served as editor of the group’s Lausanne Occasional Paper, Reconciliation As the Mission of God. By David and Robyn Claydon Gender from a Christian perspective: men and women dependent on each other was the theme of a conference held in February 2007 in Bangalore, India. The vision for this conference was that women, men and young people be empowered to use the gifts God gives them and to do more to grow the Kingdom of God in India. The title “Side by Side” was taken from 1 Corinthians 11:11-12: “In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man nor is man independent of woman...but everything comes from God.” There were 170 participants interacting with such issues as:
These plenary sessions were introduced by Richard Howell, General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India. Throughout the conference a number of workshops were offered on issues including:
In the conservative Indian culture there was a real desire to clarify a genuine Biblical perspective on gender and gifting issues. Major Christian organizations and theological seminaries were well represented. The conference was sponsored by Pilgrim Partners, South Asian Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, Christians for Biblical Equality and the Union of Evangelical Students of India. David Claydon is a Lausanne Senior Advisor and a former International Director of Lausanne. Robyn Claydon served as the Lausanne Senior Associate for Women in Evangelism until turning over the post last fall to Elke Werner.
Conference topics include:
Speakers include Andre Onge, pastor of the International Christian Church of San Diego; Lisa Espineli Chinn, National Director of the International Student Ministry department of InterVarsity; Bill Perry, Staff Director for InterFACE Ministries; and David Shenk, Global Missions Consultant for the Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions. A registration discount is available for registrations made by 10 April. The IED website (www.internetevangelismday.com) shares the stories (http://ied.gospelcom.net/results.php) of Kasia, Shoshy, Christina and others who were looking for answers and found God through someone’s commitment to sharing their faith online. In addition, the IED website profiles of several “web evangelists” (http://ied.gospelcom.net/evangelists.php) to see why and how they’re using the Internet to actively reach out to others in Jesus’ name. The Internet Evangelism Day team, headed by Tony Whittaker of the UK, has provided many other helpful resources on the IED website including:
Internet Evangelism Day allows churches, ministries and individuals to catch a glimpse of how the Internet and other technology can be used for evangelism – both locally and internationally. IED is supported by a broad coalition of leaders. By Sarah Plummer, Intercession Working Group Chair Isaiah the prophet has this to say in Isaiah 61 about his calling: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” I come from a town called Wilberforce in Australia, a town named after William Wilberforce. We are celebrating the 200 years since the Abolition of Slavery Bill was passed on 25th March 1807. This great man influenced the entire British House with the gospel of Christ and then the entire empire at that time. He challenged their evil acts and abhorrent attitudes with the power of God's word. So this month in our Praise & Prayer, let’s focus on the type of slavery that binds and the freedom we have in Christ, freedom that seeks to release and proclaim. Praise
Prayer
In Jesus Name,
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The Council of Reference for the International Council of Evangelical Theological Education has announced that the Executive Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE), Doug Birdsall, has accepted appointment to the ICETE Council of Reference. In accepting the appointment, Birdsall stated, “I am honoured by the invitation to serve on the ICETE Council of Reference. It is with great enthusiasm that I lend my support to the work and vision of ICETE.” 
The Duke Center for Reconciliation has launched a new website: 
The North American Conference on Ministry Among International Students is 31 May – 3 June 3 at St. Olaf College, near Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. 
One of the most exciting things about the annual Internet Evangelism Day (IED) is hearing about the people whose lives have been radically changed because of an encounter with God through online ministry. 29 April has been designated as this year’s 
