Lausanne Movement

In This Issue:

• Prayer Update on Jeanie Birdsall
• Myanmar Cyclone and China Earthquake
• Fifth International Researcher’s Conference
• American Cityreachers Renew Passion for City Transformation
• Stott Papers Available at Archives
• Digital Evangelism Resources
• Praise and Prayer
• May Lausanne World Pulse

By Doug Birdsall, Chair of the Lausanne Movement

 

Thank you so much for your prayers on behalf of my wife, Jeanie. We are grateful for the many expressions of love that have been a source of strength and encouragement.

Let me bring you up to date.  After a wonderful ten-day trip to Jerusalem and Cairo in April, we returned home in good spirits and in good health.  However, the next day Jeanie came down with a severe intestinal infection which eventuated in dehydration.  Within forty-eight hours, her body was very weak.  At midnight one night, she woke up and told me that she felt like she was having a heart attack.
 
Fortunately, she was quickly taken by ambulance to the hospital where emergency room physicians determined that she had not suffered a heart attack or a stroke.  Through a series of tests, they discovered two issues.  The precipitating cause of the heart incident was an electrolyte imbalance that resulted from the dehydration.  The second matter is more complex.  She has a mass in the pulmonary artery between the heart and the lung.  This will require additional testing and surgery. 

Ministries from around the world are responding to the cyclone that hit Myanmar on 2 May 2008 and the earthquake which struck China on 12 May 2008.  While it’s impossible to list all of groups involved, below is a sampling of reports on the ministry taking place in these countries:

 

Thank you for the prayers and other means of support that you’re providing for those suffering from these two natural disasters.

 

 

The 5th International Lausanne Researchers’ Conference took place in the Geelong Conference Centre just outside Melbourne, Australia, 8-12 April.  It was attended by 67 delegates representing every continent.  This kind of gathering can only be good for the Kingdom of God and in terms of outcome and was probably the most fruitful of the various Researchers’ Conferences held so far.

Altogether, 33 papers were presented reflecting research that is currently ongoing by the different members who attended.  These papers will be found on the website for the Lausanne Researchers’ International Network which was formed during the conference.  This is in effect a Lausanne Special Interest Group dedicated to research but open to all who are interested in researching mission, the church, Christianity and other religions in the context of evangelism in the world of today.  There was a special emphasis at this Researchers’ Conference on research about youth and their spirituality; a number of people specifically addressed this topic.  The opportunity was also taken for some 20 different organisations working in research in different ways around the world to present something of their opportunities.

The conference was chaired by Rev Dr Philip Hughes, Executive Director of Christian Association in Australia, who, together with his team, were responsible for putting the conference together and ensuring the event went smoothly.  An excellent opportunity for fellowship was taken by making space in the programme to go on tours of the beautiful parts of Australia near to where we were staying.  This, together with the delightful ambiance of the Geelong Conference Centre (Salvation Army) where we were located, helped to make this an enjoyable, stimulating, and important gathering to think through some of the issues which confront us in terms of our research work.

Enthusiasm for the conference was high. Some of those present were reasonably new to research while others had been doing research for many years, giving an opportunity to share methodology and experience.  We also had time to think through from the detail what the implications are of some of the findings emerging for some of the research. 

The 6th Lausanne International Researchers’ Conference is now being planned, probably for April 2011, hopefully in Brazil.

For those requiring more detail, please refer to the web site www.lrin.org.

By Susan Brill, Director of Communications for the Mission America Coalition

 

More than 180 Christian leaders from across the United States were together in Boston, MA USA in April for the Tenth Anniversary National City Impact Roundtable—"Mobilizing a Diverse Church for City Transformation."

Urban ministry veteran Ray Bakke gave the plenary addresses, presenting a message on ministry in the city through long-term, faithful witness, sharing his experiences from over 40 years of cityreaching and urban ministry, and of advising urban ministry practitioners in locations around the world.  Bakke offered a local and global perspective of having a biblical mission for justice and mercy in tandem with a biblical mission of personal salvation.

Bakke's talks revolved around the notion of incarnational evangelism rather than missional evangelism.  Incarnational evangelism, he explained, means that believers live in neighborhoods and revitalize them over a 10-15 year period, as opposed to the missional approach where people have short-term evangelism or mercy missions in urban areas and then “retreat to the safety of the suburbs.”

Bakke noted that for too long the attitude among evangelicals has been, "Just get 'em saved."  For effective urban missions, a bigger picture of the systems that create wealth and poverty in cities is needed, he said.  The gospel is received more readily when real and felt needs are being addressed by those who also proclaim the good news.  He maintains that holistic evangelism, addressing the physical and relational needs of people along with their spiritual needs, will attract many to worship at the foot of the cross.

The national CIR is all about learning from each other, according to founder Glenn Barth, who is also president of GoodCities in Minneapolis, MN USA.  Barth says the CIR exists to empower and resource leaders of cityreaching all over America—whether in Christian community development work, evangelism work, prayer-based work, marketplace evangelism, or other arenas.  The CIR event was endorsed by the Mission America Coalition City and Community Ministries division.  The Mission America Coalition is the U.S. Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization.

The Billy Graham Center (BGC) Archives of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, USA is pleased to announce the opening to the public of a set of copies of a small but significant portion of the papers of a major Christian leader.

Rev. John R. W. Stott, an English priest of the Anglican church, is, with others such as Billy Graham of the United States and Festo Kivengere of Uganda, one of the most influential members of Evangelical Protestant movement worldwide.  As a theologian, pastor, evangelist, preacher, speaker, author, leader, and mentor, Stott has left an enduring mark during his more than six decades of ministry, particularly in shaping church leaders and thinkers.

One small part of his leadership has been through the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE).  Stott was deeply involved in the planning of the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization and served as chairman of the drafting committee that developed the Lausanne Covenant (Billy Graham Center Archives).  When LCWE was formed, he was a prominent member from the beginning and for many years that followed.  In 1988, in recognition of his contribution, he was elected honorary lifetime member of the committee.

Rev. Stott has, at the request of the Lambeth Palace Library of the Church of England, donated his personal papers to the Library.  However he loaned the four boxes of his Lausanne files to the BGC Archives.  (The Archives is the official repository of the records of LCWE and also has numerous other collections of people and organizations with which Stott was closely associated, such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.)  The Archives staff, in cooperation with John Stott Ministries, processed and described this material and then arranged for it to be microfilmed and digitized.  The originals were then returned to Rev. Stott and were eventually transferred to the Lambeth Palace Library.  The microfilm and digital copies form the BGC Archives Collection 590, Papers of John Robert Walmsley Stott, covering the years 1974 through 2000.  This collection can be viewed in the Reading Room of the Archives.

The guide to Collection 590 may be found online at: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/590.htm

By Sarah Plummer, Chair of the Lausanne Intercession Working Group

 

From John 11:51-52 we read:

 

And after he died, rose and was ascended, sent his spirit upon his children.

 

Have you ever thought how God gathers his scattered children?  We are scattered, we are in so many parts of the world, so many languages and so many points on our journey of faith.   In His death we are made one.  It is a wonderful concept and experience to contemplate.  Each time I meet new brothers and sisters I am overwhelmed by God's goodness in making us one in his death.  We have that instant bond with each other that words cannot describe.

We recently experienced afresh that oneness with the millions from around the world who partook in the Global Day of Prayer.

In 212 nations people humbled themselves and prayed because of Christ's death on their behalf.
Please pray with us to our great God these prayer requests. 

Praise God for:

• the gathering of his scattered children
• his uniting us with one accord
• apart from him we can do nothing
• healing the sick, reviving the church, proclaiming his good news and feeding the poor
• his restraining of the evil ones activities.

Please pray for:

• wisdom and insight into the complex problems we face today
• the dying and starving in Myanmar (Burma) and elsewhere
• the Lausanne leadership team as we meet next month and for the many people in South America planning and preparing for this gathering
• the families of our leadership and especially Doug Birdsall's family at this time
• the Cape Town 2010 congress directors and planning team
• a sense of joy and delight as the scattered children of God come together in many ways to glorify his name in this next month.

 

As many prayed together at the Global Day of Prayer events:

 

 

Did you know that Lausanne World Pulse (LWP) offers you a way to interact with other leaders on the important topics facing the Church and God’s world?
 
At the end of each article, you can click on the link “Comment on this article” and submit your comments and reaction to the article you have just read. Do you agree with the author?  Disagree?  Have a different perspective or want to share your experiences and thinking on the topic being discussed?  You may do so on Lausanne World Pulse as you engage in discussion with other leaders around the world in an interactive forum. Comments will be posted as soon as possible following their submission.
 
Doing and teaching mission and evangelism that models Christian-like character is the focus this month in LWP, as we look at Building a Solid Foundation for Mission Policy and Praxis.  Here is a sample of the articles:
 

• “We can’t understand the mission of God by depending on only the New Testament (and especially the Book of Acts) for our theology of mission . . . Our God is a missional God and the whole canon points to his relentless activity to save and redeem people and all of creation,” writes Lon Allison, co-publisher of LWP.  
  
• There are “four areas in which the Lausanne Covenant exerted self-criticism and which are still points that those developing mission policies and shaping missionary practice would do well to pay attention to today,” explains Samuel Escobar, a member of the committee that drafted the Lausanne Covenant.  
  
• It is very important to “explore…the implications and outcomes of three approaches (models) to ‘mission’ in Africa in particular, and then makes suggestions for adjustments” if we are to do mission policy and praxis effectively, shares Jim Harries, chair of the Alliance for Vulnerable Mission.  
  
• “While opposition to the gospel should not surprise us, there is an urgent need for Christians to introspect, investigate, and revisit our theology and our ministry strategies and practices,” encourages Enoch Era, an itinerant preacher in Hyderabad, India.
  

 
Other articles include:
 

• Rwanda—Bible Society NSW’s Project Making a Difference in the Heart of Africa 
• Prepare the Way—Remove the Stones 
• The Effect of the Dollar on the American Missionary Sending “Enterprise”
• A Lesson on “Community Development” from Cambodia: A 10-Year, Bottom-up Approach
  
• The Internet: The New Missionary Challenge of the Twenty-first Century

Next month, LWP looks at The Next Generation: Leadership and Communicating the Gospel.