| Lausanne Connecting Point - October 2007 |
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By Dr. David S. Lim, Congress Director and Rev. Bernie Malitao, Lausanne Phillippines Chairman
Warm greetings in the glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Lausanne Philippines Congress from 25-27 October 2007 will be held at the UCCP Cosmopolitan Church in Ermita, Manila. We urge Christian leaders and pastors to participate in this important event, which aims to see The Whole Filipino Church Sharing the Whole Gospel with the Whole World! There will be plenary inspirations, panel forums and challenges, various workshops, and prayers and fellowship. Plenary topics include:
Workshops are:
Plenary speakers will be led by Asia Lausanne Chairman: Dr. Lee Jeung Yun with other speakers including:
The registration fee for the Congress also includes meals, snacks and congress materials. For registration and inquiries, please contact our secretariat at (02)376-4862 (Joy Torres) and (02)412-9190 (Beth Albelda). Kindly pray for this event and forward this information to others who have a heart to see the Philippines fulfill her destiny to glorify God among the nations by His power! 
More than 150 ministry leaders gathered in Kansas City 9-11 October 2007 on the topic of "Loving America to Christ." The annual gathering of the Mission America Coalition (the U.S. Lausanne Committee) encouraged participants to adopt a "prayer, care, share" strategy of evangelism for their ministries and personal lives. Bishop Larry Jackson, founding pastor of Bethel Outreach International Church in Charlotte, N.C., USA opened the conference citing the experiences in his own church of using a prayer wall, on which church-goers write the names of non-believers for whom they are praying. The prayer wall is part of the strategy for the "Loving Our Communities to Christ" initiative taking place in cities across the nation. "The anointing of God drops in our house every time we go to that wall," Jackson reported. He said when they started praying specifically for people by name, those people began committing their lives to Christ and coming to church before they even implemented the "care and share" efforts in their community. State of the Church Dave Olson, director of the American Church Project, presented research on the state of the Church in America to the gathering. Olson's research, documenting attendance at 200,000 churches in the U.S., shows that the church has been in significant decline in the last two decades and is not keeping up with population growth. Even in areas, such as the south, where churches are growing, the population is growing faster. He reported that churches more than 40 years old are much more likely to be in decline—only 32% of them grow. Young churches tend to be the ones bringing in the greatest harvest for the Kingdom of God, he noted. As the culture becomes more post-Christian, postmodern, and multi-ethnic, Olson says it is an opportunity for the church to be more true to its calling. "I think the world that is coming is very much like the Mediterranean world [of Jesus' day]…We need to model our church mission on the early church mission to the Gentiles," Olson asserted. Enthusiasm in Ministry The conference included separate tracks for discussion and networking in different ministry areas as well as plenary sessions. Tracks included church planting, cityreaching, marketplace leaders, denominations, ministry networks, and outreach ministries. Coalition Chairman Paul Cedar was encouraged by the outcome of the gathering. "Several significant advances were marked this year," he said, "including some unprecedented meetings of leaders of a number of ministry tracks related to the MA Coalition. Also, for the first time, we offered partnership training sessions taught by Phill Butler and Bill Sunderland of visionSynergy." Cedar said the gathering exceeded expectations in a number of ways. "There were more participants in our partnership training track than we ever imagined," he reported. "The same thing was true of the number of city leaders who participated in our 'Loving Our Communities to Christ' sessions." Phil Miglioratti, national coordinator of LC2C pilot cities, said the climate of those meetings was charged. "There is an escalating enthusiasm," he observed. "Not that we are seeing phenomenal results yet, but God is leading us step by step. As the Church seeks to serve its city in a no-strings-attached way, doors of ministry are flying open. My sense is that the hope for the evangelical church is our rediscovery of the need to be not just healthy internally but missional in our community." The church planting track was also enthusiastic, according to Dallas Anderson, MAC's national facilitator for evangelism. "We had some of what I would call the top levels of strategic thinkers from across the nation," assessed Anderson. "To hear some of the creative ways that God has been speaking to them…is really exciting. There's no question that church planting is one of the most effective ways to reach new people for Christ." Prayer-Care-Share Strategy Unpacked Other plenary speakers included Jane Hanson, president of Aglow International, who spoke on "The Power of Evangelism Praying," and Sam Tillery, president of the Sonoma County Pastor's Prayer and Ministry Alliance. Tillery addressed "Loving Our Neighbors Like Jesus," and outlined some of the favor the Church in Santa Rosa has found with local businesses and government because of its unified community service. "Caring postures the church and prepares hearts--caring for what they think they need, not what we think they need," Tillery encouraged. "Caring displaces darkness." Mark Mittleberg, author and former pastor of evangelism at Willow Creek, spoke on "Sharing with Others the Jesus Way." "Evangelism Jesus' way involves personal evangelism, it involves unleashing the church, and it involves passion," Mittleberg offered. "Passion is a focus, it's a preoccupation with reaching people." Sixteen intercessors assembled from various states to cover the gathering in prayer. A report on the conference will be available at the Mission America Coalition website: www.missionamerica.org. The Mission America Coalition is a network of national church leaders, representing denominations, ministries, and other key Christian leaders with a shared vision to collaborate in prayer, evangelism, and revival. Since its inception, leaders from 81 denominations, over 400 ministries and dozens of ministry networks have been involved in the Coalition. Mrs. Vonette Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ), Dr. Billy Graham (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), and Dr. John Perkins (Christian Community Development Association) serve as honorary co-chairs. By Mimi Haddad, President of Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) and Convener of Issue Group 24, 2004 Forum for World Evangelization, Pattaya, Thailand  Do you long to make a difference for Christ? Are you passionate about Jesus and his work in this world? Do you long to see wrongs righted, injustices redressed, and the gospel lifted high? Do you believe that God’s Spirit works through Scripture to shape our lives and our work? These were the questions addressed at CBE’s 2007 conference —“Seeking Justice and Loving Mercy.”Christians from around the world gathered in Denver, Colorado, USA to explore not only the biblical foundations of gift-based ministry, but also the biblical and theological basis for gender justice and Christian service. As speakers shared from their years of study and ministry, as award-recipients were honored for their lives of courage and leadership, as we joined together in worship and prayer, we felt God’s presence grow stronger. It came to us largely in the form of joy.  We were delighted and surprised by so much joy! The “precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart” (Psalm 19:8). Why does joy accompany our gospel service in a fallen world? Why is redressing error, injustices, and gender inequities accompanied by God’s joyful Spirit? Scripture tells us that when justice prevails, the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). In addition to joy, the importance of prayer emerged as a key emphasis during the conference. Speakers reminded us that prayer plays a strategic role in discerning and doing God’s will in the ministry of biblical equality. In drawing upon the wisdom of CBE’s gender and justice panelists, conference attendees asked how we should deal with denominations or churches that continue to resist the biblical foundations of gift-based rather than gender-based ministry. Panelists—seasoned by years of leadership experience—agreed the answer lies in patient and persistent prayer. In waiting upon God, we renew our strength and discern God’s leading in our lives and ministries. CBE leaders at the conference unanimously affirmed prayer as a fundamental principle in the ministry of biblical equality and in the work of reforming the church and the world. This is not a novel discovery. Christians throughout the centuries have discovered the power of prayer. Mary Slessor (1848–1915), Scottish missionary to West Africa, wrote in her testimony that: My life is one long daily, hourly, record of answered prayer. For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvelously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make up life and my poor service, I can testify with a full and often wonder-stricken awe that I believe God answers prayer . . . I am at perfect peace, far from my own countrymen and conditions, because I know God answers prayer. (Our Faithful God: Answers to Prayer) 
At CBE, we have discovered that as we pray for individuals and denominations, God often graciously allows us to observe his hand working even as we pray. We are often blessed to grow closer to those whose lives are impacted by our prayers—even when we pray for people we’ve never met! Here is one small example from our conference this summer.Rob works on CBE’s blog team. Though we’ve never met him, we remember him in our prayers often since he is a vital member of our community. While at our conference, a good friend and CBE member Patti Valasek kept telling me she wanted me to meet her son-in-law Rob. Finally at the end of the conference she introduced me to him. You guessed it! This is the same Rob on our blog team. I wanted to cry for joy. Rob had become dear to us not only through prayer but also through his partnership in CBE’s ministry.  Our conference shows that CBE is a global community of change-agent whose shared commitment to Scripture, evangelism, and justice are fueled by courage, prayer, and joy—all good and perfect gifts from our loving God! During the CBE gathering, Lausanne Issue Group Leaders Jane Crane, Mimi Haddad, Alvera Mickelsen, Jo Anne Lyon, Lorry Lutz, Jane Overstreet, and Cecilia Yau met to explore future opportunities to celebrate the biblical basis for women’s gospel-service. Missions and evangelism—core values not only of our biblical faith but also our evangelical heritage grew significantly during the modern missionary movement as women and slaves offered extraordinary leadership. Because of this, CBE will host a gender and missions symposium this coming summer in Toronto, 18-20 July 2008. We invite anyone interested in reading a paper to submit a paper proposal to Chrissy Stockton ( Dit e-mail adres is beschermd door spambots, u heeft Javascript nodig om dit onderdeel te kunnen bekijken ). All proposals are welcome. Read CBE Conference Report (opens as a PDF)  The latest issue of GMI World provides reflections on the Lausanne Budapest meeting and the importance of listening as “key to the development of sustainable, biblically-faithful partnerships.” GMI World is a publication of Global Mapping International.Read GMI World (opens as a PDF)  S. Kent Parks, a veteran of 20 years of Baptist mission service in Southeast Asia, will become the international director of Mission to Unreached Peoples (MUP, www.mup.org), effective 1 November.MUP, a broadly interdenominational agency, bases its U.S. office in Seattle, WA, and a Canadian office in Abbotsford, BC. Parks will establish the international office initially in Dallas, Texas, and will work in close relationship with the other two offices. His wife, Erika, will also join MUP as a missionary. The 25-year-old MUP agency focuses on spiritual and physical ministries to unreached peoples around the world, and currently has 300 personnel who raise their own support and serve a number of people groups in 22 countries. As MUP’s international director, Parks will focus on helping stimulate a global movement to raise up thousands of strategy teams to reach the almost two billion people who are from the least evangelized people groups. He will continue to emphasize MUP’s mission—“to obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ by investing our lives, gifts, resources, and vocational skills in God's work.” The MUP network will continue to expand its role and vision and work to multiply its connections with other like-minded organizations and churches in North America and in other countries, Parks said. Parks, born in Indonesia to missionary parents, brings a lifetime of experience to his new position, including 12 years in Indonesia and seven years in Malaysia. He is the Lausanne Senior Associate for Least Reached Peoples and since 2002, has served as co-facilitator of Ethnê (www.ethne.net), the global Unreached People Initiative of mission leaders from every continent, and is the co-facilitator of SEALINK, the SEAsia UPG network. These positions derived out of his role (since 1999) as Southeast Asia regional facilitator for the Network for Strategic Mission on loan from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). He and his wife, Erika, joined CBF in 1995 as strategy coordinators for an unreached people group in Indonesia after eight years in Indonesia with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board). Read Kent’s article on “What Happened to People Group Thinking”  Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has named John Boyd as its new president and chief executive officer, succeeding Kevin Swanson.Boyd, a native of Scotland who grew up Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, has served with MAF for 15 years. His experience with the ministry includes the roles of pilot, chief executive officer of MAF South Africa, and vice president for ministry advancement. Boyd’s fields of service have included Zaire/Congo, Haiti, Lesotho and South Africa. Boyd will continue in his present role until 1 January 2008 at which time he assumes his new position. Most of his time in the next few months will be spent in Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa on previously planned ministry trips. “I’m filled with humbleness, yet also with joy and excitement about the future,” Boyd said. “We are on the threshold of such great ministry opportunities. My vision is that MAF will become even more strategic and significant in taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.” Swanson will finish his term at the end of December. He plans to relocate to California where an aging parent requires his personal attention. Swanson joined MAF in 1979 as a pilot/mechanic and rose through the organization, becoming a board member in 1995, vice chairman in 2003 and president and chief executive officer in 2004. At his request, he accepted the role of president for a limited term, successfully leading the MAF office relocation and directing the expansion of various ministry operations. Founded in 1945, MAF (www.MAF.org) stations some 200 missionary families in the remotest regions of 26 countries on five continents. MAF serves more than 600 Christian and humanitarian organizations. The ministry’s pilots fly approximately 40,000 flights annually, transporting missionaries, medical personnel, medicines and relief supplies, as well as conducting thousands of emergency medical evacuations. MAF also provides telecommunications services, such as satellite Internet access, high-frequency radios, electronic mail and other wireless systems, in isolated areas. By Sarah Plummer, Lausanne Intercession Working Group Chair
"Praise be to you O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name . . ." 1 Chronicles 29:10-13. Mission Prayer Focus As I write today, we’ve just completed a month of concerted prayer for the Muslims in many lands and countries – during their 30 days of prayer and fasting of Ramadan. It was also a significant 30 days for Jews in many lands. Let us pray and ask God to reveal himself and pour out his spirit on our Muslim and Jewish neighbours worldwide. Lausanne Prayer Focus Please pray for the planning team meeting for Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010, in Cape Town, South Africa this month. Pray that God would go before this team and fill them with his dreams for his people for 2010. Pray God's purposes will be realized, and all the resources, equipment, finances, and work needed for the congress will be provided. The Church’s gospel message of being reconciled to God and to each other (2 Corinthians 5:17-20) is the focus of the October Lausanne World Pulse. Reconciliation and Evangelism looks at conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere as leaders seek to share the message of reconciliation and restoration through Jesus Christ. Here, authors take us to places such as Iraq, Israel, Rwanda and Colombia to see how forgiveness is being found and barriers are coming down:
Other articles include:
Coming in the November Lausanne World Pulse: HIV/AIDS and Holistic Evangelism. |
