Lausanne Movement

"The Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole World" 

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. 

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).

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.” 

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. 

At the urging of evangelical leaders worldwide, the Lausanne Movement will 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 onsite in Cape Town.  Thousands of other leaders are expected to participate virtually – online and through other digital technology.  The Participant Selection Team, consisting of leaders worldwide, has established 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 few years leading up to this event, Lausanne Working Groups and Lausanne International Deputy Directors are engaging leadership teams to determine the relevant issues of the day pertaining to the church and worldwide evangelization and holistic ministry. (Learn more about the global conversations on ths issues leading up to Cape Town 2010.) These issues will be discussed before and during and after 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.

Connecting with the Movement

The Lausanne Website allows leaders to access current and historical information on global evangelization, learn about national, regional and international gatherings on evangelization and share theological and practical studies and research.

The Connect section on the website offers ways to connect regionally with Lausanne Movement leaders.  In addition, visitors can learn more about a wide range of Global Issues related to world evangelization in which Lausanne is engaged, and find ways to connect with others involved in those issues.  

To receive current information about the Lausanne Movement, Cape Town 2010 and evangelization efforts, subscribe online to the Lausanne Connecting Point ENewsletter, a free, monthly enewsletter from Lausanne.

Lausanne also provides the free, monthly, online magazine Lausanne World Pulse (LWP).  LWP offers missions and evangelism news, information and analysis from leaders around the world.  LWP is a collaborative partnership between Lausanne and the Institute of Strategic Evangelism and the Evangelism and Missions Information Service (Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, USA). Lausanne World Pulse is offered online, through an RSS feed or email alert, and as a downloadable Executive Summary print version for reading offline.