What a blessing it has been to pray this past week for Gospel partnerships. The Glory of Christ and the needs of the World compel us to continue to seek ways to work together as the Body of Christ. That is the aim of The Lausanne Movement: namely, calling the Whole Church to take the Whole Gospel to the Whole World. To succeed in this endeavor, Lausanne looks for people, churches, and organizations with whom we might partner. These final three days of prayer, we ask that you would pray for Lausanne. Would you join us in bringing the needs of this Movement before the Lord?
Doug Birdsall, Honorary Chairman of The Lausanne Movement, is fond of saying, “The fruit of Lausanne grows best on someone else’s tree.” For 40 years, the Lord has graciously allowed The Lausanne Movement to bless, invest in, and serve the ministry of hundreds of organizations around the world, and Doug Birdsall personifies this passion to see Kingdom minded ministries succeed and to help in whatever way possible. If you have been blessed by The Lausanne Movement, then we invite you to read the below letter in honor of Doug Birdsall.
Friends of The Lausanne Movement,
We are writing today with respect to our dear friend, Doug Birdsall, who has served as the Executive Chair of The Lausanne Movement for the last nine years. As you know, Doug has accepted the Lord’s call to serve as the new President of American Bible Society. We pray God’s blessing on him as he provides fresh leadership for that historic organization. At the same time, we want to express our gratitude to Doug for his tireless and exemplary leadership over the past decade.
Doug has been the inspirational driving force as well as the “face” and the “‘voice” of The Lausanne Movement around the world. He will be missed. His passion for the lost and the least was instrumental in bringing about a Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town 2010 was a truly historic gathering of the global Church, serving as a primary catalyst for fueling the Great Commission for decades to come.
One of Doug’s greatest desires is to see Lausanne launched into a new season of service as it is passed on to Dr. Michael Oh, Lausanne’s new Executive Director and CEO. To honor Doug’s life of faithfulness and to celebrate his service to Lausanne, we’re asking each member of the worldwide Lausanne family — and those that have been blessed by its ministry — to give a gift that will help provide financial strength for Lausanne to serve as an ongoing global catalyst for world evangelization in our generation.
Your financial gift, of any amount, would be a tremendous way to honor Doug, while positioning The Lausanne Movement to advance the cause of the world evangelization. You may mail a gift in Doug’s honor to:
Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
PO Box 9020
San Dimas, CA 91773 USA
You may also donate online at lausanne.org/give.
This is a wonderful opportunity for the each member of the Lausanne family to express his or her love and appreciation for Doug “because of his work” (1 Thessalonians 5:12) with a gift of any size … while also strengthening the work of Lausanne at this critical time in world history.
Thank you for your prayers for Doug Birdsall and The Lausanne Movement in this new season. Also, thank you in advance for your gifts for Lausanne.
God bless you.
Yours in service to the Great Commission,
Dr. Sam Logan, International Director, World Reformed Fellowship
Dr. Riad Kassis, International Director, International Council for Evangelical Theological Education, Beirut
Rev. Ron Scates, Senior Pastor, Highland Park Presbyterian Church
Dr. Chris Wright, International Ministries Director, Langham Partnership, London
Father, we join together, first, to praise you for your grace shown to Doug Birdsall during this season of leading The Lausanne Movement. We celebrate the many ways you used his gifts to advance your purposes as well as the ways that you’ve grown his faith. Thank you for the ways that Doug has been a part of helping unite the global church. Bless him and the ministry of the American Bible Society. Mighty God, we praise you for what you have done, and Father, now we ask you for a double portion of your Spirit for The Lausanne Movement in the days ahead. All that your name might be praise! In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.
This blog is a part of the Lausanne Global Prayer Focus. We invite you to journey with The Lausanne Movement in prayer throughout the month of May. This journey will be a personal one, and a collective one. It will be focused on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, his good news for all people.
Visit lausanne.org/pray to access the new content daily and learn more about the Global Prayer Focus.