I didn’t start out the day intending to talk with you and I’m guessing that on the average day you probably didn’t think about talking with me either. It is not that I don’t want to talk with you or that you are avoiding me. Instead it is just the fact that I have so many conversations going on in my day to even consider adding another one.
But here I am anyway and you are here as well. Why are we both on the Lausanne web site on this day, this hour, and this very minute? The answers will be many, but this I can guarantee you. You have found your way here because you are part of the Global Church and have an intense interest in what God is doing through His Church in the year 2010.
So you take a short break from your hectic work life and your ongoing ministry schedule to ask, “What is God doing in the world around me?” That question is what drives you to explore the Lausanne Movement’s Global Conversation. But even more than this question of “what” is the question of “belonging.” Each of us that come to this site is looking for a way to belong to the global cause of world evangelization. That is what the Lausanne Movement stands for and what the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa hopes to speak to as it catalyzes the Evangelical world’s attention.
So we are here because we want to belong to a cause and in the process, we are going to meet each other. Maybe we didn’t intend to and maybe we didn’t even want to when we logged on . . . but as this Global Conversation grows I think that each of us are going to encounter dynamic people, powerful partners and engaging thinkers. And by the end, I think that the relationships we have built and the ideas we have shared will make every minute we spent reading about and contributing to this Global Conversation worthwhile.
This blog is going to highlight those people who have decided that even though their lives are full and their schedules are tight, God still wants them in this conversation. You will meet leaders like Carlos Scott from Argentina who passionately share their heart for cross-cultural missions in the Latin American community (Spanish).
You will meet Menchit Wong from the Philippines who challenges us to look at children in a new way.
And voices like Scott Sabin who is generously looking to hear what believers from around the world think about Creation Care.
There are countless more and your voice needs to be added. Let’s go on this journey together and see how God will align our hearts for the cause of world evangelization.
At the end of every blog, I will post challenges to you at three levels:
- Participation: What project or activity can you do right away with what you just learned?
- Engagement: How will what you just learned impact your lifestyle?
- Ownership: How will you invest what you learned in the lives of those in your sphere of influence?
Author Bio
Jon Hirst will be one of your guides through the days, weeks and months leading up to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. He will be facilitating Lausanne’s Blogger Network and weekly he will introduce visitors to the various members of the Lausanne Bloggers Network and to various ideas and interactions going on within the Global Conversation.
Jon is an author, mission thinker and a Kingdom worker who has had the privilege of serving in various communications, technology and leadership roles. He is the co-editor of the book Innovation in Mission along with Rev. Jim Reapsome and the co-author of the book Through the River: Understanding your assumptions about truth with his wife Mindy. Currently Jon is the Director of .W (doers of the Word), a church renewal movement focused on helping churches and nonprofits implement transformational ministry models. He and his wife also lead Generous Mind (www.generousmind.com), a think tank that challenges people to generously share the ideas God has entrusted to them.