The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation’s (Lausanne) International Leadership Team is meeting in Hong Kong this week, according to Assist News Service. This is the first time the new leadership, which was elected at the 2004 Forum for World Evangelisation last September in Pattaya, Thailand, meets face to face to discuss the issue of global evangelisation.
The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation (LCWE) grew out of the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelisation held in Lausanne, Switzerland which was called by a committee headed by the world renowned American Evangelist, Rev. Billy Graham.
At the Congress, more than 2,300 evangelical leaders from 150 countries developed The Lausanne Covenant, a declaration that provides the theological underpinnings for intentional world evangelisation. Nowadays, many Christian organisations across the world have adopted the Covenant.
The 2004 Forum for World Evangelisation in Thailand is only the fourth time in the past thirty years that the LCWE has called such a comprehensive global gathering focusing on the task of world evangelism. The huge event has drawn more than 1,500 international Christian leaders to attend the meeting.
Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall, Lausanne Executive Chair, has said that the Lausanne Leadership Team elected in 2004 is the strongest in the last 15 years, because of the freshness they have brought to the Lausanne Committee. Forty percent of the members of the committee have been added in just the last two-and-a-half years.
Birdsall said in a news release, "A new generation of leaders brings with them a high level of energy and a fresh commitment to advance the ideals of ‘the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world.’"
"This younger generation of leaders fully embraces the history and the rich legacy of the Lausanne movement," Birdsall continued. "These men and woman are committed to providing leadership and service that will enable the movement to press forward in the 21st Century with fresh ideas and renewed devotion to the Lord and the spirit of Lausanne."
