Lausanne Young Leaders Gathering '06 Concludes Gloriously in Malaysia

The 2006 Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering has concluded gloriously Saturday in Malaysia.

The second-ever gathering of the Lausanne younger leaders was aimed at raising the next generation of world Christian leaders.

|PIC1|The YLG '06, a signature event of the Lausanne Committee for the young leaders, successfully brought 550 young leaders together in unity.

Coming from over 110 different countries across the globe, the young leaders revealed their skills and devotion to improve and devote themselves to Christ.

The selection process was highly selective; from over a thousand applicants, only half were selected to set their feet on the beautiful settings of Port Dickson, Malaysia, at the main event.

The Lausanne committee looks for committed emerging leaders during the selection process, selecting those who have demonstrated influence in their respective fields of ministry at home.

Strong recommendation by existing leaders was also an important part in the process in selecting the young leaders aged between 25 to 35.

The YLG '06 commenced on September 24, Sunday, and continued for one whole week.

The event was centred around plenary talks on leadership, as well as small group meetings and workshops, aimed at providing a platform for more intense interaction between participants.

Among the speakers were Peter Kuzmic, founder and director of the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Croatia; Doug Birdsall, Executive Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation and President of Asian Access; and John Azumah of Lausanne International Deputy Director of Anglophone Africa.

According to Paul Stanley, the workshop design acquired its structure through a worldwide survey aimed at young leaders, with the results revealing that what these young leaders want "revolve around the four verbs: inform, develop, inspire, connect".

Thus, workshops were divided into four categories: The Life of a Leader, The Role of a Leader, The Development of a Leader, and The World of a Leader.

Participants gathered in small groups of eight during workshop sessions, each led by an experienced mentor. Participants were divided into groups according to geographical areas and language to facilitate interaction and integration.

On asking "Why Malaysia?", Lawrence Russell, Executive Producer on the Planning Committee for the gathering said "there is no doubt that this region of the world is just exploding in terms of globalisation, in economy, in culture, and Malaysia is one of the countries in this part of the world that has been identified. It was a gracious country to allow younger leaders gathering to come here."

He added that, although it is a Muslim country, the government has been welcoming and it is a place where, in history, there was openness for this particular kind of conference to be here.

"The people are friendly, and the economic was good, so it was a good choice for us to come here," he said.

One Fijian woman at the closing ceremony of the gathering said: "We, women and men of God, just like the electric plug; when plugged we can shine for God. But again, it is our choice."

A Chilean participant said that love was exploding around him simply for by being at the event and praying in a diversified group of God's worshippers.

A Nigerian young leader, on the other hand, expressed that he was overwhelmed by the humility of the elder leaders. Directed at Lawrence Russell, who sat among the participants, he voiced, "I would not have known Larry was a speaker if he hadn't spoken on the stage."

Many other testimonies were given of the humble attitude of the event leaders who exhibited a "Christ-like attitude".

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation was the fruit of thought of Reverend Billy Graham who envisaged a world thoroughly penetrated with the Good News. He pushed for the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelisation held in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In the congress itself, the Lausanne Covenant (a declaration that provides theological underpinnings for intentional world evangelisation) was developed by more than 2,300 evangelical leaders.

The YLG '06 was organised as a platform to develop and instil the Covenant into the hearts of the leaders of the new generation for world evangelisation.