Weeklong celebration marks one year since Cape Town 2010

Thousands of people who took part in the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation in Cape Town last year are reflecting on the meeting’s impact one year on.

It is exactly one year ago since Cape Town 2010 brought more than 4,200 Christians to the South African city for a week of discussion on the most pressing challenges facing the global church and world evangelisation today.

Executive Chair of the Lausanne Movement, Doug Birdsall, said: “It is appropriate that we take time to reflect and to discern evidence of ‘God on the move’ since we gathered one year ago in South Africa.”

Although conceding that it was still too early to assess the full impact of the Congress, Mr Birdsall said in a special anniversary message that he wanted to see the vision of the 10-day gathering “translated into solid progress in world evangelisation during the coming ten years of The Lausanne Movement”.

A major step has already been taken in the form of the Cape Town Commitment, which drew substantially from the reflections of the thousands of delegates at Cape Town 2010.

The historic document, written by Dr Chris Wright of the Langham Partnership, was published in its final form in January and has already been translated into more than 20 languages.

It was warmly received by evangelicals, with its emphasis on the God of love and the task of evangelisation as the active response to that love.

Mr Birdsall said the Cape Town Commitment would be the Lausanne Movement’s road map for the coming decade.

Immediate plans include the appointment of Lausanne Senior Associates to oversee further exploration of each of the issues raised in the extensive document, such as the prosperity gospel, integrity and unity.

A number of study resources will be released in the coming months, including a new study guide to the Cape Town Commitment, a curriculum for use in colleges and seminaries, and another curriculum for use by local churches and adult study groups.

Mr Birdsall said: “The unfolding of events in this first year since the Third Lausanne Congress provides strong identification of God’s hand of blessing.

“Cape Town 2010 is now part of history. The Congress has been successfully completed by God’s grace. The Movement has been globally revitalised for God’s glory.

“It is our prayer that historians will say of us ‘They were like the men of Issachar who understood their times and knew what the people of God should do’, and they were like King David who ‘fulfilled the purposes of God in their generation’.”

The first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation was held in 1974 and spearheaded by evangelist Billy Graham and the late theologian John Stott.

It was followed by the second Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation in Manila in 1989.