Lausanne Congress

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa starts next week.
There'll be nearly 5,000 delegates representing over 200 countries. Cape Town 2010 will be the most diverse gathering of church leaders focused on mission in history.

The Lausanne Movement was launched by Billy Graham and John Stott in the late 1960s. The first congress occurred in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974. Time magazine called the meeting “a formidable forum, possibly the widest-ranging meeting of Christians ever held.” Out of that first congress came the Lausanne Covenant--a widely affirmed and celebrated document of Christian conviction and mission.

A second Lausanne congress was held in Manila in 1989. This gathering is where the "10/40 window" idea was widely introduced to the global church. It led many denominations and missions agencies to focus their efforts for the next two decades on the unreached nations in the

Many church leaders felt that a third congress was necessary to address the enormous changes that have occurred and the new challenges facing the church's mission. In Cape Town six key issues will be the focus of the conference:

1. The Challenge of the New Atheism.
2. The Impact of Hedonism.
3. The Reality of Islam.
4. The Globalized World.
5. The Brokenness of Our World.
6. Seismic Shifts in Global Christianity.

Within these six issues groups will gather to discuss and work on matters of global poverty, justice, evangelization, church planting, Bible translation, and many other topics. As well as the above, theologians from around the world, led by Christopher Wright, will be working on new papers to give the church a firm doctrinal foundation for missions in the 21st century. And a significant number of younger global church leaders will convene to develop new partnerships.

Thanks to the Out of Ur site for this summary.