june 6, 2007
Lausanne III Cape Town 2010 Announced
The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE, www.lausanne.org) today announced plans for the International Congress on World Evangelization, to be held 16-25 October 2010, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010 will gather mission and church leaders from every part of the globe to address challenges and opportunities that are before the church with respect to world evangelization. Lausanne III will be held in partnership with the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), whose leaders will participate in each dimension of the design and planning of the Congress.
Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall, LCWE Executive Chairman, says the year 2010 was selected to celebrate the centenary of the historic World Missionary Conference convened in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910 under the leadership of Dr. John R. Mott. The selection of Cape Town also has historic significance, as William Carey, considered the father of modern missions, first proposed an international missionary conference to be held there in 1810.
“We believe the 200th anniversary of William Carey’s vision and the centennial of its fulfillment is an appropriate time to, once again, encourage international leaders in the field of evangelization to come together and plan for the next 200 years,” said Birdsall. Dr. Michael Cassidy, Founder of African Enterprise, and a member of the Lausanne III Advisory Council, also believes Lausanne III, “will add enormous impetus and encouragement to the African church to fulfill its destiny in World Missions in the 21st Century.”
“There is no doubt we have reached a new era in Christianity around the world, and we need to strategize about how we can continue the spread of the gospel across the globe,” Birdsall added. “This is especially important as our world continues to shrink through new technologies, and as the evangelical population has shifted to the Southern hemisphere.”
Mr. Lindsay Brown, newly appointed International Director for LCWE, points to the dramatic shifts that have taken place in Christianity over the course of the last century, shifts that are reflected in the leadership of Lausanne III. International Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda will serve as the chairman of the Africa Host Committee.
Cape Town has literally opened its arms to the Lausanne III Congress. Christians throughout the area are offering their homes to host as many as one thousand of the 4000 church and mission leaders from 200 countries, who are expected to attend. “We have been overwhelmed by the welcome we have received from Cape Town,” said Mrs. Robyn Claydon, LCWE Deputy Chair. “We look forward with great excitement to what God is going to accomplish through this event and the city of Cape Town.”
The first International Congress on World Evangelization (Lausanne I) was held in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The gathering was called by a committee headed by Rev. Billy Graham and drew more than 2700 evangelical leaders from 150 countries. The focus of the meeting was both practical and theological, producing The Lausanne Covenant, a document that provides the theological underpinnings for intentional collaborative world evangelization. The Covenant includes fifteen articles dealing with major issues such as the authority of scripture, the nature of evangelism, Christian social responsibility, the urgency of world evangelization, faith and culture, and the nature of spiritual conflict. The Covenant has provided a framework for unity and serves as the statement of faith for hundreds of organizations around the world.
In 1989, 3600 leaders from 190 nations attended Lausanne II in Manila, Philippines. The resulting Manila Manifesto reaffirmed The Lausanne Covenant and the call to “Proclaim Christ Until He Comes.”
“The issues facing us today, such as HIV/AIDS and worldviews increasingly hostile to Christianity, are very different from those issues faced in 1974,” explained Birdsall. “We pray that Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010 will help unite the Church in a new way, with new ideas about evangelization for a new time.”
Learn more about Lausanne III at www.lausanne.org
Read the historic Lausanne Covenant
Read the Manila Manifesto
Endorsements of Lausanne III
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