2010 Is Here! By Doug Birdsall,
Lausanne Movement
Executive Chair
“2010!” Can
you believe it? This much anticipated year is now upon us. Cape
Town 2010 (CT2010) is just nine and a half months away. The vision we
have been articulating and the plans that we have been developing since June
2005 will soon be a reality. How we pray that this Third Lausanne
Congress on World Evangelization will be a moment in time when God reveals his
glory to his gathered people in a powerful way that has global and historic
impact. How we pray that we will hear God’s voice in such a way that will
bring unity, vision and strength to the church which enables us to be agents of
hope and reconciliation in our world desperately in need of hope.
1. A Call to Action: Prayer and Bible Study
As we enter into this
final stretch of preparation for CT2010, I would like to issue two challenges
to each person in the Lausanne Movement. First of all, I ask you to
intensify your prayers on behalf of the Congress. We have invested much
by way of organization and preparation for this Congress. We are deeply
grateful for the quality of work and the caliber of gifted people who have
worked so hard to ensure that CT2010 is meticulously planned. We are also
encouraged by the enthusiasm and momentum that this has created among
evangelical leaders all around the world. Given the great potential of
this Congress, we should anticipate and prepare ourselves for more pointed and
intense spiritual warfare in these coming months as Satan will certainly
attempt to discredit, divide and disrupt the plans and the planners for Cape
Town 2010.
Second, I would like to
encourage every person in
Lausanne
to make it a priority to study, to teach and to memorize the book of Ephesians
in the course of this year (http://www.lausanne.org/cape-town-2010/ephesians-study-plan.html).
I believe that as we study the book of Ephesians (the text for the expositions
during the Congress) God will give insights to us and through us that will
enrich our shared experience at the Congress itself.
Our shared life of prayer
and Bible study will produce benefits in at least three areas. Most
obviously, it will enrich and deepen our spiritual life. Second, prayer
and Bible study are the most effective means of preparing for spiritual warfare.
Thirdly, our call to the global church to deep level commitment to Christ and
the gospel will be much more credible as we ourselves cultivate this life in
our own community.
“I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love may grasp how wide and long and high and deep is
the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:17-18).
2.Progress Reports on Congress Preparation
·Blair Carlson to
Cape Town: Blair and his wife, Elizabeth, along with their
daughters Megan and Ellie, have just moved to
Cape Town so that he can provide leadership
for the Congress team from there over the course of this New Year.
Blair’s assistant Carol Guenter has also relocated to
Cape Town. Kim Iannelli, Director of
International Coordination, and her family, will move to
Cape Town later in January.
·Cape Town 2010 Document Drafting Team: Eighteen leading mission theologians and
historians met in the States in December to begin working on the Cape Town
Document. This document will build upon the work of the Lausanne Covenant
by providing a fresh statement of Evangelical Convictions along with a Call to
Action to the global church in response to the challenges and opportunities
that are before us. The 18 men and women on this team represent every
region of the world and all the major church traditions and theological streams
within the global evangelical movement.
·National Consultations: All around the world the 4000 onsite
participants for CT2010 are beginning to meet for national consultations as a
means to prepare for the Congress. Near the end of this month, a
consultation will be convened in
Dallas for the
400
U.S.
participants. The 250 Chinese participants are also being organized for
consultations across
China.
Similar effort is being made in another 40 or so countries that have
delegations of between 30 and 200 people.
·Programme Planning – Final Stages: The Programme Planning Team is meeting this week
under the leadership of Ramez Atallah, Mark Marlowe and Grace Mathews.
This is certainly the most challenging aspect of the Congress planning as final
decisions are made on speakers, the arrangement of the 18 plenary sessions and
the scores of multiplex electives and dialogue sessions, the preparations for
worship, the use of the arts and media and many other aspects which are
integral to the success of a Congress of this magnitude.
·Expositors Study Meeting: The six Bible expositors will meet together for
the first time in
Cairo
in February. This team which is composed of Ajith Fernando, Ruth Padilla
DeBorst, Calisto Odede, Ramez and Rebecca Atallah, Vaughn Roberts and John
Piper, will be facilitated by Lindsay Olseberg of InterVarsity.
·Tech
Summit: Blair Carlson will soon be hosting a “Tech
Summit” in
Cape Town
for those who will be involved in the production of the Congress. CT2010
represents a historic first for a Congress such as this to use technology to
make the Congress accessible to the entire world through the Internet (through
the Cape Town GlobaLink and the Lausanne Global Conversation).
·Lausanne Global Conversation: The monthly articles which are being developed
in partnership with Christianity Today International are now being carried in
125 periodicals and 18 languages in every region of the world. See an
update from Julia Cameron below. Join the Conversation at www.lausanne.org/conversation.
·Participant Selection – Final Stages: In the course of the next few weeks, it is
anticipated that selection of the participants will be completed. Bishop
Hwa Yung and his team have been working hard for two full years on this project
in collaboration with an International Committee, staff and some 150 national
and regional Committees.
·Fund Raising: These next three months are critical for the final
stage of fund-raising as we work to ensure that the Congress budget is fully
subscribed. Nearly US$7.5m of our total budget of US$16.5m has already
been raised. The remaining US$9m will be raised in a shared effort
involving major fund-raising efforts in
China,
India,
Korea, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East,
Africa and the
United States.
I ask that each of you would participate in helping to raise money to cover
your own costs for the Congress and that you would also help to enlist
churches, Christian organizations, generous individuals, and trusts/foundations
to join in the global effort of supporting the Congress.
Let us never lose sight of
the fact that all of this effort is for one purpose – the glorious work of
world evangelization. We pray that all of our energy in preparing for
Cape Town 2010 will result in strengthening our effectiveness in calling the
whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world.
2010 is now upon us.
May this be a year in which we experience the joy of Christ and the power of
the gospel in new and wonderful ways. May Cape Town 2010 be known for
decades to come as a time and place of reformation in the church and
transformation in the world. God bless you.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Africa In 2010
By
Gideon Para-Mallam, Lausanne Movement International Deputy Director, EPSA
Africa is a continent of many colours. It is a
continent rich in cultural diversity and heritage. One-thousand of the
more than 2700 different languages spoken in the world are spoken on the
African Continent alone (Microsoft Encarta, 2006). The advent of
colonialism added colour to language groups in
Africa
across ethnic-nationalities. Today, on the African continent, millions of
Africans speak at least one of four major European languages. Depending
on how you view this, it could be positive, negative or both. However,
the post-colonial split of the continent along language regions—as English,
French, Portuguese and Spanish speaking—is, in some ways, one barrier
Africa needs to overcome to aid in internal cohesion.
Nevertheless, from a
missiological perspective, the diversity in languages is largely positive.
Does it seem strange that I say this? Why do I see the positive
side? There is a real possibility that this language advantage could
serve as a medium to share the gospel with the global community within
Africa in the strategic year of 2010. Opportunities
also abound for Africans to take the gospel to Europe, North Africa/Middle East
and
Latin America, something already in the
works, using the medium of those languages. French and Arabic are useful
in reaching North Africa and the
Middle East.
The language groups in
Africa of the 21st
century present great prospects for evangelism and missions, especially with three
upcoming events: Global Day of Prayer (GDOP), FIFA Soccer Mundial and the
Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization all are being hosted on the African
Continent in 2010.
With the decision three
years ago by the
Lausanne leadership that Africa
should host the third Congress, the message is clear: the global church
community now recognizes the Church in
Africa
as a true partner and key player in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Here is one incontrovertible missiological fact. During the
Edinburgh 1910 first ever global mission’s conference,
Africa was then described as the
Dark Continent
and was certainly the epicentre of missionary activity, especially in
receiving. Today, exactly 100 years later, to HIS glory,
Africa has moved from a missionary receiving continent to
a sending continent.
We must give credit to the
hard work of missionaries from the West. For the Lausanne Congress to be
hosted in Africa in 2010 is both an affirmation and a prophetic call to the
Church in
Africa to play a leading role in
missions in the years ahead. In the end this will come back to benefit
the whole Church in the spirit of
Lausanne:
“The
whole Church taking the whole gospel to the whole world.”
The significance of these
three events being hosted in Africa in 2010, whether it is the GDOP, FIFA World
Cup or the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in May, June and October
respectively, isn’t just about the activities or programme. It’s also a
time to help people of different races engage culturally and hopefully create
an opportunity to build relationships for peaceful-coexistence around the
world. Former President Nelson Mandela of
South Africa once observed that
“Sports achieves much more than anything on earth.” The Church in Africa
should take note of this statement and make effective use of the FIFA World Cup
coming to
Africa for the first time as a
kairos movement to be an effective witness for Christ.
The world does not know
much about the great things coming out of the African Continent, or how the
Church has been a social vanguard of so many good things taking place in
Africa today. The popular media is more interested
in the many “woes” coming out of
Africa.
Most times it seems to me that the old journalism adage which says,
“Where it bleeds, it leads,” is applied even more with news coverage of
Africa than of any other continent.
Lausanne III -
Cape Town
2010 will show the world a different
Africa,
where God is at work in a redemptive and transformative way.
President Jacob Zuma
captured the spirit of African hospitality when he urged South Africans on
behalf of
Africa to, “please welcome the
visitors who are coming to be with us, handle them with care. If I were
to put it in Zulu, I would say sibaphathe kahle,
that is what we say when we stress that we must handle the visitors with care.
Show them love; show them hospitality; be nice to them. They are
our friends; all of the people who are going to come here are our friends.
Let us show them who we are − how proud we are as a nation, and how
caring we are . . . do it extra, do it the South African way.” In
agreeing with President Zuma, my guess is that our hosts will display African
hospitality at its best in all three events. The Cape Town 2010 Congress,
the last of the three mentioned events, will savour the best of it all.
An African saying goes this way, “he or she who licks the last dregs
of the pot of soup enjoys the best of the delicious ingredients.”
It promises to be African-style hospitality mingled with a touch of
grace.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The
Lausanne
Global Conversation
By
Julia Cameron, Cape Town 2010 Co-Director of Communications
The Lausanne Movement
is working in partnership with Christianity Today
International for the year leading up to the Third Lausanne Congress on World
Evangelization in October 2010. Through a series of articles and
commissioned responses, all addressing significant themes, we hope to
achieve two things. First, we want to engage evangelicals
globally in discussion, given the global nature of all major issues.
Our second goal is to sharpen one another's thinking as we prepare for
the Congress deliberations. We invite you to join the Lausanne Global
Conversation (www.lausanne.org/conversation).
The articles are being
published simultaneously around the world by more than 125 journals and
magazines in multi-languages. Latin America and
Europe
lead the way with numbers registered. The only region with no
magazines carrying the articles so far is Francophone Africa. New
magazines and journals may still register.
Radio ministry will be a
major medium alongside the Internet, both in the West and in countries
with sparse Internet access. Our desire is to make this a truly global
conversation, presenting an opportunity to hear from all voices. Future
articles will include areas like people movements, prison ministry, urban
ministry, our call to care for the creation, and the implications of living
with the new technologies. In March, an enhanced online Lausanne Global
Conversation will feature more resources, targeted discussions and social media
tools for conversation.
We need to work together,
to share our insights into Scripture and how it applies to these situations.
We invite you to participate and make an impact through joining the
Lausanne Global Conversation.
