Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I trust you are experiencing a wonderful sense of God’s presence and his blessing on your life as you serve him with the work that he has entrusted to your care. As I write to you this month, let me begin by assuring you of my deep gratitude to God for your partnership as we work together in the “spirit of Lausanne.” I want to give you an update on some exciting recent developments within the Lausanne movement:
1. Meeting with Billy Graham. In June I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Billy Graham, the convener of the 1974 Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. During our meetings I updated him on the progress of the Lausanne movement, with particular focus on the upcoming Younger Leaders Gathering in Malaysia and with a sketch of the vision for Lausanne III in 2010. He gave his blessing and assured me that he would be glad to help in any way he could.
2. Lausanne III. I am pleased to tell you the leadership team for this gathering is assembling together wonderfully. Bishop Hwa Yung has accepted our invitation to serve as chair of the participant selection committee and Blair Carlson has accepted our invitation to serve as the Congress director of Lausanne III in 2010.
3. Search for New Lausanne International Director. The search committee is nearing the completion of their search for the new international director. They have narrowed their focus to five outstanding candidates from different parts of the world. The new international director will be introduced during the Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering in September.
4. ALCOE VI. The Asia Lausanne Committee convened the sixth Asia Leadership Consultation on Evangelization in Manila in May. One hundred and fifty participants from twenty Asian nations convened to consider “A New Heart for the Evangelization of Asia.” The consultation included the presentation of eight major addresses and papers, which were followed by lively discussions, both in formal sessions and informal conversation over meals and between meetings. (Read more at www.lausanne.org/Brix?pageID=19157#3.)
5. CCCOWE. In July, the Chinese Coordination Center on World Evangelization, a movement that came out of Lausanne 1974, convened their seventh conference in Macau. More than three thousand participants from throughout the Chinese world participated. For the first time CCCOWE included a major track in English for English-speaking Chinese from around the world.
6. Younger Leaders Gathering. We are just weeks away from the time when over five hundred younger leaders and eighty mentors from 120 nations of the world will be gathered in Malaysia for the Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering. Please pray God’s blessing on the final stages of planning for this important gathering 24-30 September, which will serve to unite and inspire gifted men and women from around the world in the task of world evangelization. We believe this represents a wonderful opportunity for the Lausanne movement to bring a whole new generation of vision and energy into the movement. We would ask for your particular prayers for a successful completion of the fund raising effort as we seek to successfully match a gift of US$250,000 that has been given to ensure that scholarships will be available for deserving younger leaders. If you would like to make a gift, you may it to: LCWE, P.O. Box 2404, South Hamilton, MA 01982 USA.
7. International Leadership Meetings 2007. In addition to the established Lausanne leadership, we are pleased to have four other groups that will be meeting with us in June 2007. Leighton Ford will gather twenty-five of the Lausanne “first generation leaders.” Brian Stiller will be gathering together leaders who will celebrate a twenty-year reunion of the 1987 Singapore Younger Leaders Conference. We will also invite a group of about twenty-five of the younger leaders from our gathering in Malaysia to join us in Budapest so that they will be effectively assimilated into the work of the Lausanne movement. Finally, we will have our executive leadership team for Lausanne III with us. As a result, we will have the wisdom from our senior leaders, the strength and energy of our middle-aged leaders and the fresh vision and vitality of a new generation of leadership.
We welcome input you might have for the ways in which we can further strengthen the Lausanne movement and pray for your mutual encouragement to press on toward revival, renewal and revitalization.
May God continue to wonderfully bless you.
