On the Road to Cape Town
In This Section:
35 years ago, John Stott attended the Lausanne Congress and helped write the Lausanne Covenant, a decree that helped set the stage for new collaborative efforts among Christians worldwide. This historic meeting became a catalytic force for the growth of the global church. In October 2010, the Lausanne Movement continues at the Third Lausanne Congress to be held in Cape Town, South Africa. In the coming months, LPI will share in the heritage of this historic gathering, bringing updates, profiles, and stories from the participants and partners.
The Global Conversation
Langham Scholars and LPI colleagues weigh in
In the coming months, twelve key issues facing the church that will be discussed at Cape Town 2010 will be introduced by Christianity Today magazine. Christian leaders will submit major articles on these topics, as well as documentary video and photo essays.
LPI staff, colleagues, and scholars have been asked to contribute to these conversations. Check back here in the coming months to learn more about these Christian leaders and to read their discussions.
Martin Accad
Sunday Agang
John Azumah
Christian Response to Islam: A Struggle for the Soul of Christianity
Emily Choge
Ruth Padilla DeBorst
J. Samuel Escobar
Unity and Partnership in the Global Church
Andrea Zaki Stephanous
The Holistic Mission of the Church
Christopher J.H. Wright
Whole Gospel, Whole Church, Whole World
David Zac Niringye
We Need to Rethink
LPI will continue to participate in Lausanne’s global conversation as the meeting in Cape Town approaches. Check back on this LPI Lausanne page for updates on staff, and partners who are participating in the Lausanne Movement.
LPI and Lausanne: What Do They Have in Common?
by Christopher J. H. Wright
international director, Langham Partnership International
So why does LPI remain committed to the movement, and exactly how is it connected to Lausanne? International Director Chris Wright, reveals what LPI and Lausanne have in common.
Roots and Fruits
For a start, Lausanne and Langham Partnership International are almost the same age and have a common ancestor. It was in 1971 that John Stott formed the Langham Trust to help younger theologians from the developing world (as it was called then) to gain their doctorates and return to teach in the seminaries of their own countries. And it was in 1974 that John Stott, along with Billy Graham, led the epoch-making first Lausanne Congress, and wrote the Lausanne Covenant, which has provided a benchmark for evangelical understanding of mission for countless churches and organizations since then.
Langham has grown into the Langham Partnership International, with John Stott Ministries (JSM) being the national member in the USA, and now comprises three international programmes: Scholars, Literature and Preaching. Chris Wright took over the leadership of LPI from John Stott in 2001. And Lausanne has grown into the Lausanne Movement, the largest global umbrella movement for Christians committed to world mission. Chris Wright is Chair of its Theology Working Group (first chaired by John Stott in the years after 1974), which seeks to ensure that evangelical mission has deep theological roots, and that evangelical theology has effective missional application.
Holistic Biblical Vision
For many years, Lausanne’s official name was the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. That final word, however, was always understood to include more than evangelism in the strict sense of the presentation or proclamation of the gospel. It also includes all that makes the gospel to be good news to the whole person, in the spiritual, physical, intellectual and social dimensions of our lives. “World evangelization requires the whole church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world,” says the Lausanne Covenant (paragraph 6). This holistic understanding, so characteristic of John Stott’s life, teaching and writing, also breathes through the ministries of the Langham Partnership.
Langham Scholars (there are now more than 300 around the world) not only teach future pastors in seminaries, but many of them are involved in evangelism and church-planting, in social and development work and in Christian witness in the public political arena. Langham Literature encourages evangelical writers to engage issues of their own culture with gospel-centred thinking. Langham Preaching encourages pastors to make sure they are preaching “the whole counsel of God” by taking the Bible as a whole in the planning of their preaching. All of these ministries are essential to the healthy growth of the church in depth of maturity (the vision of Langham), as well as for the ongoing growth of the church in breadth of geographical presence among all peoples (the vision of Lausanne).
LPI is connected at various levels to the preparations being made for Lausanne Congress III, in Cape Town, in October 2010. Some scholars are involved in the program planning and in the plenary and multiplex sessions. Others are participating with Chris Wright in the Theology Working Group. Some will be contributing to the Global Conversation around twelve key issues that face Christians in today’s world – being hosted by Christianity Today.
LPI and Lausanne: What Do They Have in Common? | The Global Conversation