The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization,
more commonly known as the Lausanne Movement,
is a global movement that mobilizes evangelical
leaders to collaborate for world evangelization.
The stated vision is "the whole church taking
the whole gospel to the whole world".
The Lausanne Movement grew out of the 1974
International Congress on World Evangelization
(ICOWE) and promotes active worldwide evangelism.
The Lausanne Covenant provides the theological
basis for collaborative work in the area of
mission and evangelism.
The Cape Town Commitment defines the movement's
goals.
== History ==
The First International Congress on World
Evangelization met in Lausanne, Switzerland,
in 1974.
It was organized in part by Billy Graham and
was attended by some 2,700 participants and
guests from over 150 nations who met here
to discuss and promote evangelism.
One result of this conference was the Lausanne
Continuation Committee, which planned to sustain
the movement started at Lausanne.
This committee formed the backbone for the
official inception of the LCWE in 1976.
Another organizational backbone of the movement
was the Mission Advanced Research and Communication
Center (MARC), a division of World Vision
International.
== Organization ==
The Lausanne board of directors is chaired
by Ram Gidoomal.
The newly appointed executive director/CEO
is Michael Oh, who succeeds Doug Birdsall.
Board members include leaders from around
the world.Lausanne's latest congress took
place in Cape Town, South Africa, in October
2010.
== Significance ==
Lausanne has spawned significant involvement
from agencies and individual Christians.
The movement surrounding it has led to hundreds
of books on evangelism and theology being
published.
These include workbooks for choosing strategies
with which to evangelize to "unreached peoples".
The documents of greatest significance to
date are The Lausanne Covenant, which is used
by evangelical mission organisations worldwide
as a basis for faith, action and partnership,
and The Cape Town Commitment which is "in
two parts.
Part l sets out biblical convictions, passed
down to us in the scriptures, and Part ll
sounds the call to action."
== Publications ==
Lausanne's most recent publications include
Christ Our Reconciler, from Cape Town 2010.
Lausanne also publishes occasional papers
on its website.
The series of booklets, The Didasko Files,
includes some Lausanne Movement documents
such as a study guide to The Lausanne Covenant,
written by the chief architect of the covenant,
John Stott.
== Cape Town 2010 ==
At the urging of evangelical leaders worldwide,
the Lausanne Movement held the Third Congress
on World Evangelisation in Cape Town, South
Africa, October 16–25, 2010.
The goal of Cape Town 2010 was to re-stimulate
the spirit of Lausanne represented in the
Lausanne Covenant: to promote unity, humbleness
in service, and a call to action for global
evangelization.
It was attended by 4,000 participants and
1000 guests from 197 countries.During this
congress the Cape Town Commitment was developed
and subsequently published.
== Criticism of Christian Zionism ==
Steve Haas, vice president of Lausanne, gave
a sermon on social justice, published in the
movement's journal, All of Me, linking problems
with the way evangelicals approached the Rwanda
crisis, the AIDS epidemic and the subject
of Zionism.
This was described as using "outrageously
broad brushstrokes" and the comparison with
the Spanish Inquisition and the crusades was
called "clumsy".
Christian Zionism or Restorationism has been
a widely held Protestant conviction before
and after the Declaration of Independence
by the State of Israel.
Robert Stearns, executive director of Eagles'
Wings, described the article in Lausanne's
journal as a "narrow and dangerously one-sided
presentation", and described it as an "all-out
assault on Christian Zionists".
Among other arguments he cited the prominent
role of Arabs in Israeli society to address
Haas' support of the assertion that Israel
is "apartheid on steroids".
The Simon Wiesenthal Center described this
last claim as "the big lie", and rebutted
the "dismissal of the validity of Israel's
right to exist as the Jewish State".World
Vision International described the comments
in the article as "unhelpfully simplified
and combative".
Jan van 't Loo, the spokesman for World Vision
Netherlands stated that this response does
not reflect World Vision's position on for
Israel and the Palestinian people and it appeared
without the proper approval.
Blogging for the Times of Israel, Sam Hailes
commends part of Haas's article as important
to study, but condemns the fact that the article
"never even tries to use equal terms" for
Israelis and Palestinians.
Brian Schrauger, writing for Bridges for Peace
states that the two opinions are "two seeds,
two fruits" that represent an internal disagreement
in the Lausanne Movement.
== Ecumenical activity ==
On October 17, 2010, Olav Fykse Tveit, the
general secretary of the World Council of
Churches gave an address to the third Lausanne
Conference at the invitation of Doug Birdsall.
In the address he said, "we are called to
participate in the one mission of God".
The World Evangelical Alliance, its international
director, Geoff Tunnicliffe, and other WEA
leaders were involved at each level in the
development of the programme of "Third Lausanne"
and helped choose its participants.
== See also ==
Child evangelism movement
10/40 Window
