At its leadership meeting in Boston in June, The Lausanne Movement adopted The Cape Town Commitment, issuing from The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, as its ‘roadmap for the next ten years’.
Doug Birdsall, Lausanne Movement Chief Executive, said, ‘We trust The Cape Town Commitment will prove to be of global significance and of eternal consequence. We sense a burden of spiritual responsibility as we now work to implement it.’
The Lausanne Movement aspires to be Christ-centred, biblically-orientated and missiologically-focused. ‘Its purpose,’ said Lindsay Brown, International Director, ‘is to strengthen the evangelical Church to bear witness to Christ in every area of the world. To do this, we must engage with every region geographically, with every sphere of society, and, too, with the realm of ideas.’ He said The Cape Town Commitment captured this spirit and intent, describing itas ‘profoundly elegant, and panoramic in its biblicism’.
George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization (OM), spoke of his desire to distribute a hundred thousand copies of The Cape Town Commitment in the West and in the majority world. ‘It’s a vital document,’ he said. ‘I love its Confession of Faith as a basis for its Call to Action. We will see some results from it soon. But others will be invisible, and will surface only in years to come around the world.’
Ram Gidoomal, a London-based businessman and entrepreneur and a former Vice Chair of the Movement, has been appointed Chairman of the Board, to succeed Doug Birdsall, who will continue to lead the Movement; Grace Mathews, from Delhi, Director of the Programme for The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, has been appointed Vice Chair. Ram Gidoomal said ‘I am honoured to take on this role. It will be a joy to serve with the board, and with Doug Birdsall and Lindsay Brown as we implement The Cape Town Commitment.‘
Beginning in 2012, The Lausanne Movement will host a series of consultations on major issues identified in The Cape Town Commitment. ‘These will be global in scope, and draw on the sharpest evangelical thinking in each field,’ said Doug Birdsall.
The Third Lausanne Congress engaged hundreds of thousands of evangelicals through its webcasts, GlobaLink sites and multi-lingual Global Conversation. Future plans for The Lausanne Movement include a Global Briefing for leaders in the church, in mission engagement, and in the public arenas of government, business and academia; and the development of a multi-lingual publishing imprint ‘The Lausanne Library’.
Photos from Boston 2011 are available on Flickr.