USA (MNN) — When people think of Lausanne, most people think of one of the largest mission conferences in the world: The Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization which drew 4,000 people in 2010.
But this week, Lausanne zeroed in on conferencing with a specific group of Christian leaders: young people.
A select, diverse group of 150 young Christian leaders in their 20’s and 30’s funneled into downtown Madison, Wisconsin this week for the first Lausanne Movement Consultation for North American Younger Leaders.
The consultation lasted from July 24-26 with various peakers addressing 10 topics in areas of leadership in missions. Topics included Ministry in the Workplace, Discipleship, Reaching Cities, and Unreached People Groups.
Consultation Co-Host Tom Lin with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship says, “The primary purpose is to gather the younger leader's voice and influence in tackling the challenges we see in global missions today…. What we often see is generations missed. The younger leader’s voice is sometimes not heard as it could be.”
Through this consultation, Lin hopes young Christian leaders were encouraged. “Many are isolated, and I think they can gain encouragement to keep on going. We see so many people, after 10-15 years of engaging in global missions, drop off.”
To fight this feeling of isolation, the consultation also served to create partnerships. “Three or four people will gather around a similar interest and they’ll say, ‘Wow! You’re doing that? I didn’t know that. I’m doing this!’ And they’ll find a great connection and desire to work together for greater benefit and synergy,” says Lin.
Ultimately, it is all for the advancement of the Gospel of Christ. Lin shares, “The Lausanne movement’s vision is to see the whole church bring the whole Gospel to the whole world.”
Keynote speakers included Nick Hall, Evangelist and Founder of the PULSE movement; Bethany Hoang, Director of the International Justice Mission Institute for Biblical Studies; and Nikki Toyama-Szeto, InterVarsity Program Director for Urbana 12.
Please pray for the advancement of the Gospel through young Christian leaders.
