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Logo of the International Congress on World Evangelization |
Thirty years ago this month, the International Congress on World Evangelization
(ICOWE) was held in Lausanne Switzerland. The meeting, better known as the Lausanne
Congress, was intended to bring together Christian leaders from around the world
to discuss and plan world wide efforts to witness to the Good news of Jesus
Christ. Representatives came mostly but not exclusively from the Protestant
Evangelical tradition.
One outcome of the the Congress was the Lausanne Covenant, a statement of Christian
belief and lifestyle that became a touchstone for Evangelicals. Another result,
slightly later, was the formation of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
(LCWE). The Committee grew out of a continuation committee that had surveyed
the attendees of the the congress to discover if a continuing organization was
desired and if so, what should it do. The continuation committee met in Mexico
City in January 1975 and formed the LCWE.
The Congress, the Covenant, and the LCWE were all part of a world wide movement
of Evangelicals. This effort involved presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to the modern world, developing an international Christian fellowship, and struggling
with how to be true to Jesus as individual Christians and as a church. The latest
meeting of the Lausanne movement is this year's 2004
Forum for World Evangelization, to be attended by almost 2,000 Christian
leaders.
To celebrate this anniversary, the bulletin board this month is putting up a
variety of items from the original congress. The Archives has the records of
the ongoing LCWE (Collection 46).
Click
to see photos from the Congress
Click
to read the minutes of meeting in Mexico City in January 1975 that resulted
in the formation of the LCWE.
Click
to read more about the history of the LCWE, from the guide to Collection 46.
Click
to read the Lausanne Covenant. (This link will take you to the web
page of the LCWE).