Lausanne 2010

No one description will work, but Margaret Feinberg is a friend with a voice I understand, so here’s a clip to her beginning. I hope you can read her article:

Over the course of the last week, I’ve joined more than 4200 representatives from 198 nations to listen to dozens upon dozens upon many more dozens of speakers address many of the most challenging issues of our age. Here are a few lessons I learned along the way.

The Third Lausanne Congress on Global Evangelism should have been called The Lausanne Global Gathering. Many delegates were led to believe that we would have the opportunity to speak into the issues the church is facing. Using the word “delegate” to describe our involvement as well as the word “congress” suggested each of us would be given an opportunity to address issues as diverse as Scripture, poverty, AIDS, human trafficking, the shift of power taking place around the globe, and many more.

But the statements and papers issued at the Congress were written beforehand by a group of academics from around the world (many of whom I respect and appreciate very much!). For the first few days, I kept wondering, “When do we get to watch and participate in the exchange of ideas in a meaningful way outside of our assigned table groups?” Then I finally figured out the only outlets were the multiplex afternoon workshops where some of the academics would sit in and listen to the presenters and the very limited question and answer time with participants.

Once I wrapped my head around this discovery and figured out that the real purpose of placing 5000 people in a convention center was really for a “Gathering” rather than a “Congress,” I had a ball and made the most of my time in and around the event focusing all of our energy (and then some) on hanging out and relationship building. Truly, the brilliance and power of Lausanne is creating a forum for unlikely people and outreaches from around the globe to connect.