Lausanne Movement

Top evangelical leaders across North America are joining a special service Monday in Boston to celebrate the 200th anniversary of North America's first ordained missionaries. The event also marked the official debut of Missio Nexus, which will be the largest evangelical mission network in North America following the historic merger of CrossGlobal Link and The Mission Exchange.

The Missions Bicentennial service and celebration is taking place at Tabernacle Congregational Church in Salem, Mass., the location where on February 6, 1812, the first missionaries being sent from a North American mission agency were commissioned.

The ordaining of Adoniram Judson and four other missionaries for overseas service represented the beginning of a new era in history when America joined the global mission movement. After their ordination in Salem, Judson, along his wife Ann and other missionaries, set sail in February 1812 to bring Christianity to India. more >>

WHEATON, Ill. – Under the slated skylight and within the clean, airy white walls of College Church on the Wheaton College campus, more than 600 people gathered Friday to remember and be inspired by the life of John Stott – the English Anglican clergyman who helped define and drive the global evangelical movement in the 20th century.

One by one, speakers eloquently, but with much sincerity and humor, recalled the humble, intellectual giant of the evangelical community who astounded and touched Christians around the world with his clear and authoritative exegesis of the Bible, and with the way he lived his life.

“He (John Stott) truly was, in some ways, the first person who spoke the word of God to me through his literature and I also heard him in person,” proclaimed Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and whom Newsweek magazine described as a “C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century.” more >>

Evangelical Christian leaders from around the world are mourning the death of evangelical figure John Stott, who died Wednesday at the age of 90.

Stott, known for shaping 20th century evangelicalism through his writing and preaching, died 3:15 p.m. in his retirement home at St. Barnabas College, located 30 miles away from London. He was surrounded by his longtime secretary Frances Whitehead and close friends who read Scriptures and listened to Handel's "Messiah" when he passed.

An Anglican theologian from the U.K., Stott was the chief architect of the 1974 Lausanne Covenant and the author of over 50 Christian books in which he took complex theology and explained it in a way lay people could understand. One of his most popular books was Basic Christianity (1958), which has been translated into more than 60 languages, according to Christian book publisher InterVarsity Press. He has also influenced millions of Christians through other well-known titles including Christ the Controversialist (1970), Issues Facing Christians Today (1984) and the one he always considered his best: The Cross of Christ (1986). more >>

Looking back, the year 2010 was a year of pain, surprises, and your fair share of debates. The Christian Post draws your attention back to some of the top issues and events that marked the year:

1. Debate over the approval of a massive Islamic cultural center near New York City's ground zero

The decision in May by a New York community board to give the green light to the construction of Park51, an Islamic cultural center that includes a mosque, near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, left many Americans hurt and angered. more >>

Many prominent ministry leaders came out Tuesday in a webcast to endorse the new edition of Operation World and to call on Christians to pray for the nations.

Operation World, a prayer encyclopedia listed in Christianity Today’s "The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals," was endorsed by Joni Eareckson Tada, Max Lucado, Anne Graham Lotz, and megachurch pastor David Platt, among other well-known leaders.

Through individual videos, the leaders shared how the up-to-date, country-focused book has impacted their prayer life. more >>

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – A gentle and calm spirit descended on the closing ceremony of The Third Lausanne Congress Sunday night as the 4,000 attendees soaked in the majestic music of the grand orchestra and choir and prepared their hearts to return to the mission field.

Lindsay Brown, the international director of The Lausanne Movement, gave the closing address in which he stated that the Lausanne leaders’ vision for the conference was to bear witness to Jesus Christ to this generation in every area of the world geographically and in every sphere of society. He noted that it was too early to determine what legacy the conference would have.

“We must recommit ourselves therefore to the lordship of Christ in every area of human activity,” said Brown. “One of our hopes, therefore, is that we would leave here equally committed to passionately communicate the Gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth and also to demonstrate the eternal truth of scripture has application to the whole of life for Christ is the Lord of the whole of creation.” more >>