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 >>

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Respected theologian Chris Wright gave a challenging critique Saturday of the evangelical movement when he said a disturbing number of its leaders are guilty of idolatry.

God’s people today, like in the Old Testament, have fallen to worshiping the false gods and idols of the world, said the international director of U.K.-based Langham Partnerships as he spoke before the thousands attending the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangeliziation.

“Idolatry … is the biggest single obstacle to world mission,” said Wright, who will be the main drafter of the much-anticipated Cape Town Commitment that will come out of the weeklong gathering of mission-minded Christian leaders. more >>

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – There is hope in Africa – a continent ravaged by conflicts, poverty and HIV/AIDS – because God is at work in this land, said African Christian leaders Friday at the Lausanne conference.

In the last century, the African church has grown 3,000 percent, said Daniel Bourdanne, general secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students and international deputy director for the Lausanne movement, during the evening plenary focused on Africa. Even though Africa does not have money or technology, Bourdanne said, Africans can celebrate because God’s grace has been poured out on the continent.

“This (church growth through the Holy Spirit) is more than technology, more than money, more than anything that we can have,” declared the African leader from Chad, drawing loud applause from the 4,000 attendees of Lausanne III. more >>

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Hundreds of imams and mullahs from West Africa have been coming to Christ in the past decade and in turn sharing the Gospel with their peers, said a former Muslim who witnesses to Muslim scholars and clerics.

Brother Daniel (last name withheld for security reasons) said that the initiative he started has exposed over 10,000 scholars, clerics and mullahs to the knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ over the past 10 years. From that number, some 1,000 have come to Christ with 500 of them having completed discipleship training. Currently, 58 former mullahs, imams, and scholars from the initiative are sharing their faith in Christ, exclaimed Daniel to applause from the Lausanne III crowd.

“The Muslims that are around us are good people; they are sincere in their beliefs,” said Daniel Friday morning. “[But] even though they are very sincere, they are sincerely wrong.” more >>

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – More than 25 percent of the ethnic groups (unreached people groups) in the world, or about two billion people, are not represented at the Lausanne Conference.

An unreached people group means that cross-cultural mission is necessary for a person in the group to hear the Gospel because they cannot find people within their ethnic group to share with them the good news.

Mission leaders on Wednesday said the hardest obstacle to overcome in reaching unreached people groups is the obedience of the church. They spoke at the Lausanne multiplex session titled “M*ss*ng People: The Unserved One-Fourth World.” more >>

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – New York pastor Tim Keller awed the crowd Wednesday evening with his well thought-out argument on why churches around the world need to move into cities.

Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan told attendees of Lausanne III that if Christians want human life to be shaped by Jesus Christ then churches need to go into cities.

Cities are where churches can reach the next generation (young adults want to live in the city); reach more unreachable people (people are far more open to the Gospel in the cosmopolitan city than in their hometown); reach people who have a big impact on the world (filmmakers, authors and businessmen); and reach the poor (about one-third of city dwellers live in shanty towns). more >>