The third Lausanne congress wrapped up in Cape Town last month and delegates from around the world are not wasting anytime in planning the growth of the global church.
For China though - Lausanne appears to have sparked a crackdown.
More than 200 church leaders from China were invited to attend the congress, but according to ChinaAid Association, the Chinese Public Security Bureau threatened some of the leaders not to attend.
Authorities closed down three house churches that are part of the China Gospel Fellowship, one of the largest Christian networks in China with an estimated 5-7 million members. As far as we know these churches are still closed. Four church leaders were also seized by authorities and according to families, were held until the end of the conference.
The Chinese delegation was a notable absence from the congress.
One of the speakers at Cape Town 2010, well-known evangelical theologian and pastor, John Piper is set to return to the pulpit at his Minneapolis church in January. Piper took an eight month leave of absence ‘to deal with his “character flaws” and ‘focus on his marriage.’
Piper is scheduled to speak at a number of events in Sydney in the middle of 2011.
Bishop Glenn Davies represented the Diocese of Sydney at the Lausanne congress and while he had a few small concerns, overall he described it as a "landmark" in world mission and a worthwhile personal experience.
"While one can always quibble over some elements of the congress my assessment is that it will be seen as another landmark in world missions for reigniting, re-energising and recommitting evangelicals to the Great Commission in the power of God's Holy Spirit," he said.
The Lausanne congress brought together evangelical leaders from around the world in a collaboration for world evangelism. The congress gave leaders an opportunity to see how others are undertaking evangelism and reaching people with the gospel.
"The top thing [from the congress] was seeing what's happening around the world with evangelism in tough places and the exciting things that God is doing," Bishop Davies said.
"There was an interesting story about a church that was mosque-like; it was Islamic in culture but Christian in faith. Muslims came to it thinking it was a mosque but when they realised it wasn't they stayed and they were converted. They've had 37 baptisms over the past seven years."
The main lesson Bishop Davies took away from the congress was that "[we] should not feel the need to plant the Anglican flag on every square inch of Australian soil" and that Sydney Anglicans should embrace partnerships with other evangelicals of whatever denomination.
"We need to be doing Christian mission, not Anglican mission,” he said
The challenge now is to apply ideas from the congress to ensure the evangelisation of Sydney, Bishop Davies said.
"We have to think of [evangelism] as a partnership "” the Anglicans aren't doing it by themselves. We ought to engage in meaningful partnerships with like-minded evangelicals," Bishop Davies said.
"I think Lausanne is a great leveller of denominational loyalties," he added. "I'm not opposed to denominational loyalty but it's got to be secondary… gospel loyalty should be paramount and we should think in terms of partnerships at that level."
