International Congress for World Evangelism

   Held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974, the International Congress for World Evangelism helped spark renewed missionary enthusiasm in the Evangelical Protestant community. The organizational and theological framework that emerged from the congress has played an important role in world evangelism over the past several decades.

   In 1966, a World Congress on Evangelism was held in Berlin. In 1974, a new, broader congress was convened by evangelist Billy Graham and 164 other leaders from around the world. Its goal was to promote strategic planning, inspiration, and fellowship.

   During the 10-day meeting, 2,300 participants signed the Lausanne Covenant, a statement defining the necessity of spreading the Christian Gospel in the modern world. The congress also set up the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, chaired by evangelist Leighton Ford (Billy Graham's brother-in-law), with Ghanaian Bible teacher Gottfried Osei-Mensah as executive secretary. The committee has run many conferences on themes developed at the 1974 congress. Large international congresses were held in 1980 in Pattaya, Thailand, in 1989 in Manila, the Philippines, and in 2004, again in Thailand.

   The committee has had a significant role in shaping and coordinating the missionary outreach of the cooperating Evangelical churches and has been instrumental in the dramatic spread of Evangelicalism as a global phenomenon at the end of the 20th century. Many of the committee's working papers have now been placed on the Internet at its Web site, http://www.gospelcom.net/lcwe.

   Further reading:

   ■ Christian Witness to Secularized People (Wheaton, Ill.: Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and World Evangelical Fellowship, 1980)

   ■ Evangelism and Social Responsibility (Wheaton, Ill.: Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and World Evangelical Fellowship, 1982)

   ■ The Thailand Report on Large Cities. Report of the Consultation on World Evangelization Mini-Consultation on Reaching Large Cities (Pattaya, Thailand: Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, 1980).