By Terran Williams, 1st October 2024
Here is a compilation of my daily journal entries during the 2024 Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization, the fourth-ever Lausanne Congress, last held 14 years ago in Cape Town.
I wrote them so that I would not forget, and so that you could also be encouraged and guided by what Jesus is doing across his worldwide church.
I helped contribute to Lausanne’s State of the Great Commission Report as one of 150 global authors writing on 45 major issues facing the worldwide church. (Download it and go to page 232 to see the article.) Following this, I was lucky enough to be invited to this gathering.
Jesus only ever twice mentioned “the church” in his teachings. In Matthew 16, he referred to the worldwide church (“I will build my church”). In Matthew 18, he refers to the local church. I have often thought the order is intentional: our knowledge of what is happening in the worldwide church can powerfully inform what we focus on in our local church.
Now begins my journal entries… (To be clear, I didn’t write down everything that happened or was said—only what I absolutely didn’t want to forget.)
Travelling to South Korea
Five thousand Christian leaders (of churches, organizations, and in the workplace) from almost every nation have now converged in Seoul, South Korea to learn from each other and collaborate in “declaring and displaying Jesus Christ.”
A message from God beforehand…
I asked friends back home to pray for me, and a few of them shared the same message, a nudging they sensed God gave them for me: “Terran, let God’s Spirit guide you every step of the way. He promises to connect you with just the right people. Don’t try to engineer anything. Just go with the flow.” Marching orders accepted…
The flights here…
In my CT to Dubai flight, I desperately begged the check-in agent for an aisle seat, but was too late and got stuck in the middle of two people. But this is just where God wanted me… on my left was a fellow Sea Point surfer, and on my right Morag Todd, a Scottish woman just returning from seeking out personal and spiritual solace in the Karoo along with a Christian friend. In my second flight, I got my aisle seat, but sat next to Madonna, a young Ghanaian on her way to the same conference.
The queue and taxi in Seoul…
I had a two-hour queue to get through customs. In front of me was Sarah, a Kenyan woman who leads a faith-based organization that works with church leaders. When I told her that I do; pastor and author… she jumped onto Kindle immediately and bought How God Sees You. “You cannot understand how relevant this issue is to me right now.”
Behind me stood Onieb, a Muslim Pakistani. We hit it off—and he asked me about my faith. When I told him about it, he said, “Excellent!”—then pulled out The Power of Positive Thinking and told me that he had just read many Bible verses in it. By the end of that chat, I felt less intimidated about Islam—regardless of what people believe, they are people first, people you can love and learn from (and who know, they might be interested in you, too).
The car ride to my hotel…
Outside, when I was directed to my individually flagged cab, there was a sweet and friendly female taxi driver. When I mentioned the flight middle seat pilgrimage, she was a little sad about how to get that for people. The whole ride was only a block away from mine. I found out that her sister works in security with her. In the taxi ride, I asked her what she does: she runs an organization to train people and fit them in companies for impact-building. She also serves in her country without hesitation for Allah. We didn’t get any education at all. That chat filled me with someone sure of her future—and she kept enthusiastically in contact.
Day One
Like I said, I am on a daily adventure of meeting people, hearing stories, and finding out what Jesus is doing in the world.
Breakfast chats…
Marcos from Argentina shared with me his passion to equip parents to spiritually nourish their own children—and not merely outsource it to the church.
David from Nigeria said that he works to help Nigerian people who are going abroad to not live for money, but for a higher mandate. “In the past, the West sent missionaries to us, but now we must return the favor,” he explained.
Paul from Kenya told me that most pastors in his country only pray for those in government, but as a journalist, he reminds them that they also need to follow the biblical pattern of prophets who challenged kings—engagement without enmeshment, speaking truth to power.
Yoido Full Gospel Church…
After breakfast, I was not very excited about getting there six hours early but was about to climb into the bus going to the congress venue anyway. Then suddenly, three guys climbed into a taxi—the only other South African I have met and two men from India—and shouted to me (even though there were 100 people around me), “Do you want to come to Yoido with us?”
Hardly believing my luck, I jumped at the chance because it’s the biggest church in the world—over 800,000 members. The story behind the church is that 66 years ago, Yonggi Cho and his mother-in-law planted it in war-torn Korea and introduced Koreans for the first time to “the blessing of the Holy Spirit.” This included being filled by the Spirit and also speaking “in tongues.” As stories spread of the blind seeing, ravaged lungs totally healed, and hunchbacks suddenly straightened, people flocked in and still do.
We sat in two meetings, totaling 40,000 people. I understood everything because I sat in the foreigners’ section—where I listened with headphones to my translation of choice. I found it fascinating being in a room full of Asians so enthralled with encountering God, who was so wonderfully present.
If you’re at all curious what other churches do in a Sunday meeting, in just one hour they managed to:
- Sing contemporary choruses led by an informal group of singers.
- Have a full orchestra leading the thousands in some rich hymns, with one or two operatic performances.
- Pray aloud simultaneously, hands in the air, many of them speaking in tongues. One of the church leaders told us of his Korean friends visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where a Nigerian man prayed fluent Korean—to their surprise, he was praying in tongues and did not know Korean at all.
- Instruct sick people to place their hands on the sick or broken parts of their body or their heart—then share detailed words of knowledge of specific people in specific situations and what God was going to do, etc. (This was the only unscripted part of the meeting).
- All read the Apostle’s Creed aloud.
- Preach a 25-minute sermon. It was quite “thin” in my view, though I was interested that he encouraged people to apply their faith by having more kids, since in South Korea, married couples have on average only 0.7 kids. “One kid will bless the parents, two kids will bless the neighbors, three kids will change the world,” he quipped.
- Intersperse the sermon with short songs.
- Do an “altar call”—guiding new believers to stand up where they are.
- All pray the Lord’s Prayer.
- Take up an offering, followed by a dramatic ceremony of collecting all the basketfuls at the front.
- Give feedback about their worldwide development initiatives, including training young people in Kenya (apparently, one-third of all income is spent on mission, relief, and development beyond their church).
Getting from Yoido to Congress…
If getting from the hotel to Yoido was a breeze, getting back to the congress venue was hectic. No one speaks English, and everything is written in Korean, so it took us three hours to catch five trains (it should have been three, but we climbed on one going the wrong way and had to return on another) and one taxi. My new friends all appreciated it and later laughed about it, especially when I threw my body between the closing train doors when I suddenly realized we were on the wrong train and needed to get out—what things we may do in a panic! We interspersed feelings of desperation with tons of laughter. One of the Indian guys told us about twenty cheesy jokes that each hit the spot. We also said that the stress of being lost in Seoul with each other will probably be one of the things we remember most—and the way it bonded former strangers.
In the final taxi trip, the guys found out about my book How God Sees Women. I was a little nervous because I assumed that, with them being from India, they might be more patriarchal in their reading of Scripture. It was a nice surprise then that one pastor said his study of Scripture led him to the same conclusion and that the leadership and preaching team of his church in Bangalore now consists of four women and five men—and how much better the church is for it.
Congress begins…
By the time we arrived, we were late, and I was peopled out. The small groups of people I had managed to connect with so far had felt doable, but now being surrounded by 5,000 people scurrying this way and that—I was overwhelmed by it all.
But whatever overwhelm I felt was nothing compared to what happened when I entered the auditorium.
I don’t actually have words. I tried to tell Julie and my kids about it thirty minutes ago and mainly whimpered in tears as I did so. I mumbled something to Julie about feeling like I had been in heaven.
Everything was made so intense by the fact that 222 nations were present, and by the presence of the One whom we were gathering to—Jesus himself. We sang, “How Great Thou Art” and “In Christ Alone” (even in Spanish once) and “Give Me Jesus.” We were led in worship by a Korean choir of 100 people, then by an Irish music band with a Riverdance vibe. All of this was made so much more intense by a screen three stories high and as wide as a ship is long.
There were so many inspiring pieces of communication woven in from people from all nations. The mayor of Incheon-Seoul welcomed us, as did a Cultural Minister of South Korea. These men told us of the South Korean prayers for unification with their brothers held hostage in the North. They also named and honored three missionaries who arrived on the peninsula 139 years ago, introducing the Korean people to Jesus Christ. One missionary—Samuel Moffett—prophesied a hundred years ago that Korea, downtrodden as it may be, would rise to become a spiritual force in the Far East, and alas, it has proved to be true.
We were told by a Korean pastor why this event was the first of its kind and how we were to be stewards and not consumers of what was happening. The CEO of Lausanne, Michael Ho, challenged our tendency to go it alone—effectively saying to other parts of the body of Christ, “I don’t need you.” But we desperately need each other… with the rising evil of our days growing ever more vocal and visible, so Christ calls us as the church to declare and display Christ together.
Displaying Christ involves the way we live before a watching world—we are to be H.I.S., which means we are to be marked by Humility, Integrity, and Simplicity. We must apply the gospel to heal the wounds of the world, he said, especially with how polarized the world has become. He urged us to be faithful to Jesus wherever we are but also highlighted that this is not enough because there are such large gaps. For example, 67% of all Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in the world have never even met a follower of Jesus, never mind heard about Him. Collaboration is required—not just our isolated faithfulness.
Two more speakers—one of them a South African—then retold the story of the little boy who brings his five loaves and two fish to Jesus, who multiplies it to feed the thousands. The point is not the size of our offering, but the One into whose hands we entrust it. I snapped a shot of the image they put up of this little boy. Have a look at it.
The entire time, instead of being located in rows, we each sat or stood at one of the thousand tables with five pre-allocated people from several continents. We spent the last fifteen minutes making friends with each other. They’re going to be my group to talk things over in the all-together plenary sessions.
Catching a bus back…
I made friends with Sachiyo, a young adult who pastors her own church in Japan. I asked her why she became a pastor. She said she was in Australia for a year of study and opened her Bible, and Jesus told her that he is coming back soon and that the people of Japan are not ready, and she should not expect missionaries to come do there what Japanese believers should be doing. So, she started her own church. To be honest, she was beating up on herself a little that the Japanese are so resistant to the gospel, so I and two Kenyan women stepped into full encouragement mode: “All that is expected of you is to bring your loaves and fishes.”
Day Two
Another day in wonderland! I am here for five more days with 5,000 other specially invited Christian leaders. I have been hoping that during this time I would get my finger properly on the pulse of what other followers of Jesus are experiencing around the world, how they’re navigating their contexts, and what I can learn from them—and, wow, the sketch is filling out piece by piece.
Let me say something, first, about some people I got to know today and, second, the mind-blowing stuff they taught us in the plenary sessions.
First, some people I met…
A man (who I can’t name) from a Muslim-dominated nation told me about how he found Jesus as a Muslim when he was fifteen and how God called him to plant the very first church in an area. Now, he heads up a network that plants churches in his region. I was mesmerized by some of his stories about the growth of Jesus-followers in a nearby country, Iran—where some 4 million people now gather in secret churches. There, tens of thousands of Muslims have had the same dream of a heavenly man in white appearing to them and calling them to follow him—which launches them on a journey that leads to Jesus.
Mae, the youngest of nine siblings from the Philippines, is based in South Korea right now and is a writer. She is one of the funniest humans I have met, and she is also contemplating studying theology and perhaps becoming a pastor.
On a sadder note, Abijit, who now lives in Vancouver but still works with church planters in India, tells me of how the new Hindu government persecutes and limits minority groups and has shut down so many of the initiatives of missionaries. He tells me that financial and strategic support has been blocked, but this is not the end of the road. Instead, it’s the beginning of an opportunity to ask the Holy Spirit to open doors that only he can.
I was a bit discouraged when a young Pakistani couple—I won’t mention their names—lamented to me about the self-serving pastors they are routinely exposed to, who somehow preach about Jesus but have none of his servant’s heart and tragically use their leadership as a means to acquire status and privilege.
But that is a rare story. For example, my new friend, Sebastian, leads a thriving church in Buenos Aires and tells me of the joy of pushing his church to reflect Jesus by serving the needs of the wider community. (He also tells me that his wife has recently come alive to how women have been overlooked—both so many women in the Bible and so many gifted women in churches today. He was delighted to hear I’d written a book on the subject.)
Another example of a person who reflects Jesus: Vikram from Mumbai tells me how he has turned empty buses into mobile crèches for homeless children, for prostitutes who want to be cleaned up and cared for, and for homeless men who would like a haircut.
Second, some groundbreaking things they taught us in the sessions today…
The theme this morning was Acts chapter 2 (which is what Signal just spent six weeks on). If you don’t know, much of the Western church has become highly rationalized—with little emphasis at all on vital experience and supernatural power. This is formally called Cessationism. Historically, church groups have agreed to disagree, but today was quite significant because the Lausanne movement, reflecting something of a global consensus of hundreds if not thousands of church groups, challenged that outright—calling this a “greatly mistaken” view.
Over and above arguing this case from Scripture, speaker after speaker spent an hour sharing stories of supernatural outpourings of the Spirit upon region after region—Europe, the US, Africa, Asia, Latin America, etc.—each time leading to the awakening of sleepy believers and dramatic effectiveness in drawing new people to Christ.
They challenged the tendency in churches that rely more on management techniques, abundant finances, and sufficient human resources than on the Holy Spirit. They called the worldwide church to “repent and re-submit fully to absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit.”
One of the most inspiring people I have ever heard preach in my life was Sarah Breuel, the founder and director of “Revive Europe.” Originally from Brazil but now in Rome, she said today that Europe is not post-Christian. It’s pre-revival. She wept much of the time as she told us of a spiritual awakening among students around the world. Only God can send revival, she declared, but that doesn’t mean we should be passive. Rather, we should humble ourselves before God, pray earnestly, and remove any impediments by personal and collective repentance.
Then tonight, three inputs guided us to respond to our moment in history…
Katharine, a chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy in Texas, taught on how crucial creation care is in an age of ecological crisis.
Following her, Ruth, a Latin American theologian, riveted us with the biblical imperative to bring justice to an unjust world. Micah 6:8—walk humbly before God, love kindness, seek justice—these are not optional extras but are central to following Jesus. I am seriously challenged; there is so much to process.
Finally, Vaughan, a British pastor, taught about holding fast to Christ’s teaching on sex even as the sexual revolution has reached its summit yet continues to damage many lives—people whom we are to compassionately receive as churches. He made the case from Scripture that: God is for sex. Sex is for marriage. Marriage is for life. Life is for Christ.
Throughout the day, it felt like God orchestrated so many of the “random” interactions I had with people. Two more examples:
We were instructed to turn to someone, anyone, in the crowd and pray for them. My person was Jerni. With all this emphasis on the Holy Spirit, I have been feeling properly filled, so as I prayed for her, my mind filled up with details of her life and God’s specific promise to her in it all. Tears running down her face, she asked, “How did you know all that about my life?”
At another time, I just happened to be standing behind a young unmarried couple in a queue. When I recognized their South African accents, I said hi. As she read my name, her eyes lit up, and she said she heard me preach a message on identity in Christ ten years ago in JHB, which marked her transition into faith in Christ. Reports like these encourage me no end, for they remind me that everything we do in reliance on the Spirit will transform lives forever.
Day Three
I am so curious about what Jesus is doing in the wider world. Luckily for me, I know a little bit more at the end of the day than I did at the beginning because I chatted with some people today—most often as a result of sitting down in the first open chair I could find at a restaurant or on a bus.
Over one meal, I met Suman (if I recall his name correctly) who lives in Nepal. He was a very proud Hindu and hated Christians. He persecuted a new church so radically that he managed to close it down. When some Korean missionaries arrived, he made false legal accusations against them. At the same time, his wife had a series of heart attacks, and the doctors said nothing could be done.
But then the same Koreans offered to pray for his wife. When they did, she was instantly healed. Completely overwhelmed by God’s grace, he and his wife immediately surrendered to Jesus, who soon gave them their mission: “Help women and children in distress.” Since then, he has rescued 340 women and 1,400 children from human trafficking.
Over another meal, I was treated to lunch by a South African man who helped lead Julie’s parents to faith. His “achievements” are mind-boggling: he leads a scattered Bible college with 150,000 students in it; he has led a church that grew into the thousands; and he has helped to plant over 50 churches in recent years, the last 35 of which were primarily in partnership with very poor individuals God brought across his path.
I tried to figure out his secret sauce. He told me that he doesn’t try to start churches; rather, he encourages people to start missional adventures with the expectation that many of these adventures will become churches.
“Where do you find all these planters?” I asked him. He explained that each time he meets someone, he allows the Holy Spirit to give him a sense of the person, and if the Holy Spirit shows him something about their destiny, he announces it to them right then and there. He said that almost all people don’t believe in themselves until someone calls something out of them. He explained that an “apostle”—more than anything else—is someone empowered by the Spirit to give that encouragement and legitimization to others to do something for God. He thinks most church leaders would do so much better if they knew how to do this—the problem is that perhaps they never received that kind of calling forth by another themselves, so they struggle to pass it on.
Over another meal, I met Kenneth, who works among poor towns in the middle of the Zambian bush. His approach is to be led by the Holy Spirit at every turn. Between breakfast and the bus, he told me about picking up a man whose vehicle was broken down and taking him to his hometown of 1,500—called Baghdad (yup!)—which is literally not on the map. He hired the shebeen and started the first church there. At first, the local bullies intimidated him, insisting he hold church out in the bush instead, but he prayed, and they eventually left the town. The church is now going from strength to strength.
During a session I skipped because I was tired, I wandered off to the book table and ended up chatting with Steve from Seattle. He is an American-born university lecturer, but he carries an unusual burden for the people of North Korea. He mobilizes his friends to pray for this suffering group of people—for their preservation, for their reunification with South Korea, and for them to come to know Jesus. He is asking God to guide him in doing mission work with them—but this will require a miraculous opening of doors.
On the bus back to the hotel, I chatted with Sveta, a young Siberian Russian who spent two years on a missionary ship, traveling from coastal town to coastal town. Her very life is the result of a sermon—her parents became Christians after they married, and a preacher said that children are a blessing from God. Instead of having just one child as originally planned, they had more—including her. She wanted to know how to experience more of the Holy Spirit in her life, so I shared my own journey to a greater experience of God’s presence and power in my life.
As for message highlights—there are so many, but it’s now late in South Korea, so let me just share one…
What is the simplest and most reproducible way to be used by God to change the world for Him—in a way that works in almost every culture and doesn’t rely on special gifts that only a few of us may have?
A church leader from Australia suggested an answer—based on the fact that God’s word is alive and everyone, not just trained pastors, needs to be able to do it.
It’s this: everyone, open your eyes and see people like God sees them, and be on the lookout for people who seem to connect with you in everyday life—then say to them, “I have been looking for someone to read the Bible with me. Would you be interested?” Then, when you meet every week (or however often), simply read a chapter together from a gospel and ask, “What stuck out to you?” Share your answer too, but resist the urge to explain things to them because “a truth discovered is ten times more valuable than a truth explained.” At the end of the discussion, ask, “What are you going to do differently this week as a result of what we read and discussed?” Trust Jesus to introduce himself to them as you go on this journey. At some point, also suggest to them, “Are there people you know who might want to read the Bible with you? Why don’t you ask them and do just as we have done?”
That’s not just reproducible—it’s exponential.
Day Four
There are happy days, but today was a sad one.
From 8:30 this morning until 8:30 tonight, the Lausanne congress of 5,000 Christian leaders from around the world focused on “standing with the persecuted church.”
Many of the stories we heard and watched are too terrible to repeat. We listened to account after account from people living in India, Libya, Iran, and North and sub-Saharan Africa of the severe atrocities against Christians—usually poor ones—that most people, including me, know nothing about. Entire families are wiped out or sent to brutal labor camps. In regions like North Korea or Afghanistan, believers are imprisoned, tortured, or executed for their faith. In sub-Saharan Africa, extremist groups like Boko Haram and Fulani militants massacre Christians in raids, burning churches. They kidnap, rape, abuse, and force marriages and conversions to Islam. We watched a harrowing interview of a Nigerian woman who was kidnapped and given a choice: convert to Islam or be treated like a dog. She chose the latter.
Even in countries with democratic governments, such as China and India, Christians are harassed. Their churches are bulldozed, Bibles are burned, and worship gatherings are raided. These believers are often marginalized, stripped of their livelihoods, and denied basic human rights, yet their plight is met with alarming indifference by the global community. An Indian leader told us that over 50,000 homes were burned in the last year, and 600 churches and Christian institutions were destroyed. People are raped, cut into pieces, and dead bodies are thrown to dogs.
The numbers leave one numb: according to Open Doors, about 360 million Christians face high levels of discrimination and violence because of their faith. In Nigeria alone, over 5,000 Christians were killed in 2022 by Islamist groups.
As depressed or powerless as all this may make me or you feel, the dark stories we heard today did yield some light and a sense of a path forward. For example:
Church leaders like me can prepare people for persecution. In the stories of suffering we heard, those who expected persecution fared much better. It’s why Jesus warned his followers, “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
When unjust attacks come, we can respond in a Christlike way—claiming victory and forgiving our persecutors. One Iranian woman who was imprisoned told us how Jesus rebuked her self-pity. So she started to praise God for the victory over the intimidation that suffocated her spirit. An Indonesian woman sitting at my table was weeping as we prayed for suffering believers. She explained why: “Jesus just told me to forgive the Muslims who bullied me when I was younger—they need God’s mercy, not my hatred.”
Followers of Jesus can pray for those who suffer. Someone at my table who has visited almost every one of the fifty nations where Christians suffer most said, “These suffering believers never ask for money. They ask the global church to tell their story and to pray for them.” One thing I plan on doing is playing a video or two created by Voice of the Martyrs at church back home. When one part of the body bleeds, we should at least know about it.
Advocacy groups can confront unjust governments that neglect persecuted minority groups. For example, heavy anti-conversion bills in many Indian states make it possible for any Christian to be thrown into prison if someone merely says, “They were trying to induce me to convert.” But, according to the country’s law, the accused are innocent until proven guilty, and everyone has the right to choose their own religion.
Followers of Jesus—and all of us—can be inspired by their courage. When foreign aid workers were evacuated from Afghanistan three years ago, someone at my table said that the evacuation plane arrived back in the West, and they were distraught to find that the leader of the team—a very small woman whose love for Jesus led her to devote her life to children in need—had not gotten on the plane. She refused to abandon the poor children she had worked with. Apparently, she was the only female aid worker who remained, even though the Taliban warned they would attack any foreigner who stayed, especially women. As the story goes, that night she went to her residence, and two Taliban soldiers with machine guns followed her. The next morning, she came out, and they said to her, “We are still here!” She responded, “And so am I!” Thankfully, she managed to get out alive, but only a few months ago.
And let us not forget the 21 Coptic Christians, including six church leaders, beheaded on a beach by ISIS in Libya in 2015. They could either convert to Islam or die. If you watched that video (I don’t recommend it), you may remember that moments before their death, they declared the name of Jesus. It makes me shudder how complacent so many believers in persecution-free parts of the world like the one I live in are. As a follower of Jesus, I must decide: is faithfulness to Jesus worth dying for? (Because if He’s not worth dying for, then He’s not worth living for.)
Day Five
I must admit, it’s starting to feel a little marathonic, but in this unrepeatable opportunity I have at the Lausanne Congress of 5,000 Jesus followers (not just pastors), I am determined to meet the people God surprises me with each day… and wow, I am learning so much!
Here are some people I chatted with today…
A man (I won’t name) who is planting churches in a Muslim-dominated nation told me this morning that when he found Jesus as a teen, his Muslim mother held a knife to his throat and told him to turn back to Islam or she would kill him. When he refused, she held the knife to her own throat and threatened again. Then his father fell to his knees, begging him to return to Islam. They were asking the impossible of him: to deny the One who had become so real to him.
Melanie, who works alongside church leaders in Kenya to bring about peace, reconciliation, and healing from trauma in their communities, shared her journey of helping others in a way that nearly destroyed her. She found herself picking up and carrying bits of other people’s traumas, becoming bitter and driven by something less than love. Her breakthrough came when she realized she was trying to take over the work of Jesus, who alone specializes in healing and rescuing people—including herself.
I had the privilege of having lunch with Marg Mowczko from Sydney, whose website (search her name and add .com) is a trusted source worldwide for research on the equality of women to men—in the Scriptures and the early church. She’s an awesome person! Hearing her story made me realize that you can become a globally credible subject expert if: the topic really interests you; you put in the hard work of study; you stay humble and curious; you seek truth; you aim to add light, not heat; and you pursue excellence and accuracy in your study and communication.
I bumped into Stephen Mulder from Johannesburg/Dubai/Seattle/Vancouver, who was John Mark Comer’s right-hand man at Bridgetown Church for a while, helping to transition leadership to Tyler Statton. He has now launched an exciting start-up called Missional Labs (search for it and add .co) with another Tyler. They help a new breed of start-up adventurers match their world-changing ideas with funders and the best design thinking. Hearing his story reminded me again that smart people who surrender to and rely fully on God will experience plenty of surprises and will not waste their talents.
Then, a few people I chatted with yesterday (I include this because I left it out in the previous post):
Otanbayer, the sweetest man who planted the first church in his Mongolian town, taught me that people need both Bible study and an experience of the Holy Spirit—one to give us roots and the other to give us wings.
Rebekkak, a lecturer from New Zealand and a former missionary to Myanmar, is the third of five children and the only girl. I told her that this parallels my family. She asked me to tell my daughter, Ivy: “Ivy, you’re very lucky. You get your own room. You get no hand-me-downs. You will know how to relate to and work with men. One day, your brothers’ wives will become like sisters to you—but sisters without the trauma of growing up with them. And go to an all-girls high school.”
David, who leads two churches and a school in Nepal and writes social and cultural commentary pieces for a local newspaper, invited me to lunch because he wanted to know how to write books. I shared what I knew, but the conversation veered toward his desire to lead a church in the middle of his city—like me.
Then Tim, an Anglican pastor from Melbourne, sat down next to us and told me more about Mike Bird, a scholar I admire at the theological college he studied at, and also about an email he received from a non-Christian who lives near his church: “Can I meet with someone? I want to know if God can make a difference in my life.” Apparently, the man found out that God can!
David, Tim, and I then asked what we could pray for each other and decided to pray right there. It felt so good to lift each other up like that—and to connect with each other at a deeper level than even the best conversation could allow.
After that, I listened to a pastor of a church near the Vatican who said that, strangely, his Catholic neighbors know almost nothing about the Bible or Christianity. Then I chatted with Nathan, an Orthodox church leader from Albania, who lamented that many newer evangelical denominations know nothing about the Orthodox churches, even though they make up 12% of all Christians. He invited me to a room where some Evangelical and Orthodox leaders, who have been building friendships for several years, are learning from each other. Make the circle bigger!
As for the sessions today, I’ll mention just two highlights…
First, the great need is to activate the mission of the whole church in the 8–to-5. The real sleeping giant in the church today is the 99% of followers of Jesus who do not realize that their workplace is a holy place. A German female theologian (whose name I missed) showed us how the book of Acts integrates the workplace with the mission of God—and that church leaders like me should equip church members not only to serve on Sundays but, more crucially, to be a heaven-meets-earth person in the workplace. We watched an interview with a doctor, a senior IMB expert in AI, and a Cuban jewelry maker and social media influencer. They shared how their faith comes most alive and makes the most impact when they apply it to their nine-to-five. There are simply no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God—the church exists to love, send, and serve the 99%!
Second, the Korean church is such a beautiful community. Somehow, I’ve known more about K-pop and K-drama than the K-church, but tonight our hosts put on a Broadway-level, one-hour theatrical production retelling their story from the arrival of missionaries 138 years ago until today, including their heartbreak over communism tearing their nation apart.
So many sacrifices have been made by so many for the church to rise as it has. Once a mission field, Korea is now a mission force—there are 23,000 Korean missionaries out there somewhere. In their short history, tens of thousands of Koreans have given everything to declare and display Christ. For example, in 1948, one pastor named Son Yang-won watched his two sons being murdered by a communist rioter. Despite the immense pain of losing his sons, he forgave the young man who killed them and—in an extraordinary act of grace—adopted him as his own son. This story spread far and wide, becoming known across Korea as an “Atomic Bomb of Love”—a perfect picture of the God who sent his own Son to us in self-sacrifice so that He could adopt us as His children.
In a shame-and-honor culture, I was also moved when they didn’t just tell us how they grew to make such an impact in South Korea and the world, but also confessed to the recent decline in the church as Koreans began to perceive the churches as exclusive, hypocritical, selfish, and materialistic. It was moving to see these Korean church leaders on stage, confessing these failures to God and pledging themselves anew to not only declare Christ but to display Him—something we can all do.
Day Six
On this final full day of the Lausanne congress for followers of Jesus, I learned so much. I will arrange it into five topics:
- Christlike leadership
- Prioritizing the next generation
- Peacemaking in war-torn parts of the world
On Humble “Servant” Leadership…
This was the theme of the morning. We heard a stunning message on how the apostle Paul modeled humility. One preacher also pointed out a tiny detail in a passage I’d never noticed before in Acts 28: Paul has just taken the lead of a crew who survived a shipwreck, a crew who received the hospitality of islanders who made a fire for them, and what does Paul do? “He gathered firewood”—nothing and no one was beneath him.
I sat at a table with the same five people in most sessions. I was struck by how humble they were. Sam, for example, leads a church of 1,000 and a network of many churches in Kerala, India. He is such a gentle, kind man with not an air about him.
The person who most impacted me, however, was the guy who, when we were introducing ourselves, said, “I am [XYZ], and I do a little work for [OBHAW]” (OBHAW stands for One of the Biggest Humanitarian Agencies in the World). Anyway, he couldn’t have been more down-to-earth, fun-loving, and warmly interested in the rest of the group. On day three, as he was sharing, he mentioned in passing that he was “talking to the UN” about something. It was then that I googled his name and realized that he doesn’t just “do a little work for OBHAW”—he is its CEO—with billions of donor dollars every year and tens of thousands of staff in over 100 countries under his care.
I don’t think I will ever forget his example of humility.
Speaking of servant-heartedness, I am truly blown away by the Korean church. Throughout the entire week, there have been 1,000 Koreans who have served us from early morning to late night. They stand at every door, every ten or twenty meters in every direction. They climb on every bus with us that takes us back to our hotels, and they greet every person who walks past them with such joy and attention. They even make a little heart with their thumb and forefinger. What moves me so much is that all 1,000 are volunteers, taking a week’s leave in order to serve us.
Though I have had the blessing of following humble leaders in most of the churches I have been part of, I keep hearing stories of this not being the case. When Christian leaders are humble, it’s beautiful. When they’re more status-oriented, it’s so damaging.
For example, this morning, I sat on the bus next to a guy (I won’t mention his name or country) who is writing his PhD thesis on the tragedy that so many pastors he knows hold to the caste system inherent in their culture. The pastors themselves are all higher caste and—here’s what is breaking this guy’s heart—they hardly ever accept lower caste people into the ranks of leadership. In other words, a sinful culture that grades some people as more important than others shapes a leadership culture in the churches more than Jesus Christ, the servant of all, does. “How can they preach about Jesus and sing about Jesus but forget to be like Jesus? Even the politicians denounce the caste system, though they have no power to overcome it. But church leaders, who do have the power in Christ to cast it down, do not. Now the church is severely hampered.”
Hearing that story got me thinking about how easily a status orientation eclipses a servant heart in leaders in churches everywhere.
At our table, we discussed the marks of a humble church leader (one teacher today called them “lead servants”). We said that they are secure enough to: train and deploy others who may be more gifted than them; build a competent team around them so as not to be too dominant a person in the church; refuse perks and privileges; not take themselves too seriously; deflect excessive attention away from themselves; and de-pedestalize themselves by avoiding personal stories in their sermons that make them look good—and instead give people a glimpse into their ordinariness and failures.
On that note, I had a properly humbling experience today. When I excitedly told my new friend who is planting churches in an Islamic country that I had shared his story on Facebook, he was not pleased: he asked me to keep the story but remove his name and country to keep his work under the radar. I did so immediately, and he was very gracious, but I was mortified that I could have done such a foolish thing. Oh well, we learn.
Okay, that’s enough for now. It’s late in South Korea, so I will put the other four points in a later post, which I will hopefully write at the airport tomorrow.
Ministry to the Next Generation…
The world is aging fast! In 2018, for the first time, the number of over 65s equaled the number of under 5s. By 2050, the former will double the latter. In 2100, it will quintuple it (times five). The worldwide church now needs to focus on elder ministry as much as kids’ ministry.
At the same time, in the West, fewer young people are holding to the faith of their parents. What a ray of hope that we heard beautiful stories of Christian leaders catching a heart and vision for the next generation, telling us how they have come to devote so much of their energy to mentoring and handing over leadership to younger people.
We were also reminded that parents—biblically and statistically—are best suited to do the primary work of discipling their own children, yet often feel ill-equipped until their local church shows them how. Outsourcing the discipling of our kids to the kids’ and teen ministries in our church is a mistake, though these can supplement efforts.
As the world gets older, Africa gets younger. By 2067, 67% of the world’s children will live in my continent. The African church must give primary focus to discipling its children.
As for kids that are most vulnerable, I am so grateful to the thousands of followers of Jesus who—following Jesus’ commitment to the well-being of children—devote themselves to protecting and rescuing children from trafficking. For instance, we heard one victim tell her story of being a housed sex slave and then being rescued by social and legal workers who are part of the International Justice Mission.
Peace-Making in War…
Much of the world is torn apart by strife. What does it mean for the church in these parts of the world to bring the peace of Christ?
We heard stories of the spread of the gospel ending conflict. Someone who works among Amazonian tribes told us of a recent, first-ever gathering of 1200 indigenous pastors from 47 of these tribes. He was very nervous about bringing members from two tribes with bad blood between them—the Zoro and Surui tribes. He had planned on sleeping them in different quarters, even. What a surprise, then, when these tribes arrived at the conference as best friends, declaring, “We sing and dance together because of Jesus.” Through a planning mishap, the two tribes had already traveled to the gathering on the same boat for four days. For the first time, something (or Someone) had overcome their tribal differences.
We heard many stories of peace-making ministries where followers of Jesus faced far larger conflicts and were finding it enormously challenging. We heard stories of followers of Jesus who devote themselves to peace-making in Palestine-Israel, DRC, Burundi, and Ukraine.
None of them claim any quick fixes, but all hold that applying Jesus’ teaching is the best way to bring peace and reconciliation. How to move from a divided past to a shared future?
The Palestinian woman explained: “Through forgiveness, truth-seeking, justice, and healing.”
“Truth-seeking requires humility and listening to others’ perspectives, even if it challenges your prior convictions and identity. You might not have the full picture or be misled.”
“Forgiveness is not the opposite of justice. It enthrones justice. And justice requires forgiveness—without it, justice is another weapon in the struggle.”
“Justice heals by restoring dignity, holding wrongdoers accountable, and repairing what’s broken. Lasting peace requires addressing systemic injustice.”
“Forgiveness is not a sign of weakness, but a powerful choice that breaks the cycle of violence and overcomes evil with good. Forgiveness is when we start to see our enemy as human again.”
But this is hard work. The Burundian peace-maker admitted, “Nearly all of us—Hutus and Tutsis—we have been caught in that violence. We are on both sides victims and perpetrators. Where does forgiveness come in? The world prefers retributive justice, but according to Jesus, forgiveness liberates first the victim and then the perpetrator. Emotional wounds get infected with bitterness—which makes it much worse. But when the victim freely forgives, there is the possibility of healing.”
Day Seven and Travelling Back to Cape Town via Dubai
Sorry for the delay in getting this one out. I got back to Cape Town yesterday after ministering twice in a church in Dubai—a rapidly growing community with such a presence of God and a spirit of joy—and somewhere in the midst of all the traveling, I squeezed in a flu.
It’s a long post, but I can now say I wrote down my main learnings from my trip to the Lausanne Congress for anyone interested in them. Here are my headings if you want to jump to the one that grabs you:
- Male-Female Partnership
- The Most Exciting Church Planter I Have Met in Years
- My Trip Back (and a Final Story of How God Directs Our Steps)
Male-Female Partnership…
I was so moved to see the worldwide church really promoting the co-contribution of women at this conference. I did help to write a theological support paper on male–female gospel partnering for Lausanne, but the right practice is even more magnificent than the theology.
I think it neared 50/50 in terms of all the remarkable teachers and leaders who shared up front at the conference. I heard from someone who was there that at the previous conference in 2010 (in Cape Town), for the first time ever, they let a woman expound theology from a biblical passage (a famous pastor-theologian even walked out). As far as I know, no one walked out of the sessions taught by women. They were too good to miss. Two that stick out:
Anne Zaki, an Egyptian theologian and one of the co-writers with me of that paper, according to many I chatted with, preached the best message of the conference—a passage on how the church can come to unity on the points that tend to divide us if we follow the example of the Acts 15 Jerusalem Council. She was also a real diplomat in her message, urging unity between complementarians and egalitarians, although skillfully urging us to really hear each other on points of difference (something I can assure you from experience is in short supply).
Ruth DeBorst, famous for her theological investment in so many leaders in Latin America, shared another blistering message on justice-seeking.
Seeing men and women leaders and teachers partnering side by side—in true complementarity—was amazing. The proof is in the pudding. The church and its mission so obviously benefited from the full contribution of women. Although many genuinely good churches will prefer patriarchal interpretations of Scripture until Jesus returns, I suspect those sections of the church that emphasize male-female partnership and unleash women gifted in teaching and leadership will outperform those who do not—a fact borne out by the revivals in Iran and China, for example, where about half of all churches are now planted and led by women.
The Most Exciting Church Planter I Have Met in Years…
On my last day, I started to avoid conversations with new people. I was peopled out. So at mealtime, I went to the very back of the hall where there were fewer people. But God was even in this detail, I think, because I met David Kroker from Germany (who was also appeared to be avoiding people) there. He looked less than 40. I asked him about his church.
“For 11 years, I led a program-filled church, but I was burnt out by busyness and disappointed that we had introduced nearly no non-believers to Christ. Then I found out that in Germany, each local church, though being such hard work and so costly to ‘run,’ introduces on average less than one person to Christ a year. I wondered if there was a better way of ‘doing’ church, so I studied the gospel of Luke for three years. It was then that I noticed that Jesus’ ministry in Luke happens mostly around tables and is entirely relational.
“So I started Meeting Point Church and told the very few people I started with the only four things I was asking them to do. First, bring your literal neighbor into your heart—start to pray for them and see how you can connect with or serve them. Second, invite them into your house—open up your meals and your life to them. Third, invite them to your small group—explaining that all that will happen is friendship time, a reading of a Gospel passage which we will discuss, and praying for each other. Fourth, and only after they have been in your small group for some time, invite them to a Sunday meeting—which happens every second weekend.”
He then told me that in six years his church in Cologne had grown to 19 small groups—over half of all these people were previously someone’s non-Christian neighbor. He said, “The key to the Great Commission—make disciples, baptizing and teaching them—is the Great Commandment—love your neighbor. In Cologne, people will say no to a direct invitation to your church service for they are post-Christian, but not to an invitation to a meal. There are now many streets in Cologne that have the gospel spreading through them from neighbor to neighbor, at the slow but steady pace of genuine relationship. I used to spend many evenings a week running programs; now I spend many evenings a week eating or playing cards around a table with my friends.”
It all sounded too simple. It still does as I write this. But what I took from this man is that if you find you lead a church that only tends to attract Christians, perhaps you want to replace all that programmatic intensity with a relational focus—by following Jesus’ example of table ministry and by taking his Great Commandment seriously.
I have been chatting with him via WhatsApp. He sent me these seven YouTube videos that sum up his entire approach to church planting. It’s all in German, so I selected English subtitles. Here they are.
My Trip Back …
I don’t think I have ever learnt more in ten days than I did on this trip. Not just from the people I met and the presenters I listen to, but also from the way God directed my steps (often against my wishes).
In my first post, I spoke about the non-aisle seat I was stuck with on the plane out of South Africa. Let me tell you about the flight back.
I was determined to get my aisle seat and right by the exit door so I could leave first, and I did! Feeling exhausted, I collapsed into my seat, so relieved. Less than five minutes later though, the French woman next to me asked, “Please, I am on honeymoon, and my husband is seated elsewhere. Would you swap with him?” I was mortified by the question, and grunted that I’d first have to see where he was seated. Well, when I walked to see where he was he was – I found him at the very, very back at the plane squeezed between two people. The husband was so excited about the possibility of an upgrade to next his new wife, that I couldn’t say no now.
Once I was there, and pretty unhappy with my lot, the silver lining emerged. One flight attendant of the tail section approached me, “Sorry, did you preach at a church yesterday?” She explained that she had been in Dubai for close on half a year, and someone invited her to the church meeting I was at just the day before. The fact that I was the very last person to exit the flight meant I could share for a few minutes with her a biblical passage God put on my heart for her. She was so receptive, she asked me to write the passage down. I also got to encourage her to visit the church again. I don’t think there’s ever been a last-person-to-exit who was happier than I was—because when you have that feeling like you are partnering with God’s Spirit on mission, it’s so rewarding… perhaps even more so than a bit of extra legroom.