Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization

==History==
The history of the Lausanne Movement includes two indirect events leading up to the [[First International Congress on World Evangelization|1974 International Congress on World Evangelization]], otherwise known as [[First International Congress on World Evangelization|Lausanne I]].

A first precursor was the Congress on the Church's Worldwide Mission, held at [[Wheaton College (Illinois)|Wheaton College]] in 1966. The 1966 Wheaton Congress was organized by the [[Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association]] and the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association. During the conference's final address, a number of important issues facing the [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] church were outlined. These included the need for evangelical unity regarding the [[Biblical inerrancy|inerrancy]] of Scripture, reigniting the urgency of Christ's return, as well as the critical need to challenge [[syncretism]], [[Christian universalism|universalism]], and controversial evangelistic strategies. In addition, the address affirmed the need for the multiplication of local churches, and the presiding importance of 'foreign missions', as well as the need for unity (but not union) in [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] witness, the church's priority to address social issues, and the urgency of a universal commitment to world evangelism.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Hunt |first=Robert A. |date=April 2011 |title=The History of the Lausanne Movement, 1974–2010 |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/239693931103500203 |journal=International Bulletin of Missionary Research |language=en |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=81–85 |doi=10.1177/239693931103500203 |s2cid=147864675 |issn=0272-6122}}</ref>

=== Berlin Congress on World Evangelism ===
The second event leading up to the inception of the Lausanne Movement was the 1966 Congress on World Evangelism in [[Berlin]], organized by the [[Billy Graham Evangelistic Association]] and [[Christianity Today]]. During his address at the Berlin Congress, [[Billy Graham]] laid out a framework for understanding different biblical methods of [[evangelism]] that could form a strategy for global evangelization. Subsequent talks at the congress, led by church leaders from around the world, explained the shift in the center of [[Christianity]] from the West to the South and East, and touched on global and local needs, issues, and opportunities. The conference inspired further regional conferences in Southeast Asia, Latin America, the United States, and Australia.

Against a background of deep concerns among evangelicals regarding the doctrinal and missiological developments in the [[World Council of Churches]], [[Billy Graham]] reiterated many of the major concerns of the 1966 Wheaton Congress. While Graham rejected what he called modern theology and humanistic interpretations of the gospel, he emphasized that confusion about [[evangelism]] was the primary hindrance to world evangelization. Without negating the importance of ecumenism and social action, he asserted the church's clearest mandate was to save souls.

The 1966 Berlin Congress highlighted the changes in global [[Christianity]] and alerted [[Billy Graham]], and all those in attendance, to challenges and perspectives outside of the [[Western world]] that were completely different to the [[Western world|Western]] [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] concerns of theological [[Liberal Christianity|liberalism]], [[Christian humanism|humanism]], politics, and race relations. The global church needed a larger, more diversely constructed strategy for world evangelization, and they needed a platform which could represent the challenges and needs of the church around the world.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Hunt |first=Robert A. |date=2011-04-01 |title=The history of the Lausanne movement, 1974-2010 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=02726122&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA254013301&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=International Bulletin of Missionary Research |language=English |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=81–85|doi=10.1177/239693931103500203 |s2cid=147864675 }}</ref>

Furthermore, mission in the [[World Council of Churches]] (WCC) during the 1960s and early 1970s had become marginalized by being largely reinterpreted in socio-political terms. This had consequences and implications in many different areas of missiology, not all of them immediately obvious. It was against this backdrop, as well as the [[Second Vatican Council]], the spread of [[liberation theology]], and the growth of the [[charismatic movement]], that [[Billy Graham]] and [[John Stott]] saw the need to institute a movement such as Lausanne.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Dahle |first1=Lars |last2=Dahle |first2=Margunn |last3=Jorgenson |first3=Knud |date=2014-01-01 |title=The Lausanne Movement: A Range of Perspectives |url=https://digitalshowcase.oru.edu/re2010series/15 |journal=Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series}}</ref>