Count Down to Cape Town 2010

We are now less than 20 days away from the Third Lausanne Congress on Global Evangelization to be held in Cape Town, South Africa. This is indeed an historic global gathering of ministry leaders from around the world. Cape Town 2010 will have 4,000 delegates from 200 countries participating. I was one of the 400 US ministry leaders chosen to represent the American church and participate. This indeed is an amazing gathering for several reasons.

First, in this increasingly globalized world, global issues demand global perspective and input from the church. Some of the issues that will be discussed include: Secularism, Poverty, HIV/AIDS, Human Trafficking, and of course the remaining unreached and least reached people groups of the world.

Second, for the first time, the majority of participants are from the Global South where the church has grown tremendously since the last gathering in the late 1980’s. This means areas like Latin America, Africa, and Asia will have a much greater voice and influence as they are now launching global ministries and sending missionaries all over the world.

Third, one half of all participants are under the age of 50 with the majority of these 40 and younger. This is due to the significant change in leadership that is taking place all over the world. Ministries that were launched after World War II such as Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Youth with a Mission (YWAM), World Vision all have had changes in leadership as the original founders have gone home to the Lord or are too old to travel since the last gathering in the late 80’s. This means that God has raised up a new generation of leaders and given them to the church to lead in the coming decades. This gathering will inspire a new generation as well as lead to new relationships, networks, and friendships for the church globally and the advance of the Gospel.

Fourth, many countries that were closed due to Communism during the last gathering in Manila in the late 1980’s are able to participate. Those from former Soviet Union satellite countries such as those in Central Asia will attend. And, the Chinese church which has been closed and heavily persecuted for 60 years will now participate. It is a wonderful blessing to see that these nations will get to take the stage with the global church.

I will be sending out updates over the next four weeks prior to my departure. I want to ask you to pray through in this way. Each delegate has had a tremendous amount of material to read – including a year-long study of the book of Ephesians.

* Pray that God would prepare my heart and mind to receive and respond to what we hear, learn and interact with, and the decisions made.

* Pray that the Lord would make His presence known during Cape Town 2010 to all there in a powerful way.

* Pray that the Lord would prepare me to know in what ways ANM will accept, decline, and become involved in terms of future ministry.

* Pray for the new relationships, friendships, and networks of ministries that I, and therefore ANM, will become a part of.
* Pray for the remaining funds to come in. We need a total of $8,000 and have raised close to $4,000. Half of this amount is for a scholarship fund for those delegates in very poor areas of the world.

We will give you more “Countdown to Cape Town” updates and prayer requests over the next several weeks.



Gratefully,
Mike Parker