Lausanne at 50: Western Church Needs Revival; Believers in Asia, Africa, Latin America Fill Global Gap
Over 5,000 Christian leaders from 202 countries joined the recently concluded 4th Lausanne Congress held in Seoul, South Korea.
Started by Billy Graham and John Stott in 1974, this movement has connected ideas and influences from different Christian churches for global missions. It has united churches to fulfill the Great Commission for the last 50 years. In this gathering, they heard that 40 percent of the world has not yet been evangelized. Even so, about 97 percent of all current Christian missionaries are sent to people with access to the gospel.
Studies also show that by the year 2050, the Global North will only be 20 percent Christian with the other 80 percent being in the Global South which is Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Since 1980, the number of Christians in the majority world has exceeded the number of Christians in the West. As a result, the number of missionaries sent from the West is rapidly declining with the gap filled by Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
To address this challenge, Dr. Jonas Kang of the Korea World Missions Association spearheaded the new movement, Christ Over Asia, Africa and Latin America, or COALA. Its goal is to promote polycentric missions for more effective evangelization and church growth.
Dr. Kang said, "The best mission way is for the local people to preach the gospel to the local people. The missionary is not the mother to give birth. But the missionary's role is like a midwife to try to help push somebody to produce something."
National Director of the India Missions Association, Dr. Isac Soundararaja added, "If those churches become missional churches, probably the day will come that these churches in Asia, Africa, Latin America will take the gospel of Jesus Christ and start moving to the Western and other side of the globe."
The church leaders believe that through the COALA movement, more missionaries will be mobilized to help hasten the spread of the gospel and bring back revival to the Global North in North America and Europe.
Reverend Hwa Yung, Bishop Emeritus of the Methodist Church in Malaysia, clarified that COALA does not suggest in any way that they are now the guys who will take missions forward and the days of the West are over. He explained, "The churches in the West should be revived and the churches in the Majority World should mature. Our concern is there will be a true partnership of the church throughout the world that we may continue to obey God and proclaim the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ."
