Four ways Lausanne’s latest congress in Incheon-Seoul impacted global evangelicalism.
A plenary session at the Fourth Lausanne Congress in Incheon-Seoul, September 2024. / Photo: [link][/link].
As I packed my bags for Lausanne Movement’s Fourth Global Congress held from September 22nd to 28th in South Korea, I found it helpful to reflect on four ways Lausanne 3 in Cape Town shaped me 14 years ago.
And as I return from Seoul and unpack the same bags, I couldn’t help but think about what last week’s gathering meant for me and circa 5,000 delegates from more than 200 nations. Morgan Lee’s article for Christianity Today, Trevin Wax’s for The Gospel Coalition, and Daniel Hofkamp’s for Evangelical Focus captured with great perceptiveness much of its spirit.
Here are some of my own first initial thoughts about the significance of Seoul 2024.
Lausanne’s third congress marked the centennial of Edinburgh 2010. Proudly hosted by Africa, it also embodied Christianity’s much-discussed geographical shift from Western nations to the Global South. A sense of celebration and movement toward emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia characterized its atmosphere.
By Seoul 2024, the transition toward the Global South seemed accomplished. Western issues such as secularization, affluence, and debates about new sexualities no longer took a disproportionate share of the agenda. Instead of the decline of the Christian faith in secularized nations, the congress gave voice to representatives from Ghana, Pakistan, China, Brazil, and numerous other nations. Its most prominent narrative was Christianity’s remarkable growth in his host nation, South Korea. At Seoul 2024, various regions of the world interacted as equals in the official program and at Incheon Convensia’s halls.
Well-known speakers such as Rick Warren received as much speaking time as representatives from Cameroon and Costa Rica. And the persecuted church and minority case studies were prominently featured alongside missionary-sending contexts.
As a result, the congress’s governing ethos had evolved from “geographical shift” to “polycentric Christianity.” As Lausanne’s State of the Great Commission Report explained, Christian mission is no longer “from the West to the rest” but “from everywhere to anywhere”. Evangelicalism has come of age as a geographically distributed, global faith.
Mindful of the challenges of the moment, the organizers of Seoul 2024 repeatedly stressed the need for collaboration among ministries and regions of the world. A significant share of morning sessions was dedicated to cross-cultural table discussions, and in the afternoons "Closing The Gap" sessions asked delegates to brainstorm about how collaboration can help evangelicals close existing gaps in Jesus’s call to disciple all nations.
Lausanne also made use of technology, an app, and an online hub to help participants carry on their conversations.
For all its dynamism, one of evangelicalism’s historic weaknesses includes the relative lack of institutions that provide a shared sense of identity, foster unity, and help Christians address each other and the world. Since World War II, evangelicalism has strived to build institutions and movements such as the World Evangelical Alliance and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) that perform some of the functions provided by the World Council of Churches for liberal-leaning and ecumenic Christians and by the Vatican for Roman Catholics.
At Seoul 2024, the Lausanne Movement has proved to be a valuable convenor and representative of global evangelicalism. Few other evangelical organs can put together such a diverse gathering of global Christians. For instance, a Brazilian missionary to Italy like myself could meet in South Korea friends from Rwanda and Pakistan I had met in previous Lausanne events.
Ever since the inaugural 1974 Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, the movement has strived to keep the Lausanne Covenant’s landmark balance between evangelism and social commitment.
Fifty years later, that was also Seoul 2024’s aim, under the banner “Let the church declare and display Christ together.” The challenge is evangelicals have become more diverse and geographically distributed than ever before. For example, consider this World Christian Encyclopedia chart.
As Brian Stanley discussed in The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism, the 20th century was “marked by a growing diversification of the evangelical tradition as a result of its increasing cultural and geographical diffusion, as well as of divergent strategic responses by evangelicals to the inroads made by secularism into the intellectual, moral, and social fabric of Western Christendom.”
As a result, this month’s congress put to test evangelical’s dexterity to navigate not just theological topics, but also cultural and political differences that often color debates about justice, inclusion, sexuality, and grace. In my opinion, a couple of presenters put too much accent on secondary, culturally-colored matters. But the vast majority focused on evangelicals’ broad consensus over the primacy of Scripture, the gospel, and Christian mission.
I was particularly impressed with delegates from Gaza and Ukraine, who displayed admirable composure, wisdom, and restraint when discussing the suffering of their peoples.
In his final address, Michael Oh (Lausanne’s CEO) challenged Christians to be like bees that seek out flowers – what is commendable and life-giving in God’s garden – instead of flies that feast on what is smelly and putrid. It was a fitting metaphor for how Billy Graham described Lausanne’s constructive ethos as “a spirit of partnership, study, humility, hope, and prayer.”
Like many other participants, I was especially moved by examples of Christian repentance, forgiveness, and perseverance under suffering. Iranians described their years in prison with admirable lightness and joy. Koreans demonstrated self-criticism even as they celebrated remarkable Christian growth and national rebirth, focusing on stories like that of a man who adopted a youth who had murdered his two sons.
Calls for collective repentance, such as the one shared by my wife, Sarah Breuel, resonated deeply with delegates in Incheon and those who participated online.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12). How moving it was to see his 21st century church follow in his steps and show how Jesus’s light can shine in our generation.
René Breuel is the author of The Paradox of Happiness and the founding pastor of Hopera, a church in Rome.
He has a Master of Divinity from Regent College, Vancouver, and a Master of Studies in Creative Writing from Oxford University. You can learn more about his work at renebreuel.org.
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