This summer Madison will be hosting 120 of the top younger Christian leaders of North America. The Lausanne Consultation for North American Younger Leaders will be held at the Inn on the Park, July 24-26, 2012.
The Lausanne Movement was launched by Billy Graham with a meeting in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The first Lausanne conference drew several thousand participants from across the globe. A second international conference was held in Manila in 1989 and a third in Cape Town in October, 2010.
This Consultation for North American Younger Leaders is a follow-up to the Cape Town conference. It is being held in Madison because Madison is currently the home of Tom Lin, who is Lausanne’s North American Deputy Director, and also the Vice President for Missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
These young Christian leaders, in their 20s and 30s, will be spending most of their time in Madison meeting in working groups, and wrestling with issues such as:
- How do we boldly proclaim the gospel in a pluralistic society?
- How do we seek to be healers to many in need?
- What does true unity and partnership look like across the lines that divide us?
The working groups will reflect the six major themes of the The Cape Town Commitment:
- Bearing witness to the truth of Christ in a pluralistic, globalized world
- Building the peace of Christ in our divided and broken world
- Living the love of Christ among people of other faiths
- Discerning the will of Christ for world evangelization
- Calling the Church of Christ back to humility, integrity, and simplicity
- Partnering in the Body of Christ for unity in mission
Madison is known for many things but not for being a meeting place for Christian leaders. Nonetheless, conversations and relationships begun at this consultation may have implications for the Christian church in North America for decades to come.