Please Book the Next Nine Weeks

Dear CoaH,

I want to invite you to the nine-week study on the Lausanne Movement in March and April. The Lausanne movement started half a century ago by Billy Graham. He asked evangelical leaders to convene at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974 to hammer out a consensus on how to dedicate themselves anew for world evangelization. Two thousand seven hundred delegates from 150 nations got together. The result was the adoption of the Lausanne Covenant, which was first drafted by John Stott and worked on by the delegates. There were two more global-scale gatherings, the Lausanne II in Manila, Philippines (1989) and the Lausanne III in Cape Town, South Africa (2010). Each conference discussed how the Church could continue to commit to the task of world evangelization.

By studying the Lausanne Covenant carefully (and other significant documents as well), I believe that we can learn to pivot ourselves with a clear vision and mandate as God's people. The study is timely as we come out of both the CoaH transition and COVID-19. The nine-week study will be team-taught. I have invited pastors Tim, Don, and our intern Alireza to join me in this study. We are all excited as we prepare how best to get across critical theological ideas in ways that are relevant to God's people.

When you study the Lausanne Covenant, you will see that the missional church concept is the backbone of the document itself. The Covenant clearly shows the relationship between the world's need to hear the gospel and the Church's foremost responsibility to share the gospel with the world. In Paragraph 6 of the Covenant, it states,

“World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The Church is at the very center of God's cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel.”

I am praying that the congregational study of the Lausanne Covenant will bring a new season to CoaH. Please join us on Thursday evenings (via zoom), 7:30 pm – 9 pm, to study, pray, and discuss how we can move forward with the missional vision.

May the LORD bless you.

Pastor Minho Song