I have been thinking about this trip for a whole year. Sometimes I felt that the day would never come when the plane would take off for Incheon, South Korea, but yes, it did.

Although 19 September 2024 was a long time coming, the 4th Congress of the Lausanne Movement has flown by.

The days have been so intense and so worthwhile that at times it was 5pm and I was aware that I had spent almost every hour of the day at the Songdo Convensia convention centre without seeing daylight.

I have experienced all kinds of emotions during these days: from touching heaven, in the worship times led by The Getty and Isaiah69, surrounded by a mass of people I didn't know, each from different nationalities, worshipping in tune with the same God; to moments of being overwhelmed by the amount of information and people constantly flowing around me.

In total, we were around 5,200 participants representing the 202 nations of the world.

I really enjoyed the excellence of how the event was presented, with punctuality, order, detailed aesthetics to the millimetre and the volunteers always ready to welcome, guide and serve us.

I was especially struck by the love of the Korean church for their brothers and sisters. Every morning, from 7:00 to 8:00, the Koreans would show up at the door of the hotel to say good morning and greet us before boarding the bus to the convention centre.

Their smiles and affection brought a smile to my face and made the few hours of sleep I had been able to get a little more bearable.

The motto that was repeated time and again was "Let the church declare and display Christ together".

We had the opportunity to listen to speakers such as Rick Warren, Sarah Breuel, Philip Ryken, Ruth Padilla and many representatives from different contexts and backgrounds who gave short presentations or were grouped into panels according to theme.

Not without controversy, their talks pointed to service and perseverance in mission with a strong emphasis on collaboration. This emphasis was put into practice by the participants as they worked in groups and in unity to close what they called the gaps.

These gaps represented 25 areas where there are still needs to be filled with the gospel and that the church should recognise and mobilise to close.

Discipleship in the digital age

The gap in which I participated, "Discipleship in the digital age", proposed the search for methods and alternatives that would facilitate access to discipleship for all people, adapted to their context, whether by digital or face-to-face means, with trained mentors and through a global consensus in which the church would promote this method in unity.

At our table we summed it up in four key words: consensus, training, capital and prayer. Each of these words involves a process with a number of steps that we set out as necessary for the gap to be closed by 2050.

Whether by collaborating in the working groups, or listening to the speakers on the platform challenging us to "need each other", I have come to the conclusion that the church as a body has a lot of work ahead of it and that the importance of collaboration between different denominations, ministries, leaders and individuals plays a key role in the advancement of the Kingdom in these 25 gaps in general, and in Spain in particular.

Spain

Speaking of Spain, I am convinced that we cannot be satisfied with 1% of evangelicals in the country.

Other nations like Argentina or Korea have grown exponentially in the number of believers during the last decades, why can't we? We cannot leave things as they are and settle in the pews and pulpits of our churches.

We must not look down on each other and refuse to cooperate. Let us seek revival, collaboration, unity, raising that 1% to 10% in the next ten years.

One small step at a time, one per cent each year. Let us promote evangelism, discipleship and missions as the lifeblood of the congregations.

Let us have more faith to believe that God can work in the hearts of Spaniards and to believe that what was once known as a missionary tomb will soon become a missionary-bearing nation to the world.

As Sarah Breuel said in her presentation on revival, "Europe is not dead because God is an expert in resurrection. And Europe is going to rise again.

Estefany Sánchez Blake is head of Marketing and Communications of  Spanish Christian association Decisión, and was part of the Spanish delegation present at Lausanne 4.