Billy Graham and John Stott would be surprised. In 1974, they reluctantly held the first Lausanne Congress—a largely Western, male-dominated missions conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. While many good things arose from that gathering, the most lasting impact came from a paper presented by Ralph Winter, which redefined missions strategy around the concept of reaching unreached peoples.

Fast forward fifty years to 2024, and over 5,000 men and women from over 200 countries gathered in Seoul, Korea, for the Fourth Lausanne Congress.

The Korean Church were incredible hosts. It might have been the most administratively complex conference I have ever attended

Each day left me silent and overwhelmed, emotionally spent by the conversations and experiences. I often ambled back to my hotel room in shock.

The Korean Church were incredible hosts. It might have been the most administratively complex conference I have ever attended.

Finding a venue, accommodating the needs of 5,000 people, serving meals, organizing lodging, and navigating cultural nuances—such as deciding who should be on stage, who should be honored, and where everyone should sit—seemed like an impossible task.

Millions of dollars were also raised to help people attend from around the world. The leadership of Lausanne and the Korean Christians who served us executed it all with excellence and grace. They deserve high praise.

 

A taste of heaven

How could I possibly describe singing with 5,000 people from 200 nations? I can’t. It was a taste of heaven. Will I ever recite the words “the communion of the saints” the same way again? Probably not.

The church is so diverse and beautiful. That’s also why it took me a while to process and write down my thoughts about the Congress—I was simply overwhelmed.

It was a taste of heaven. Will I ever recite the words “the communion of the saints” the same way again? Probably not

One evening, participants took the stage holding signs with the names of the 50 most persecuted countries in the world.As each name was read aloud, someone prayed, “Lord, have mercy on ___” in their native language.

The room was united in a chorus of intercession, and I was overcome by the weight of the moment, barely able to mouth the words.

Many have already weighed in, and debates have emerged following the event. Let me give you an overview of what happened.

 

Let the church declare and display Christ together

The theme of the Congress was “Let the Church Declare and Display Christ Together.”

Large group sessions were conducted in a talk-show format, with longer expositions, short talks on specific issues, and worship led by Korean musicians and the Getty Band (including the Getty’s daughters!).

Each day had a specific theme, from the persecuted church to the empowerment of the Spirit to Christians in the workplace.

Each attendee sat at a table, and after a speaker shared, the group discussed the content together. The emphasis was on collaboration, and I imagine many new initiatives will form out of informal conversations

Each attendee sat at a table, and after a speaker shared, the group discussed the content together. The emphasis was on collaboration, and I imagine many new initiatives will form out of informal conversations.

At my table, I was joined by a seminary president, a Japanese professor, an Indonesian doctor, a Kenyan priest serving in rural England, and a Mongolian woman working with at-risk children.

In the afternoons, there were breakout sessions covering a variety of topics. From Creation Care to Human Sexuality, the diversity of topics was telling.

I served as a table leader for a session on People on the Move, and we spent the afternoons wrestling with issues surrounding the mission of the church in the context of unprecedented global migration.

To give you a sense of the conversations, one day we discussed what the Korean church should do as the country’s population is expected to drop by half by 2050. To maintain its current economy, Korea will need 30 million migrants. How should that affect the mission of the church? How will that affect what it means to be Korean?

 

Navigating theological differences

Gathering with the global church tests Paul's admonition in Romans 14:14: "I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus...however..." The church around the world is incredibly diverse.

Engaging meaningfully requires us to be flexible—and for others to be flexible with us. We must listen, and in doing so, we might realize our deeply held convictions have some blind spots.

It’s easy to feel a sense of unity when you’re meeting people for the first time. As the week wore on, our Christ-given unity was tested. Anytime you collaborate deeply, conflicts are inevitable. It’s not a problem; it’s just reality.

Every part of the Congress felt deliberate, from the countdown clock ushering speakers offstage to the concert-like lights during worship that made it hard for me to see (what can I say, I’m old).

The inclusion of a drama team, the song selections from the Korean team (ranging from early 2000s Passion songs to “Oceans”), and the choice of speakers—all communicated intentional priorities.

Each speaker brought their own theological convictions, and as expected in a gathering tackling complex topics, some resonated deeply while others made me wince.

Engaging meaningfully requires us to be flexible—and for others to be flexible with us. We must listen, and in doing so, we might realize our deeply held convictions have some blind spots.

Sarah Breuel led a guided time of repentance. I’m always unsure about things like this because it often feels manufactured. This one was not. She called on each continent to engage in global missions.

She hit me when she warned the North American church not to lose our boldness in mission in believing our missionary movement was just a product of colonialism.

It just reminded me that Americans love to criticize themselves, and in doing so, just slide off into ineffective ambassadors for Christ.

During the day focused on the persecuted church, one speaker shared: “The last time I came to Lausanne, I was the only one who came from inside Iran. When I returned, they arrested me and put me in jail for five years for my Christianity."

Then, with a smile and a laugh, he said, “Hopefully that doesn’t happen again after this conference.” I was speechless.

Ramez Atallah, from Egypt, attended the first Lausanne Congress in 1974. With tears in his eyes, he recounted a powerful story about a humble African man who prayed with him every night.

The man had simply introduced himself as “a pastor in Africa.” Only later did he discover that this was Festo Olang, the Archbishop of Kenya—a leader who played a pivotal role in Bible translation efforts and guided the Kenyan church through a period of remarkable growth. What a lesson in humility.

We also learned that, for the first time in history, the leadership of four key Bible agencies—SIL International, United Bible Societies, Wycliffe Global Alliance, and The Word for the World—are all led by individuals from the continent of Africa.

This unprecedented change reflects the global church’s growing ownership and leadership in Bible translation. For example, the FJKM Church in Madagascar mobilized 300 volunteers to translate the Bible from the national Malagasy language into various local languages.

As a result of this grassroots effort, four New Testament translations have been completed in just five years, and four more are on their way.

Ronaldo Lidório, a Brazilian missionary and theologian’s message on unreached peoples was deeply impactful for me personally. I commend it to you.

 

Other things made me wince

For example, an African brother passionately and graciously admonished cessationists, claiming they denied the power of the Holy Spirit. I didn’t hear a cessationist offer a counterpoint, nor do I imagine it would have been ok to say that from stage.

Creation care was framed as a justice issue, but the proposed solutions echoed secular narratives. One speaker suggested that dispensational theology contributed to unjust support of Israel. This prompted Lausanne to issue an apology email.

Rick Warren lightly chided complementarians, suggesting they overlook Joel 2. I can’t imagine a complementarian taking the stage and chiding the women who preached.

And not to pick on Warren, but as he shared that his church had planted more churches than any other in the world—boasting over 2,000 church plants, mostly from members on short-term trips—I heard echoes of an American focus on speed, a confusion between evangelism and missions, and a statistic that might be overly optimistic.

It reminded me of other mission organizations that claim to plant thousands of churches in Muslim-majority countries, only to have missionaries in these regions call out the exaggeration.

An American Pentecostal brother, in his excitement, asked everyone to raise their hand if they considered themselves “Spirit-filled” believers (i.e., Pentecostal). Half the room raised their hands.

I sat, listened, and sought to understand where they were coming from—hoping to learn something in the process. I didn’t always agree with their diagnosis, but the unity we have in Christ transcends our disagreements

I couldn’t imagine a Reformed Baptist taking the stage and doing the same thing. One speaker ran over time while talking about the persecuted church; the music began playing, and he was shuffled off to make way for a skit from the drama team.

The talks on justice often reflected a liberal lens: environmentalism, wage gaps, gender gaps, anti-colonialism, and critiques of capitalism—all with progressive solutions.

The implications (though maybe not intended) is that those of us who might have more free-market solutions don’t care about justice issues unless we advocate for the government to get involved.

There was also no mention of abortion or the pressure Christians face in resisting same-sex marriage. It felt as if certain viewpoints were given a platform while others were subtly, though not purposefully excluded.

Lausanne will feel the pressure to cave on LGBTQ+ issues, and probably already does, as I knew of multiple attendees who are affirming of same-sex sexual relationships within marriage and who hold the view that Christians can differ on this issue as long as we believe the gospel.

These were also Western debates. Other issues that might impact the majority of non-Western participants were not front and center, probably because they are not on the mind of the western speakers.

There will always be some give and take when gathering such a large group. I honestly don’t know how the planners of the conference managed it.

But despite the theological and philosophical tensions, I know many of the speakers I disagreed with also exude the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

So I sat, listened, and sought to understand where they were coming from—hoping to learn something in the process. I didn’t always agree with their diagnosis, but the unity we have in Christ transcends our disagreements.

I would have happily wrapped my arms around them, prayed with them, and enjoyed a meal together.

 

The mission of the Church

At the heart of all the disagreement is a simple question: What is the mission of the Church? During the congress, The Seoul Statement was released, and it generated a lot of discussion.

It outlines seven key themes for the global evangelical church: a biblical theology of the gospel, a strong view of Scripture, doctrine of the church, and a vision for humanity and biblical sexuality, discipleship, global conflict, and technology.

There is a lot to love about it, but the challenge is maintaining proper theological categories and emphasis on evangelism over social action.

John Piper got at this in his Cape Town 2010 address, calling on people to care about suffering—but especially eternal suffering. Many attending the congress asked for edits that would make clear the prioritization of evangelism and discipleship.

The issue is not whether the church should be concerned about trafficking, creation care, children at risk, or justice issues, but whether these should dominate an event titled the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Evangelism and social responsibility are not the same.

The challenge is that when everything becomes a gospel issue, nothing is distinctively gospel-centered

The debate isn't new. From the earliest Lausanne Congress in 1974 to the Cape Town 2010 gathering, the challenge has been balancing evangelism and social action. Yet, the broader application of the gospel into areas of justice, mercy, and creation care has grown in prominence.

This is where confusing phrases like “incarnating the gospel” or “holistic gospel” come from. The Seoul Statement wrestles with this tension, striving to give equal weight to both elements.

The challenge is that when everything becomes a gospel issue, nothing is distinctively gospel-centered.

For example, the apostles in Acts 6 devoted themselves to “prayer and the ministry of the Word,” while appointing others to meet the material needs of widows. This division of roles wasn’t a devaluation of social concern but an emphasis on maintaining focus. If Lausanne doesn’t make a strong case for prioritizing cross-cultural missions, no one else will.

Just take the issue of “peacemaking”. I listened to speakers talk about Christians having a ministry or reconciliation and peacemaking as it relates to nation states and it was the mission of church to do the work of creating peace.

But the passages cited, 2 Cor 5:18-21, has nothing to do with making peace between nations at war, but reconciling people to God and each other through the power of the cross.

The point is God’s Gospel reconciles people to God, and is not about Christian principles for getting nations to lay down their arms and forgive each other (unless of course they all accept the gospel message!).

Michael Oh, the Executive Director of Lausanne, in his final address clearly affirmed the need for the church to cross cultural and linguistic barriers to bring the gospel to those who have never heard.

Whether he had planned it ahead of time or focused his talk throughout the week to end with a correction, he brought it back to task of reaching those who have never heard.

 

Divine appointments everywhere

The Congress wasn’t just about large group sessions or theological debates. It was filled with countless divine appointments. I personally had multiple ones every single day. Let me share one that particularly encouraged me.

On the first morning of the Congress, still jet-lagged and bleary-eyed, I made my way down to the hotel breakfast. With over 5,000 participants staying in multiple hotels, the chances of bumping into someone familiar seemed slim. I found an open seat and introduced myself to the man already at the table.

That’s how I met Vladimir from Uzbekistan. When he was 13, he responded to a newspaper ad for a pen pal in the U.S. He began corresponding with an 11-year-old girl from Kentucky, who faithfully shared the gospel with him through letters. When Vladimir was 17, she sent him a Bible. Shortly after, he became a Christian.

But here’s the amazing part—guess which church in the U.S. sent the missionary who later discipled and baptized Vladimir? None other than the church I serve as a pastor in Bozeman, Montana!

After I shared this story at our Sunday service, a member of our congregation approached me and said he was the one who led that missionary to Christ through Cru at Montana State University.

Think about all the intricate pieces God moved to orchestrate this meeting: Tom came to faith through a member of our church, was discipled there, and was sent out as a missionary.

He met and discipled Vladimir. Thirty years later, I, now a pastor at Redeemer, meet Vladimir at a conference in Korea. The only reason I sat next to him that morning was because his wife, who would normally have joined him, wasn’t feeling well and stayed in her room.

What an incredible reminder that God’s sovereignty is at work in even the smallest details of our lives.

 

The unseen impact of Lausanne

As I reflect on the Congress, I am reminded that the impact of such gatherings isn’t fully visible in the moment.

The seeds sown in conversations, the connections made, and the prayers lifted up will bear fruit long after we’ve all returned to our respective ministries around the world.

The Lausanne Congresses have always been more about movements than moments.

In 1974, Ralph Winter’s presentation on unreached peoples didn’t generate headlines, but it slowly reshaped missions thinking for the next five decades.

In 2024, there might not have been a single “Winter moment,” but I believe the ripples from this Congress will be felt for years to come. Whether it’s a renewed emphasis on cross-cultural missions, a rethinking of justice and evangelism, or a new coalition to address migration, God will use this time in ways we cannot yet see.

May we declare and display Christ together—across every boundary, in every tongue, and for every nation.

Darren Carlson, pastor of Redeemer Church (Montana, US) and founder of Training Leaders International.