Vista 46 Perspectives on the Fourth Lausanne Congress

The Fourth Lausanne Congress, held in Incheon-Seoul, South Korea from 22nd to 28th September 2024, brought together 5394 Christian leaders from over 200 nations and territories in what was arguably the most representative gathering of evangelical Christians in history.

What relevance could a global gathering like this have for Europe today?  Were the challenges from the main stage and in the collaborative sessions meaningful to the 750 European participants and what did they think might have been missing?  Do Majority World Christian leaders who were part of that European delegation have a different perspective on these questions?  And what do Europeans who were present, and those who were not, make of the Seoul Statement?

This issue of Vista seeks to gather those perspectives and impressions.

The lead article is by Vista editor Jim Memory and Usha Reifsnider who are the Co-Regional Directors for the Lausanne Movement in Europe. They give their perspective on the insights of the Congress for our European continent. Following that, there are then a series of short articles written by delegates from across Europe who reflect on their own experiences in Seoul and the relevance of the Congress for their country. Among the European delegation were also a significant number of leaders from the Majority World so we wanted Vista to include articles from their perspective too.

Finally, there are two articles which evaluate the significance of the Seoul Statement, the key theological and missiological text emerging from the Fourth Congress.  Rolf Kjøde from Norway provides a perspective from someone who was a delegate at the Congress and Vista editor, Evert van de Poll gives his objective assessment of the text from his perspective as a dispassionate observer. 

Read the articles here:

European Perspectives

·       As Seen From Europe – Reflections on the Fourth Lausanne Congress

·       This Silent Roar coming from the South: A Spanish Perspective on L4

·       Reasons for hope - a French perspective on L4

·       Bigger than you think - A German Perspective on L4

·       Observing a paradigm shift: An Asian in Europe's perspective on L4

·      Challenges and Opportunities for Global Mission: an African Missionary in Europe’s Perspective on L4

·       Unity of the church in evangelism: A Ukrainian perspective on L4

·       "How Great Thou Art": A Swedish Perspective on L4

Reflections on the Seoul Statement

·       Participant Perspective: Building on a firm foundation

·       An Outsider Perspective: A Kind of New Mission Model and a Clear Position on Ethical Issues

There have been other collections of articles on the Seoul Congress from global perspectives (see here and here) but we offer up these unique European perspectives as a contribution to the ongoing conversation around the Fourth Lausanne Congress.

Vista Editors