Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, more commonly known as the Lausanne Movement, is a global movement that mobilizes evangelical leaders to collaborate for world evangelization. The stated vision is "the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world".

The Lausanne Movement grew out of the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization (ICOWE) and promotes active worldwide evangelism. The Lausanne Covenant provides the theological basis for collaborative work in the area of mission and evangelism. The Cape Town Commitment defines the movement's goals.

The First International Congress on World Evangelization met in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. It was organized in part by Billy Graham and was attended by some 2,700 participants and guests from over 150 nations who met here to discuss and promote evangelism. One result of this conference was the Lausanne Continuation Committee, which planned to sustain the movement started at Lausanne. This committee formed the backbone for the official inception of the LCWE in 1976. Another organizational backbone of the movement was the Mission Advanced Research and Communication Center (MARC), a division of World Vision International.

The Lausanne board of directors is chaired by Ram Gidoomal. The newly appointed executive director/CEO is Michael Oh, who succeeds Doug Birdsall. Board members include leaders from around the world.

Lausanne's latest congress took place in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2010.

Lausanne has spawned significant involvement from agencies and individual Christians. The movement surrounding it has led to hundreds of books on evangelism and theology being published. These include workbooks for choosing strategies with which to evangelize to "unreached peoples". The documents of greatest significance to date are The Lausanne Covenant, which is used by evangelical mission organisations worldwide as a basis for faith, action and partnership, and The Cape Town Commitment which is "in two parts. Part l sets out biblical convictions, passed down to us in the scriptures, and Part ll sounds the call to action."

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