A few months ago, I was invited to a local gathering of pastors who met to talk about an initiative and to pray together. Given that at the same time, I had started to take MMM full-time, it was a great opportunity to both fellowship and get some additional information towards the spiritual and technical climate here in Charlotte. What I wasn’t prepared for was the scope of that meeting.

The meeting was to discuss the involvement of many churches and ministry organizations in the Charlotte area to work together in praying for and joining the conversation around the the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism, which is happening this year in Cape Town, South Africa. Given the abilities we have with technology, and the sheer number of ministries in Charlotte (I’ve been told that there are over 750 churches alone in Charlotte; looking for the stats back this up), the meeting was to ask these ministers to share in their resources to be a satellite showing of some of the wealth of the information for this conference since many will not be able to attend.

It was at that point that MMM began to feel very real, and very relevant. There was this global conversation happening about evangelism and how the growing sociological and technological landscapes were changing and how the Body could walk with Christ (John 17) in the midst of this change. And so I sat and listened to the hearts of these pastors, prayed with them, and have since been following alongside the larger conversation around the Lausanne Conference. There is some pretty neat stuff going on.

About the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism

Pulled right from their website, here’s what the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism is all about:

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Lausanne III) will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, 16-25 October 2010. The Congress, held in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance, will bring together 4,000 leaders from more than 200 countries to confront the critical issues of our time – other world faiths, poverty, HIV/AIDS, persecution, among others – as they relate to the future of the Church and world evangelization.

Cape Town 2010 (CT2010) is not just a one-time meeting, but God willing, will be a catalytic event in the life of the church – drawing leaders together in purposeful prayer, humble repentance, strategic dialogue and decisive action. Together we will seek the Lord as we examine the world and our culture to discern where the church should invest its efforts and energies to most effectively respond to Christ’s call to take the gospel into all the world and make disciples of all nations . . . lives changed for all eternity, broken families mended, physical and emotional hurts healed, communities transformed.

So, you can see, this isn’t just any kind of conference, but one that seeks to truly pull in the cultural understanding of every area where we have been called to evangelize and empower. Very neat stuff. But even better is the local connections happening through Cape Town GlobaLink and the Lausanne Global Conversation.

Cape Town GlobaLink is basically a large multimedia forum where various sites will be able to connect with one another, and then share in the media resources both from the conference and from those meetings/conversations that happen after the conference concludes. Group membership is required for this area in terms of interacting with content.

The Lausanne Global Conversation is another social networking initiative, designed to facilitate the conversations before the conference, based on a series of 12 articles which are focused on the conference themes.

The Intersection of Faith and Mobile Tech

One of the most encouraging aspects of this conference that I’ve seen so far is a shared understanding that there’s a large need in the Body to not just use the newer/faster technological tools at our disposal, but that we also want to understand their implications towards the traditions of faith and their influences on culture. Several of the Global Conversations pieces have dived well into this topic, and it would seem that a healthy piece of the discussion at the conference will be brokering some shared understanding amongst the various ministries and cultural groups which will be represented.

MMM is honored to be playing that role of a missional technology resource for those churches participating here in the Charlotte area. It is both a blessing and a challenge to analyze the technological landscape and not just be a service-person (“can you build this for us,”) but an agent to stroke the minds of those persons who are already in position in the various ministry groups here to better understand how their IT resources can be used – without overextending people or resources, while empowering those people and ministries which might not have anything to offer.

Another group which has seen some increased attention from MMM locally has been those who are not connected to local ministries. Given the reputation of Charlotte as “part of the Bible belt,” I was shocked to find out how many people here are simply disheartened with the state of the church. The Lausanne conversation also has hit on this growing phenomena, and it will be really cool to see many people and para-church groups also come together for this Lausanne conversation and how it address shifts in worship such as this.

Today, MMM will be engaging with that same group of pastors to pray for this conference and the many conversations that it is already sparking. Before we move forward from this intersection, we’d like to make sure we are following the Light and not just stopping to look at Him. Join us in prayer for the global conversation, our local communities, and a concerted effort to be less about our specific niches, and more about His specific people.

Your Participation

You can participate in the Lausanne Congress by visiting their website, following them on Twitter/Facebook, and even engaging within the conversations. If you are attending, this is also another way to connect with the global Body, and then create relationships which will allow you to equip your local communities with the wisdom and understanding of local and global issues around the church.

At this point, MMM isn’t attending the conference in South Africa (it would indeed require a miracle of being supported to do so at this point), we’ll be engaged locally here, and continue to use this site and Twitter to share lessons learned and some alternative applications. Join in the conversation and own your response to being Christ in your community.