4,500 evangelical leaders from 200 countries gathered in South Africa for the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Lausanne III), a once-in-a-generation event to confront the critical issues of our time. Nearly four decades on from the first Lausanne Congress, Lausanne III was held in Cape Town October 16 - 25.

           General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, Steve Clifford, was one of the delegates. During the congress he wrote: "The Church of Jesus Christ is truly global…As I look around the conference, my brothers and sisters come in all shapes, size, skin colours, ages, and hair texture, and they come with wonderful stories of God at work in their nations. We have heard about martyrs for their faith. We have laughed together and cried together. We have worshipped, prayed and been challenged as to our place in reaching the nations with the gospel. To those who would say the Church is dead I say, 'Come to Cape Town! The Church is alive and kicking.'"

            Lausanne I produced the Lausanne Covenant. Lausanne II in Manila produced the Manila Manifesto. Lausanne III will build on the previous two gatherings and produce a document which aims to unite and guide the Church in years to come by helping to establish missions and evangelisation priorities. The key issues the delegates addressed were the challenge of new atheism; the impact of hedonism; the reality of Islam; the globalised world; the brokenness of our world; and seismic shifts in global Christianity.