
Collection 46 [December 19, 2006]
Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization; 1974-
Records; 1949, 1969-1994
285 boxes (238 DC, 45 RC, 2 ODC); Audio Tapes, Film, Negatives, Oversize Material, Photo
Album, Photographs, Slides, Video Tapes (151.9 cubic feet)
Brief description: Correspondence, minutes, memos, reports, manuscripts of speeches, press releases, newsletters, staff manuals, audio and video tapes of sponsored events, photographs of events and personnel, and other administrative materials. The Committee grew out of the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization. Its basic doctrinal statement was the Lausanne Covenant and it had the mission “to encourage and stimulate the involvement of churches, denominations, ministries, networks and individuals in the cause of world evangelization.” It was predominantly an Evangelical Protestant movement and operated through a small staff, a variety of commissions and periodic meetings on a regional and global level. Recorded in the documents are the early planning for the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization (ICOWE), the creation of the Lausanne Continuation Committee in 1974 that established as the Lausanne Committee (LCWE) in 1976, the activities during the terms of the chief executive officers (Chairman, Executive Secretary, Executive Director, International Director, Treasurer and others) in Charlotte (1974-1992), Nairobi (1975-1980), London (1980-1984), Singapore (1987-1988), Pasadena (1987-1989), Manila (1989), especially the large and small international congresses and consultations sponsored by the Committee (such as the 1980 Consultation on World Evangelization and 1989 Lausanne II Congress in Manila, Philippines), and cooperative projects around the world.
Restrictions: The following parts of this collection are restricted and cannot be used without written permission until the date noted:
Box-Folder # |
Date Restriction Removed |
37-31 |
February 14, 2033 |
58-8 |
February 14, 2008 |
92-3 |
December 31, 2020 |
97-12 |
during the lifetime of Vic Glavach |
103-9,10 |
December 31, 2020 |
106-13 |
December 31, 2020 |
168-8 |
December 31, 2055 |
169-1,2,3 |
December 31, 2055 |
| 169-4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 | December 31, 2069 |
all contents of boxes 170-198 |
December 31, 2069 |
Requests for permission to use the above files should be directed to (does not apply to the Billy
Graham files listed below):
S. Douglas Birdsall, Executive Chairman of the Lausanne Committee
PO Box 2404
South Hamilton, MA 01982
Forms to be used for requesting permission should be obtained from the Reading Room staff.
The following files are closed during the lifetime of Billy Graham: Folders 37-17, 157-2
Founded |
|
1974 |
Initially as the Lausanne Continuation Committee following the International Congress on World Evangelization; in 1976 the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization was established. |
Headquarters location |
|
1981-1984 |
An international headquarters was established in London where Gottfried Osei-Mensah had relocated from Nairobi. Following his resignation in 1984, the LCWE again functioned from the location of its primary officers without a centralized headquarters. |
1987-1989 |
International Office in Singapore under the leadership of International Director Thomas Wang. Closed in month 1989 and relocated to Pasadena. |
1988 |
Coordination Office. Staff directing program development and participant selection in preparation for the Lausanne II Congress operated from Pasadena and Monrovia, California. |
1989 |
International Office in Pasadena; Congress Office in Manila |
1989 or 1990- |
Coordination Office. Pasadena office and staff resumed this function while the International Office operated under Houston’s oversight in Oxford |
1990-1992 |
International Office in Oxford, England, under Tom Houston’s direction |
Biographical sketches of early principal executive officers |
|
1974-1992 |
Born in Toronto in 1931; received his B.A. from Wheaton College in 1952 and his B.D. in 1955 from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia; married Jean Coffey Graham, Billy Graham's sister in 1953; between 1953 and 1955 Ford served as a supply pastor, student pastor and summer assistant for churches in Texas, Missouri and Georgia; ordained in the Presbyterian Church in the US, 1955; joined the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) as an Associate Evangelist, 1955; his first BGEA duties in this capacity were to assist in Billy Graham’s 1955 London Crusade, after which he conducted crusades on his own throughout the world; appointed Vice President for the BGEA in 1958, which he continued until his retirement in 1986. Appointed the Chairman of the ICOWE Program Committee in 1973 and also served on the Congress Planning Committee. Following the Congress he was a member of the LCC Executive Committee, and was elected the Chairman of the LCWE in 1976 at its inception. He was Chairman of the Thailand Consultation and gave the opening address of that meeting. He also worked as the Program Chairman for Amsterdam '83 and Amsterdam '86, the International Conferences for Itinerant Evangelists. Ford resigned from the BGEA in 1986 in order to launch Leighton Ford Ministries, as well as to continue his LCWE duties. Ford also authored books and articles, and was a regular speaker on the BGEA's "Hour of Decision" radio program. Ford retired as Chairman in 1992, when he was named Honorary Life Chairman. |
Personnel by Position |
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Position |
Name |
Dates |
|
Lausanne Continuation Committee |
|||
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Chairman |
A. J. Dain |
1974-1975 |
Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization |
|||
|
Honorary Chairman |
Billy Graham |
1974-? |
|
Chairman |
Leighton Ford (designated Honorary Life Chairman in 1992) |
1976-1992 |
|
Secretary to Chairman (Leighton Ford) |
Leola Linkous |
|
|
|
Kathy Roth |
1985-? |
|
|
John R. Reid |
1992-1994? |
|
Executive Chair |
Fergus Macdonald |
1994-1997? |
|
|
Paul Cedar |
1997-? |
|
|
S. Douglas Birdsall |
2004- |
|
Deputy Chair |
Chongnahm Cho |
|
|
|
John R. Reid |
1988-? |
|
Vice Chair |
Chongnahm Cho |
2002-? |
|
General Coordinator |
A.J. Dain |
1982-1984 |
|
Secretary to General Coordinator |
Leanne Ellem |
1982-1984 |
|
Executive Secretary |
Gottfried Osei-Mensah |
1975-1984 |
|
Secretary and Administrative Assistant to Executive Secretary |
Patrica Newth |
1976-1981 |
|
|
Jane Rainey Fraser |
1980-1981 |
|
Executive Director |
Carl Johansson |
1984-1985 |
|
Acting Director for Program Coordination |
Brad Smith |
1985 |
|
Acting Executive Director |
Irv Chambers |
1985 |
|
Deputy Chairman |
Thomas Wang |
1986 |
|
International Director |
Thomas Wang |
1987-1989 |
|
|
Tom Houston |
1989-1992 |
|
|
David Claydon |
2002-2004 |
|
|
Tetsunao “Ted” Yamamori |
2004- |
|
Secretary to International Director (Thomas Wang) |
Sharon Chan |
1987-1989 |
|
Associate International Director |
Paul McKaughan |
1987-1989 |
|
Deputy Director |
Bill Ditewig |
1989?-? |
|
Secretary to Deputy Director |
Sharon Chan |
1989-? |
|
Minister-at-Large |
Tom Houston |
1992-? |
|
Director of Ministries |
Paul McKaughan |
1987-? |
|
Director of Communications |
Jim Newton |
1987-? |
|
|
Joseph Sindorf |
|
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Senior Associates Program Coordinator |
Brad Smith |
1987-? |
|
Secretary |
Fergus Macdonald |
ca. 1993 |
|
Treasurer |
Donald Hoke |
1976-1989 |
|
|
Roger Parrott |
|
|
Assistant Treasurer |
James Coleman |
1986-? |
|
Deputy Executive Officer |
John Howell |
1977-1980 |
|
Executive Assistant |
John Howell |
|
|
Communications Working Group Chair (later Global Communications Working Group) |
Thomas Zimmerman |
1986-1981 |
|
|
Horst Marquardt |
1981-? |
|
|
Wing-tai Leung |
|
|
Intercession Working Group chair |
John R. Reid |
1976-1981 |
|
|
Vonette Bright |
1981-? |
|
|
Glenda Weldon |
|
|
Leadership Development Working Group chair |
Doug Birdsall |
|
|
Strategy Working Group chair |
C. Peter Wagner |
1976-1981 |
|
|
Ed Dayton |
1981-? |
|
|
Bryant Myers |
1993 |
|
|
Paul Eshleman |
|
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Theology & Education Working Group chair (later Theology Working Group |
John Stott |
1976-1981 |
|
|
John R. Reid |
1981-? |
|
|
Peter Kuzmic |
|
|
|
Luder Whitlock |
|
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Special Assistant on Communications, Communications Officer |
Bill Jefferson |
1982 |
|
|
Steve Downey |
1986-? |
|
Lausanne Communications Council for World Evangelization executive director |
Elmer Wilson |
1993-? |
|
Editor of World Evangelization |
Steve Downey |
1985-1986? |
|
Managing editor of World Evangelization |
Leslie Tarr |
|
|
|
Sharon Chan |
1988 |
|
Chairman of Search Committee |
Thomas Zimmerman |
1983 |
Lausanne Committee US |
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President |
Thomas Zimmerman |
1986-1990 |
|
Director of US Operations |
Roger Parrott |
1986-1989 |
|
|
Rob Martin |
1989-1990 |
|
|
David Hartz |
1990-1991 |
Lausanne Full and Executive Committee (EC) meetings (chronological) |
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Mexico City |
January 20-23, 1975 |
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London (EC only) |
September 1-4, 1975 |
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Atlanta, Georgia |
January 12-16, 1976 |
|
West Berlin |
September 6-10, 1976 |
|
Montreal (EC only) |
September 5-9, 1977 |
|
Bermuda |
January 14-20, 1978 |
|
Springfield, Missouri (Exec Comm only) |
September 4-8, 1978 |
|
Atlantic City, New Jersey (EC only) |
November 12-16, 1979 |
|
Ventnor, New Jersey |
November 12-16, 1979 |
|
Pattaya, Thailand |
June 14-28, 1980 |
|
Old Jordans, Bucks, England (EC only) |
May 26-29, 1981 |
|
Wheaton, Illinois |
May 21-26, 1982 |
|
Arrowhead Springs, California |
January 17-21, 1983 |
|
Stuttgart, West Germany |
September 8-15, 1984 |
|
Oslo, Norway |
June 3-6, 1985 |
|
Amsterdam (during Amsterdam ‘86) |
July 7-10, 1986 |
|
Atlanta and Callaway Gardens, Georgia |
January 18-24, 1987 |
|
Mt. Hermon, California |
January 11-15, 1988 |
|
Malibu, California (Exec Comm only) |
December 12-16, 1988 |
|
Manila |
July 10-21, 1989 |
|
Arrowhead Springs, California |
January 22-25, 1990 |
|
Budapest, Hungary |
June 1-7, 1991 |
|
Azusa, California |
August 30-September 4, 1992 |
Lausanne Committee members (some alternates later became regular members and their names therefore appear in both lists) |
||
|
Rev. Lucien Accad
|
Mr. Jonathan Chiu |
Dr. Leighton Ford |
Mr. Costas Macris |
|
Rev. Manuel L. Scott |
Rev. Thomas Wang |
|
Lausanne Committee alternates (some alternates later became regular members and their names therefore appear in both lists) |
||
|
Mr. Isaac Ababio |
Rev. Simone Ibrahim |
|
Rt. Rev. J.R. Reid |
Rev. Elon Svanell |
Working Groups: These groups, each headed by a LCWE Executive Committee member, oversaw and coordinated specific areas of strategy, planning, operation |
|
|
Intercession Working Group, chaired by Bishop John Reid of Australia, who was succeeded in 1981 by Vonette Bright. |
|
Theology and Education Working Group, chaired by John Stott of England, who was succeeded by John Reid in 1981 (the working group was later renamed the Theology Working Group) |
|
Strategy Working Group, chaired by Peter Wagner of the United States, who was succeeded by Ed Dayton in 1981 |
|
Communications Working Group, chaired by Thomas Zimmerman of the United States, who was succeeded by Horst Marquardt in 1981 (later renamed the Global Communications Working Group) |
|
Leadership Development Working Group |
|
Global CEOs Working Group |
Selected significant events in organizational history for which there are documents in the collection (see a more extensive list the LCWE Web page at http://www.lausanne.org) |
|
1974 |
International Congress on World Evangelization (ICOWE), Lausanne, Switzerland In November 1971, Billy Graham convened a meeting at which he inquired about the advisability of holding another international congress on world evangelization as a follow-up to the 1966 World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin. The purpose of the meeting was to gather the leaders of evangelical Protestant Christians together for strategic planning, inspiration, and fellowship. A Board of Conveners, made up of 164 Christian leaders who had gathered at Graham's invitation, served as the formal governing authority of the Congress. The Planning Committee consisted of thirty-one members, led Dain. Funding for the Congress came from donations and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). The BGEA also provided support by allowing several of its employees to work full- or part-time as staff members or consultants. The Congress office was opened in April 1973, with the staff’s major tasks including selecting the four thousand participants to invite. The Congress (also called Lausanne Congress) met with the theme, "Let The Earth Hear His Voice." In addition to the major plenary addresses (including the open and closing addresses by Graham), the program consisted of Bible studies, demonstrations of evangelistic methods, small group discussions and reports on various aspects of the theology and strategy of evangelism, reports on the situation of the church in various geographic locations, debates by citizens and workers on the strategies necessary for particular nations, Laustade '74 (the evangelistic meeting for the general public held in the city's stadium), and the signing by a large number of the participants of the Lausanne Covenant, a statement intended to define the necessity, responsibilities, and goals of spreading the Gospel. The Congress office was officially closed in October 1974. For more detailed background information on the Congress, see BGC Archives collection 53, Records of the International Congress on World Evangelization. |
1977 |
Homogeneous Unit Principle Consultation, Pasadena |
1978 |
Willowbank or Gospel and Culture Consultation, Bermuda |
1978 |
North American Conference on Muslim Evangelization, Glen Eyrie, CO |
1979 |
U.S. Simple Lifestyle Consultation, in Ventnor, NJ |
1980 |
International Simple Lifestyle Consultation, London, 1980 |
1980 |
Consultation on World Evangelization (COWE), Pattaya, Thailand Following the Lausanne Congress, the LCWE decided to convene a working consultation to evaluate what had happened in world evangelization since the 1974 Lausanne meeting and to develop realistic strategies for the future. LCWE issued a call in 1977 for the Consultation on World Evangelization (COWE) under the theme, "How Shall They Hear?" Gottfried Osei-Mensah and John Howell, LCWE's Executive Assistant & COWE Director of Operations, were also involved in the planning and preparations for the meeting from their office in Nairobi. The Consultation site selected in a deliberate effort to identify with the church in the Third World. The size of the meeting was kept intentionally small to facilitate its task as a working and studying consultation. Participants were selected on the basis of their contribution to world evangelization and their influence in their own national and/or church circles, both at the time and in the projected future. Since COWE was intended to be a study consultation, a broad foundation of study groups was built throughout the world before COWE. Their focus of study was directed on specific groups of people to be reached with the Gospel, with an International Coordinator oversee each of these areas of study. The fruit of the work of the study groups was set down in papers summarizing their findings. The International Coordinator then consolidated the information from these studies and produced a paper summarizing the findings on a worldwide basis. These papers formed the basis for the seventeen Mini-Consultations at the Thailand Consultation. Meetings for interest groups were coordinated to allow individuals with specialized ministries to gather; regional groups also met to facilitate united effort within a geographical region. Simultaneous with the Consultation, the Commission on Cooperation in World Evangelization met to The results of the Consultation included the final papers developed by each of the Mini-Consultations and the resulting compendium of them; the recommendation of the Commission on Cooperation in World Evangelization; audio tapes of the plenary messages; and the ongoing work of the study groups organized prior to the Consultation. |
1980 |
Commission on Cooperation in World Evangelization, Pattaya, Thailand |
1981 |
American Festival of Evangelism |
1982 |
Consultation on the Relationship between Evangelism and Social Responsibility
(CRESR), Grand Rapids |
1984 |
International Prayer Assembly for World Evangelization, Seoul |
1985 |
Consultation on the Work of the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization, Oslo |
1986 |
Third Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, Easneye, England |
1987 |
Singapore '87 (International Conference for Younger/Emerging Christian Leaders) |
1988 |
Leadership '88 (the U.S. Conference for Emerging/Younger Leaders) |
1989 |
International Congress on World Evangelization, Second, Manila, Philippines (also
called Lausanne II) |
1990 |
Moscow Congress on Evangelization |
2004 |
Forum on World Evangelization, Pattaya, Thailand |
2006 |
Lausanne Young Leaders Forum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
Publications (alphabetical by title) |
|
|
Communique |
1979-1980 |
COWE Newsletter |
1980 |
Daily Communique (1980 COWE) |
|
Information Bulletin |
1982-1986 |
Lausanne Communique (newsletter) |
|
Lausanne Occasional Papers (booklets) |
1974 |
Let the Earth Hear His Voice (compendium of Lausanne Congress messages) |
1974-1975 |
News |
|
Prayer Bulletins |
|
World Evangelization |
|
World Evangelization Information Bulletin |
Ministry emphasis |
|
|
To serve as an international catalyst, clearing house, information center, and motivational source for evangelization throughout the world, in part as an Evangelical counterpart to the ecumenical WCC by establishing and fostering an international network of Evangelical leaders, as well as periodically sponsoring conferences and consultations. |
Geographical emphasis |
|
|
Global |
Other significant information |
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Contributing to the long-term impact of the Lausanne Congress in 1974 were the consultations held in 1973 on how best to continue the Congress's goals after the meeting. From these meetings came the first plans for the Lausanne Continuation Committee (LCC), which was established as the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) in 1976. The process of selecting members to constitute the LCC began at the Congress, resulting in the selection of forty-eight people to plan for future consultations and congresses as needed; this number was later expanded to seventy-five. At its inception, Leighton Ford was chosen as LCWE's Chairman and Gottfried Osei-Mensah was designated its Executive Secretary. |
Outline of Collection Arrangement. The collection is arranged according to the following series:
The overall arrangement of the materials in this collection was provided by the archivist. The arrangement of each subseries was kept as it was received from the records creator when an order was discernable. Therefore, because various individuals and offices created and arranged the records, the arrangement of each subseries varies. In some cases, the arrangement follows a generally alphabetical scheme; in others the arrangement is predominantly chronological. In several instances, small accessions followed previous larger ones; these materials were then filed according to the scheme of the subseries to which they were being added. Refoldering of materials by the archivist was intermittent. In cases where the folders were in good condition, the original folders were retained. Those in poor condition were replaced while retaining the original folder title. Completely unfoldered material was foldered and the archivist created the folder title. Only in cases where there was no title did the archivist create one. Duplicate material was removed from the collection and returned to the donor.