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As we prepare for Lausanne Three,
to be held, in Cape Town in October 2010,
to commemorate the World Missionary Conference
held in Edinburgh in 1910.
In many ways we find ourselves in a new situation.
On the one hand, we are facing new challenges.
For example, there is the specter of global warming,
which adds new urgency to our evangelism.
And, then there is the ***/AIDS pandemic,
which is probably more serious than most leaders
are prepared to concede.
And then there is a growing hostility to the gospel
in many parts of the world.
Together with the persecution
which accompanies it.
New challenges.
On the other hand,
there are new reasons for confidence.
First, there is the new alignment.
With the extraordinary growth of the church
in the global south.
Secondly, there are the new technologies
facilitating new means of communicating the gospel.
Thirdly, there is the new unity in the gospel.
The fatal flaw at Edinburgh 1910
was the deliberate decision to exclude doctrinal questions
from the agenda, since it was thought impossible
to achieve unity.
But at Cape Town, we were already agreed about the gospel.
This, the Lausanne Covenant,
as affirmed and elaborated in the Manila Manifesto.
Fourthly, there is the new leadership.
As we saw at the Young Leaders Conferences
in Singapore 1987, and Malaysia 2006,
God has been raising up a remarkable new leadership,
gifted and committed, who are already in place
in preparation for Lausanne Three.
They have my full confidence.
At the same time as we share these confidences
we also reaffirm that our ultimate confidence
is in God himself.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
whose gospel it is that we are seeking to proclaim.