Prayer for the World: Lausanne Movement

Week 7: Leadership Development

The Lausanne Movement is a network of ministry and church leaders working towards a world in which there is:

? The gospel for every person

? An evangelical church for every people

? Christ-like leaders for every church

? Kingdom impact in every sphere of society

Church leadership is central, because good leaders enable the whole body of Christ to be productive, with every part doing its work. 

The need for well-trained, proven, wise, godly leadership is urgent, especially in the places where the Church has grown most rapidly, which is usually in the Global South. Throughout the world, there are millions of pastors who are doing the difficult work of leading the church with little to no theological training. A growing gap in theological education leaves the global church susceptible to false teaching, decay, and collapse. Without solid discipleship, training, and leadership, the church falters. False teaching leads the people astray, new Christians never move beyond spiritual milk to solid food, and the church becomes immature, weak, and barren. In many other cases, churches divide or people even abandon the faith, because untrained pastors interpret the Bible erroneously, with devastating effects on their congregations.

Western methods of training (through colleges and seminaries for example) are not always appropriate models for other contexts (sometimes even for the West itself). And at the same time, as in the New Testament, many people seek leadership positions for their own power, status, or personal enrichment.

Pray for:

★ Better discipleship training. Leaders must first be disciples of Christ himself.

★ Specific training in the one key skill that Paul includes in his list of qualifications – ability to teach God’s Word to God’s people.

★ God to raise up a new generation of discipled servant-leaders whose passion is above all else to know Christ and be like him.

(Prayer points from The Cape Town Commitment, a major gathering of evangelical churches in 2010, and the Lausanne Movement’s Leadership Development Network. See Lausanne.org)

Leaders must first be disciples of Christ himself

https://www.lausanne.org/pray