Leaders and advocates engaged in ministry with children lament the lack of focus on children at the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Lausanne 4). While appreciating some expressions of interest in the younger generation, none of the key collaboration groups feature an intentional focus on including children in their strategizing, they say. In response, they wrote brief informational papers highlighting how children are affected by issues related to each of the 25 mission gaps Lausanne identified.
Lausanne’s Children-at-Risk Issue Network, which was formed after the Congress in Cape Town in 2010, responded to Lausanne’s State of the Great Commission report expressing concern about the silo approach that ignored the impact of the various issues on children.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Dr. Susan Greener, formerly Lausanne's catalyst for children-at-risk, said, “By placing numerical emphasis on the Middle Class and aging populations, the Church is ignoring the commands of Jesus to care for the ‘least of these,’ the same children who are Jesus’s model of His Kingdom.”
She points out that “the U.N. population report released in June 2024 indicates that though there may be fewer children in richer countries, population growth worldwide by 2050 is predicted to be in the poorest regions (sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia) with the most challenges. Why are we pitting the young against elders and the middle class? A world that is fit for children is one that is good for all people and sustainability.”
The Lausanne Cape Town Commitment (2010) contains a strong statement in support of children, she says, as it challenges the Church to “take children seriously”, reflecting theologically on God’s love and purpose for them. It also calls on the Church to “train people and provide resources to meet the needs of children worldwide, wherever possible working with their families and communities.” It emphasizes that this kind of holistic ministry is a “vital component of world mission.”
And thirdly, it points to the need for the Church to “expose, resist, and take action against all abuse of children, including violence, exploitation, slavery, trafficking, prostitution, gender and ethnic discrimination, commercial targeting, and willful neglect.”
She recounts that Lausanne’s Children-at-Risk Issue Group was formed following the Congress and worked on equipping the Church to fulfill these tasks. She commends the group’s efforts and commitment to God’s mission serving children, but wonders why, “despite 14 years of effort, the Church-at-large and the Lausanne Movement have yet to embrace full inclusion of children in the Church and on mission?”
“We are grateful and rejoice in how the Global Listening report demonstrates widespread interest in younger generations. The analysis states that the following terms are frequent and consistently mentioned in global input: youth, the young, younger generation, GenZ, etc,” she said.
While recognizing that ‘listening to the younger generation’ emerged as an important theme and that ‘involvement’ signaled the need for actual engagement, she lamented that “the term ‘children’ is used far less often and the risks, particularly that of poverty, which is the foundation of nearly all serious risk for children and their caregivers, is mentioned only once.”
“We once again call upon the global Church, and especially participants in Lausanne 4, to lament our shortcomings and repent of the ways the Church has not fulfilled its responsibility to children; for the suffering and exploitation of children-at-risk; for how our mission efforts have undervalued children as co-laborers with us,” she concludes.
Echoing her concern, Phil Green, Lausanne’s Catalyst for Children-at-Risk and CEO of VIVA – Together for Children commented to Christian Daily International that the opening session provided a wonderful example of the importance of children in Jesus’s ministry, with the reference to the critical role a child played in the feeding of the 5,000.
“However, we are concerned about the lack of attention given to children – in general, and children at risk specifically. Especially given that the majority of Christians in the world today made their decision to follow Christ as a child. And, also, given the focus on looking forward to 2050 – a child born today, will be 26 then,” he said
“Menchit Wong reminded us during the celebration of Lausanne’s 50th anniversary that we must not only talk about children, but we must be listening to their voices.”
He emphasized that it is essential that children be part of the conversation “in every single gap”, especially as the conversations are being framed about imagining the world in 2050. “We can’t silo children – they are an integral part of our churches, and the topic of every gap has implications for them. And, children should have a voice into every gap.”
Therefore, a team led by Lucy Hefford, VIVA’s researcher of theology and practice, researched each topic, considering the current realities of children around the world, and how each of the Lausanne 4 Gaps intersects with children-at-risk. They then wrote up briefing papers for each gap that they hope will inform the discussions of each of the collaborative groups.
“We presented a ‘call to action’ for each briefing paper, which calls those who are working on each gap to keep children at risk on the agenda as they discuss and collaborate together,” Hefford says.
Their hope is that children will not be seen as an add on, and optional extra, but that participants would understand God’s heart for children and recognize their centrality in mission, and how critical they are for the future of the Church and fulfilment of the Great Commission.
“If the Global Church won’t champion and support the world’s most vulnerable children, who will?” she asks, and adds: “We have a clear mandate from Jesus to care for those marginalized in society – to miss this at the Fourth Lausanne Congress is a grave omission from the Great Commission.”
The 25 briefing papers can be accessed here.
