Over the next three years, the Movement hopes to see evangelism in Australia transformed, as a newly restructured Lausanne helps gather likeminded people together to be more strategic and share ideas.
Julie-anne has worked for the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students on Australian university campuses for nearly 13 years, focusing on reaching the university campus with the good news, helping students explain their faith and encouraging them to live faithful, outward looking lives. She lives in Melbourne and attends Greensborough Anglican Church with her husband Andrew and their four children. She is also the Victorian Co-ordinator for Arrow Leadership Australia, and last year, Julie-anne helped launch the e-Network, to encourage young evangelists to use and develop their gifts.
After going to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town 2010, Julie-anne was appointed to a Working Committee to help develop a plan for the future of the movement in Australia. This Committee has come up with a plan to restructure the movement, starting with identifying 9 areas they hope to gather people under:
• Truth and Proclamation
• Public Culture Influence and the Created Order
• Unity and Partnership
• Evangelistic Churches
• Personal evangelistic discipleship
• Evangelistic Leadership
• Justice, Poverty and Reconciliation
• Cross-cultural and other faiths
• Demographics and the Marketplace
In her new role as Chair of the ALC, Julie-anne is convinced building relational networks across denominations and state divides is key to developing evangelism in Australia.
"There are lots of people doing evangelism. But this is about saying, let's learn from each other and ask how we can do even better" she says.
As part of the planning process, the committee engaged McCrindle Research to analyse the needs of Christian leaders and their awareness of Lausanne.
The research revealed that:
• Aussie Christian leaders are busy, but they value evangelism and want to give it more of a priority.
• They see the need for a movement that builds bridges across denominational boundaries, mobilises churches and resources lay people.
Julie-anne says the survey shows the potential for Lausanne to provide people with an inspirational, supportive network of colleagues that goes beyond their existing connections.
She says the potential to harness resources and ideas is limitless.