The Resource Mobilisation Working Group – background, activities
during Cape Town 2010 and a look beyond the Congress

The Resource Mobilisation Working Group (RMWG) grew out of a meeting during the Lausanne Biannual Leadership Conference in 2006 when Ram Gidoomal, his wife Sunita, Paul Schultheis and Terry Douglass met to discuss how more resources could be mobilised for world mission.

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation then asked Ram to become the leader of a Working Group within the Lausanne movement that could enable the discovery, development, and deployment of God’s resources for world evangelization.

After a number of consultations a North American Resource Mobilisation Working Group was established in 2009 with David Wills of the National Christian Foundation as chairperson. In December 2009 the first steps were taken to develop an International Resource Mobilisation Working Group that now consists of Christian leaders from 10 countries.

In April 2010 Geoff Tunnicliffe of the World Evangelical Alliance invited the RMWG to become a joint initiative between the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation and the World Evangelical Alliance.

The vision of the RMWG is ‘A global culture of generosity and effective stewardship of God’s resources to support outreach’. The RMWG believes that at the beginning of the 21st Century an unprecedented opportunity exists to make this vision a reality through discipling the church in holistic stewardship. Estimates are that as much as $20 billion more could be invested annually in the Kingdom of God if Christians globally can be encouraged to give 1% more of their income to Kingdom causes. However, a better understanding of generosity and stewardship through Biblical teaching on generosity and stewardship is needed to help Christians become more generous and better stewards.

The Lausanne/WEA Congress on World Evangelisation in Cape Town in October 2010 presents a unique opportunity to share this vision of a global culture of stewardship to the wider Christian community and to catalyze a global Christian generosity movement. The RMWG is therefore involved in the following activities during the Congress:

  1. A Multiplex Session with the title ‘The Stewardship Dilemma – why, how, where?’ on Tuesday 19 October. 9 speakers from 8 different countries will share perspectives from different parts of the world during this session while videos of examples of generosity from different parts of the world will be shown;
  2. 4 Dialogue Sessions on ‘Resourcing world evangelization in the 21st Century’; ‘Global Generosity - launching networks to catalyse increased global Christian giving and enable better stewardship of resources’ ‘The Communion of Giving and Receiving’; and ‘The Lausanne Standards . . . a series of agreements to empower effective giving and receiving of money in mission’. These Dialogue Sessions will form the platforms to launch Global Generosity as global generosity movement and the Lausanne Standards;
  3. Distributing copies of Stewardship Study New Testaments and Resource CDs that include amongst others Bible study material on generosity and stewardship;
  4. Distributing copies of a collection of Lausanne Occasional Papers prepared by the RMWG for Cape Town 2010 under the title ‘Kingdom Stewardship’.
  5. Distributing Global Generosity Questionnaire’s to understand Christian giving in different countries and start making contact with people who could get involved in local, national and regional Generosity Networks;
  6. Distributing Global Generosity Surveys to understand Christian giving better.

Though Cape Town 2010 will be an opportunity to start a process towards a global Christian culture of generosity and stewardship, the Resource Mobilisation Working Group realizes that Cape Town 2010 is just the beginning of such a process. The RMWG is therefore looking forward to work after Cape Town 2010 with national and regional Evangelical Alliances and other Christian networks to catalyze Generosity Networks and encourage Biblical teaching on stewardship in local communities, countries and regions that will facilitate increased Christian giving and better stewardship of God’s resources worldwide.

For further information on the Resource Mobilisation Working Group contact:
Ram Gidoomal (Resource Mobilisation Working Group Chairperson): ramgidoomal@gmail.com
Dr Sas Conradie (Resource Mobilisation Working Group Coordinator): sas.conradie@cms-uk.org