The Lausanne Movement has named Tom Lin as new International Deputy Director (IDD) for North America. He succeeds Jim Tebbe on 25 June, joining a team of twelve, covering the world. Tom, Vice President of Missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA www.intervarsity.org, is Director of the Urbana Student Missions Convention. After graduating from Harvard in 1994, he served on the InterVarsity/USA staff and as HR Director for a Fortune 500 company. Then in 2002 he and his wife Nancy left for Mongolia where they spent more than four years working to establish an evangelical student movement.
Lindsay Brown, Lausanne Movement International Director, said, ‘Tom Lin demonstrates fine leadership and brings an unusual combination of skills. He is a vision-caster, a planner and a manager. I look forward to working with him to advance the cause of the gospel, as we encourage the global Church to bear witness to Jesus Christ and all his teaching in every area of the world and in every sphere of society.’
Tom Lin, who serves as Vice-Chair on the board of Wycliffe Bible Translators, said: ‘The Lausanne Movement connects those who are most passionate for God’s mission around the world. North America still has much to share. We need to discern what our best contributions might look like in the future.’
He added: ‘The Cape Town Commitment [issuing from the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization] calls for gospel partnership between churches and agencies and across borders. It gives a keen sense of urgency for the work to be done in North America. Many of us lament over today’s staggering biblical illiteracy and exodus of young adults from the Church. There are reasons for concern, but I’m hopeful about the future of the North American Church.’
From experience in the Urbana Convention (jointly hosted with the Canadian IVCF and the French-Canadian Groupes Bibliques Universitaires et Collégiaux) and the wider church, Tom Lin believes the next generation of North Americans will make a strong contribution in global missions. ‘Today’s students think globally, engage inter-racially, cross cultures more easily and reach across the old sacred-secular divide,’ he said. ‘They have a collaborative spirit, and take action, with a “Why not?” approach. There are thousands of gifted evangelists graduating from universities every year. The future looks bright because of what God can and, I believe will do through this generation.’
Tom Lin will participate in The Lausanne Movement leadership meeting in Boston 20-24 June.
