October 4, 2017
Ed Stetzer, Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism, and the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center, joined the Lausanne Movement as its regional director for North America. Stetzer succeeds Tom Lin who is now serving as president of InterVarsity USA.
As a regional director, Stetzer will provide Christ-centered, strategic leadership to the Movement’s North America region. He will collaborate with evangelical leaders across the globe and across generations, connect people with the Lausanne Movement, and host a yearly gathering for North America.
Stetzer sees his roles with Lausanne and the Billy Graham Center of Wheaton College as synergistic.
“Since Rev. Billy Graham helped launch the Movement in 1974, Lausanne International has played a critical role in uniting and mobilizing evangelicals around common core biblical beliefs and issues,” Stetzer said. “It only seems fitting that the Lausanne expression in North America would be in partnership with the Billy Graham Center 40 years later.”
Working together means both organizations accomplishing their missions. “I am thrilled to find ways to integrate the work we are doing here at the Center with Lausanne North America and vice versa. It’s a partnership with the greatest goal: seeing the gospel shared and Christ elevated in word and deed in all parts of society and daily life.”
Of the appointment Philip G. Ryken, president of Wheaton College, said “Ed Stetzer is a difference-maker for sharing the gospel across America. With his remarkable capacity for networking, his appointment as Lausanne’s Regional Director for North America is a natural fit that will advance evangelism worldwide.”
The Lausanne Movement connects and mobilizes evangelical leaders to collaborate for world evangelization. Stetzer brings to the Movement his influence and leadership in evangelism, missiology, pastoral ministry, and church planting.
“I am honored to serve as Lausanne Regional Director for North America. As one who is passionate about convening people around the critical issues of our day, I am excited for how God will orchestrate the next decade and more so that we can work together to see more people reached with the gospel.”
Dr. Ed Stetzer is a prolific author and well-known conference speaker who has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, and has trained pastors and church planters on six continents. He holds two master’s degrees and two doctorates, and has authored or co-authored a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 1 million individuals each week.