About 5,000 church leaders, missionaries, theological educators, younger Christian leaders and marketplace professionals are expected to converge on Abuja for the Lausanne Nigeria Congress 2026, the first national Lausanne gathering in the country in more than a decade.
The four-day congress, scheduled for October 27 to 30 at the National Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, will bring together delegates from major Christian denominations and all six geopolitical zones under the theme, _“Let the Church Declare and Display Christ Together.”_
Organised by Lausanne Nigeria Christian Missions, the congress is the Nigerian national expression of the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation, which brought together more than 5,000 Christian leaders from over 200 countries in Incheon, South Korea, in September 2024.
According to the organisers, the Abuja gathering will provide a national platform for Christian leaders to deliberate on issues affecting evangelisation, missions and the role of the Church in contemporary society.
The congress will feature plenary sessions, issue network deliberations, intercessory prayer, intergenerational dialogue and a public commissioning.
Discussions will focus on frontier missions and unreached peoples, theological education, faith in the public square, business as mission, media and digital innovation, diaspora and migration, as well as student and youth ministry.
National Chairman of Lausanne Nigeria and General Secretary of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Rev. Dr Yunusa Sabo Nmadu Jnr, said the gathering was intended for the wider Nigerian Church rather than a select group of Christian leaders.
“Nigeria is no longer merely a mission field. She is a mission force. More than fifteen thousand Nigerian missionaries are already serving in over fifty countries, while within our own borders more than forty peoples still wait for the gospel. This Congress is not for a select few. It is for the whole Church, the whole gospel, the whole world,” he said.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Lausanne Nigeria Christian Missions and Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev. Dr Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba, said the congress would provide an opportunity for different sections of the Church to work together.
“For too long we have laboured in parallel. Denominations building alone. Agencies running alone. Generations praying alone. This is our God given moment to come together as one body, one gospel and one mission force for the nations,” Ndukuba said.
The Lausanne Movement was established following the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, convened by evangelist Billy Graham.
The movement has since organised major global congresses, including gatherings in Manila in 1989, Cape Town in 2010 and Incheon in 2024, with the Lausanne Covenant, Manila Manifesto, Cape Town Commitment and Seoul Statement providing key frameworks for its global mission agenda.
The Nigerian congress follows a Global Mission Conversation hosted by Lausanne Nigeria in Abuja in March 2026, which brought together church, mission and workplace leaders to discuss strategic collaboration for global impact.
The organisers said registration for the October congress is currently open and will close on September 30, 2026.
Nigerian delegates are expected to pay N50,000, while international delegates will pay $200. Group registration is also available to denominations, mission agencies, seminaries and professional fellowships sending multiple delegates.
The organisers also said sponsorship opportunities would be available for frontier missionaries, younger leaders and delegates from under-resourced regions.
Institutions interested in deeper participation may apply to serve as hosting organisations for the congress.
