The Lausanne Movement
The Lausanne Movement’s 50th Anniversary in Seoul, Korea
The fourth world congress of the Lausanne Movement will meet this September 2024 in Seoul, Korea, and I’ve had the absolute pleasure to be artistically partnered with my sister-in-Christ Lexie Newsom for this gathering. She and I will be helping to coordinate the arts at the conference and we will also be painting live on stage to visually capture and celebrate the movements of God (as we embody the collaboration we hope to inspire). When I first heard of this 50th anniversary event since the original world congress in Lausanne, Switzerland at the founding of the movement with Billy Graham and John Stott in 1974, I’ve deeply desired to produce an image to capture the scope of time and the scale of “the whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world” (and perhaps I’d add… “To the whole timeline of history: past, present, and future”).
The Lausanne Movement’s 40th Anniversary
“Lausanne Movement 40th Anniversary - Sunflowers. 2014. Oil and gold leaf on birch panel. Approximately 30x40”.
My relationship with the Lausanne Movement began with an unexpected email requesting a commission for the Lausanne Movement’s 40th anniversary. My first thought was… “what’s the Lausanne Movement!?!” To my delight, I quickly discovered that it was the globally unified family of Kingdom hearted evangelical leaders that has, since that time, best embodied to me the most full vision of the world wide “Church” and “Bride of Christ.” I sat in the room the weekend this first painting was revealed with believers from every region of the globe, joined in prayer, postured in honor for one another, and single in purpose to see “the whole Church bring the whole gospel to the whole world.” I had found my people! I had been given an assignment bigger than I had even thought to ask or imagine. I’ve had the privilege to serve as the Artist-In-Residence for the movement since that first commission in 2014.
The Fourfold Lausanne Movement Vision Paintings by Bryn Gillette
The Lausanne Movement was founded in the 1970’s by Billy Graham and John Stott in an effort to unify and coordinate the entire (and at the time fractured) Evangelical church. Through a series of conferences around the globe that served as the largest gathering of Protestant leaders from the most countries ever assembled, a defined identity and points of unified heart and mission were ratified by unprecedented numbers of believers. This new movement represented the global Bride of Christ and brought hundreds of churches, institutions, colleges, ministries, NGO’s, businesses, etc. together, with more joining every year, for the unified purpose of “The whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world.” Four pillars were chosen of the Lausanne Movement’s mission that would unify all its participants and act as a Biblically based guiding stars for the decisions and priorities of the movement.
The gospel for every person
Disciple-making churches for every people and place
Christ-like leaders for every church and sector
Kingdom impact for every sphere of society
I have had the incredible privilege of being the artist-in-residence for the Lausanne Movement for a decade now, working as an artistic ambassador of the Kingdom of God and a visual scribe to this beloved movement and to visualize their four pillars and more. I want to humbly acknowledge that despite whatever skill I have stewarded from God’s gifts to me, the best parts of this work have come through me as a collaborative part of the much larger Body, and not from me. I offer the caution that I will simply provide some ingredients of the thoughts and prayers that went into the making of these works, as a starting place for dialog and discovery, since the best and deepest components of what these paintings truly mean may not even be known yet, and certainly may not come from me.
I was so honored and equally challenged by this opportunity to paint such a monumental subject. What images could possibly capture the magnitude of God's heart for the limitless diversity of humanity and culture? The process of painting was the act of internalizing the Lausanne Movement’s four pillars, and as I have been stretched internally to try to embrace them, I pray these resulting painted prayers would inspire their viewers with an increased passion to mobilize the whole church to bring the whole gospel to the whole world.. Your servant and brother in Christ, Bryn Gillette.
Pillar 1- “The Gospel for Every Person”
Lausanne Pillar 1: The Gospel for Every Person. 32x20”. Acrylic on birch panel. 2016
To highlight some ingredients that were placed in the painting: a central fisherman is casting his net over the entire world (each continent outline in gold), seen from an unexpected, sideways vantage, while a central cross comprised by the equator and international dateline anchor the work. The net sparkles with the burst of blue and white light scattered across the globe as seen from satellite photography of current population densities and prophetically declares our prayer that God’s love would enfold every people group on earth and flood the remaining darkness with the light of the gospel.
Pillar 2- “Disciple-Making Churches for Every People and Place”
Lausanne Pillar 2: Disciple-Making Churches for Every People and Place. 2017 by Bryn Gillette. Acrylic on birch panel. 20x32”.
The New Testament envisions the fully realized global Church as a spotless Bride prepared for her returning Bridegroom, Christ. Standing on the New Jerusalem, this Bride is subtly depicted with her planetary scale feet standing on the literal holy land, holding the flame of the gospel in her hand, while this orange fiery light is carried by diverse believers into every corner of the world. As God’s Word does not return void, the Bride’s gown subsumes untold sparkling blue and white figures of every tribe, tongue, and nation streaming in to comprise her fully realized expression. May our passion to see the “whole Church” fully healed, unified, purified, and restored to her identity as the spotless Bride of Christ compel us to carry the whole gospel to the whole world with humility tempered zeal.
Pillar 3- “Christ-like Leaders for Every Church and Sector”
“Lausanne Pillar 3- Christ-like Leaders for Every Church and Sector.” 2018. 32x20”. Acrylic on wooden panel.
The third pillar of the Lausanne Movement is embodied in the "Good Shepherd" sitting among his sheep. Vignettes surround the central figure suggesting the varied roles these shepherds play throughout the globe, from an iconic image of founder Billy Graham preaching, to young biblical David with his sheep, to a female chaplain in the army and asian pastor serving communion. While wolves hover in the background and allusions to darkness and danger surround the flock, the Good Shepherd sits at the center of his charges with calm strength as a spiritual refuge and friend. May our church leaders throughout the world derive their compassion, wisdom, leadership, and the sacrificial love to lay down their lives for their sheep and wash the feet of their disciples from the true source of these qualities, Jesus Christ.
I wanted to embed the very DNA of what it means to shepherd, impart, and empower into the painting itself, so I invited one of my students, Andrew Knotts, to join me in the early stages of this painting. He and I worked together to pray over the design and sketch the imagery, we built the canvas together, and painted the abstract foundational layers side by side. Andrew painted several of the wolves that can still be seen in the image, and am so grateful for Andrew's generous collaboration.
Pillar 4- “Kingdom Impact in Every Sphere of Society”
"Lausanne Pillar 4- Kingdom Impact in Every Sphere of Society”. 2019. 32x20”. Acrylic on birch panel.
As the fourth and final painting in the Lausanne Movement Pillar series, this piece seeks to sum up the other three works as well as paint a global vision of God’s Kingdom permeating the seven cultural spheres. Remixed again here are the fisherman from pillar 1: “The Gospel for every person”, the Bride from pillar 2: “An evangelical church for every community”, and the Good Shepherd from pillar 3: “Christ-like leaders for every church”. Christ is now crowned as the glorious and triumphant King, but as his upside-down Kingdom subtly infuses each sphere, it is not done as the leaders of this world who lord it over their subjects, but in selfless servanthood (rather than sit on the throne, He kneels to wash His Bride’s feet. The Kingdom is every sphere of society is in relation to the idea that to bring true healing to culture, you must address not only the church, but every other “sphere”:
Family [Michelangelo’s painting, “The Creation of Adam” with the African pyramids]
Religion [The remixed Bride set in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil]
Business [Dubai skyline, United Emirates]
Government [China’s Forbidden City & the Tower of Babel]
Education [Cambridge University, UK] - alma mater of John Stott featured just below.
Art [Sydney Opera House, Australia]
Media [Hollywood, CA, U.S.A.]
Global Workplace Forum Manila, Philippines June 2019
All four sibling paintings met for the first time June 25, 2019 in Manila, Philippines during the unveiling of Pillar 4 at the Lausanne Movement’s “Global Workplace Forum”. There were SO many miraculous moments standing in front of the work… meeting sibling I had painted for years but had never met. It literally felt as though I had stepped INTO my paintings, meeting the people from all over the world that I had spiritually and artistically journeyed beside for the past four years. Equally amazing was the portal that these four paintings opened for those who saw them… an open heaven that allowed them to look through the surface details of what they individually are called to do in Kingdom service to see the grand metanarrative, the universal sweep of calling and scope of God empowering “the whole church to bring the whole gospel to the whole world”. We had many tearful and prayerful moments in front of the paintings, and I rarely made into into the main sessions on time or at all as I would be swept up in meeting my siblings from around the world.
L4 Lausanne Leadership Planning Gathering NYC 2022
In June of 2022, the leadership of the Lausanne Movement met in New York City to prayerfully prepare for the 2024 fourth global congress in Seoul, Korea.
In addition to bringing a new alternate and opposing iteration of the Pillar 2 painting in the form of “The Bride To Be”, I also had the wonderful opportunity to join the leadership again on stage painting live and visually capturing the prayerful digestion of the book of Nehemiah.