|PIC1|The World Evangelical Alliance officially recruited the largest alliance of churches in South Korea on Tuesday, adding to its network of believers from the world’s second largest missionary-sending country after the United States.

Upon joining, the Christian Council of Korea (CCK), a church alliance representing 64 denominations and 21 organisations, renewed its vow to cooperate in world evangelisation nearly two years after it formed a “historic” partnership with the WEA.

“I believe God is glorified through this and He blesses us abundantly," CCK’s president, the Rev Eom Shin Hyung, said during a speech welcoming WEA officials to South Korea.

Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the WEA, meanwhile, praised the churches of South Korea for the “good example” that it can set for the world.

“The passion, vision, and devotion that Korea churches have for evangelism can make a great contribution toward world churches," he stated, according to Seoul-based Christian Today.

Dr Tunnicliffe urged South Korea’s churches to work together to overcome the enormous challenges worldwide.

CCK’s entry into the WEA, which represents 420 million evangelicals, comes as key leaders from the Lausanne Movement are gathered for their biennial meeting at the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary (PCTS) in Seoul.

While leaders hope to maximise the fellowship of the international Lausanne constituency during the June 8 to 12 meeting, most pressing on the agenda will be the confirmation of plans for Cape Town 2010, the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation.

“Many key details of Cape Town 2010 will be finalised in Seoul,” reported Dr Michael Oh, president of Christ Bible Seminary in Japan and a member of the Lausanne Administrative Committee.

“It’s certainly our hope and prayer that the Lord will use Cape Town 2010 to impact to the very ends of the earth,” he added in the Lausanne Movement’s official weblog.

For the upcoming congress, the WEA has partnered with the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation and is playing an important role in Cape Town 2010’s planning and development.

Lausanne III is expected to gather around 4,000 Christian leaders in Cape Town, South Africa, and will link up millions more around the world via satellite when it takes place October 16 to 25, 2010.

The highly anticipated congress will seek to address what one Lausanne official called the “scandal of fragmentation” within the body of Christ, as well as the continuation of mission.