Contact: Naomi Frizzell, Director of Communications, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, 904-262-5202, nfrizzell@lausanne.org

BOSTON, April 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization has named Dr. Stan Toler as the Lausanne Senior Associate for Stewardship. In creating this position, Lausanne Executive Chair Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall said that "Biblical Stewardship is an issue of paramount importance to the global Christian community. We must seek ways to use our resources more effectively to advance the cause of world evangelization."

Dr. Toler is Senior Pastor at Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA. He is also a best-selling author, international speaker and executive director of the Toler Leadership Center at Mid-America Christian University.

Lausanne's Treasurer, Dr. Roger Parrott, President of Belhaven College in Jackson, MS USA, says Toler is passionate about helping Christians understand the worship and the joy in giving. Parrott added, "Stan is especially gifted in connecting the best ideas of stewardship across the distinctives of cultures and denominations in order for the whole Church to join in the blessings that come when our resources are committed to God's purpose."

Toler's passion is holistic stewardship, a term he uses to include more than stewardship of money but also stewardship of life. Toler says, "The world has used the term stewardship almost more effectively than the church. We need to reclaim the word because stewardship is discipleship." Discipleship, Toler adds, includes the appropriate use of what God entrusts to every person – time, talent, treasure and touch, which he defines as stewardship of relationships. Stewardship is critical to helping Christians be effective witnesses for Christ, Toler believes, because it involves the daily living out of a relationship with Christ in connection with others and the world around us. The ultimate stewardship, emphasizes Toler, is "redeeming the times," recognizing the urgency to tell others about Christ. Stewardship is not just a western concept, stresses Toler. Christian leaders worldwide recognize the importance of stewardship and he has had the privilege of traveling to dozens of countries to share a vision of the "cycle of victorious giving."

Lausanne Background

The 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization, called by Rev. Billy Graham, Bishop Jack Dain, Rev. Dr. John Stott and others, affirmed the need for a global emphasis on evangelization and established what is now known as the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. The Congress also produced the historic Lausanne Covenant which has been used more widely than any document in modern times to unite evangelicals. The Manila Manifesto, developed at the 1989 Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization, reaffirmed the Lausanne Covenant and the call to "Proclaim Christ Until He Comes." Through these and other documents and subsequent gatherings, the Lord has blessed Lausanne as it seeks to serve, unite, energize and mobilize the body of Christ to focus on evangelization.