Wanted: No Visa Issues, Fast Wi-Fi, and a Ballroom that Inspires Intimacy with God

This September, about 5,000 Christians will assemble in Incheon, South Korea, for the Lausanne Movement’s Fourth Congress on World Evangelization. Some of them wish Lausanne had picked a location with a better exchange rate and lower hotel prices near the conference venue.

However, local costs are just one of many considerations when global Christian organizations select a conference site. Beyond the common refrain about the shift in Christianity’s center of gravity, numerous other factors have pushed most major global events toward the Majority World, especially Asia.

CT asked leaders of prominent Christian international entities to talk about their site selection process. Their answers depict the complex logistical, diplomatic, and interfaith issues involved in bringing Christians from all over the world together in one place.

For most conference organizers, the single most important concern is choosing a site that everyone can come to. Due to complicated international relations and many affluent countries’ concerns regarding visa abuse, this is a major challenge.

“Whether people from Global South countries could get visas was our number one question,” stated Samuel Chiang, deputy secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), who planned the Future of the Gospel Forum in Istanbul last year. “Canada and the United States accept visitors from about 70 countries without a visa, which sounds like a lot until you are trying to bring people from 200 countries.”

Difficulties in obtaining visas were a key reason why Africans were underrepresented at the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, this year. Their absence affected the vote that resulted in reversing the Methodists’ prior ban on same-sex marriage.

John Criswell, chief people and culture officer for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), oversaw that organization’s 2023 World Assembly in Jakarta, Indonesia, which included 1,000 participants from 180 countries. Criswell said the Indonesian government was very cooperative and ultimately admitted delegates from every country but one.

Criswell added that Mexico, where IFES held its 2015 World Assembly, can be a difficult location because of the problems associated with getting visas for connecting flights through the United States. In 2015, IFES held an adjoining event in Atlanta, which made it easier for people attending both events to get a US visa.

Media Associates International (MAI), which equips Christian writers and publishers across the globe, is holding its triennial LittWorld conference in Puebla, Mexico, this November. MAI president John Maust said they chose Mexico because of a strong core of local support and a desire to make their training more accessible to Spanish-speaking participants. But Maust noted that participants who need a visa for Mexico have been asked for extensive documentation if they do not already have a US visa.

David Bennett, Lausanne’s global associate director, indicated that South Korea has been very accommodating, requiring either no visa or only an electronic visa for a majority of countries, though travelers from some countries have had to provide notarized physical copies of documents.

Bennett, who is also the director of the upcoming Lausanne congress, acknowledged the relatively high cost of lodging in Incheon, near Seoul. But he noted that Korean churches have subsidized planning meetings and have contributed logistical and transportation assistance.

Other factors Bennett cited in Korea’s favor include the Korean church’s recent growth and vitality in missions, making it an inspiring model for Lausanne participants; the growing significance of Asia in global affairs; the availability of a large convention center and abundant hotel space close to the airport; and the perceived opportunity to strengthen the unity and health of the Korean church. (The WEA canceled its 2014 General Assembly, scheduled for Seoul, because of divisions among Korean evangelicals.)

Thailand is a second popular conference destination in Asia, despite its relatively small number of Christians. World Without Orphans (WWO), which facilitates a global movement to reduce the institutionalization of children and to strengthen families, welcomed people from 63 countries this year at its global conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Andrii Fedun, WWO’s events and logistics lead, said his organization favors locations in Asia, especially Thailand, for their simplified visa processes, convenient travel, reasonably priced accommodations, and reputation for welcoming tourists.

Indonesia is another frequent conference option. In addition to the IFES World Assembly, it hosted the last WEA General Assembly in 2019, a WEA emerging leaders event and the IFES World Assembly (both in 2023), and a meeting of the Empowered21 global network of charismatics this year.

Bambang Budijanto, general secretary of the Asia Evangelical Alliance, listed the strength and generosity of the Indonesian church, low costs, a welcoming attitude toward foreigners, ample conference facilities, and interfaith tolerance as attractive features.

“The Indonesian church is growing in number, capacity, and global vision,” Budijanto said. “It is eager to bless other nations.”

Bennett agreed that Southeast Asia is an attractive option for a global congress “if you’re looking for efficient logistics at the least expense. You can find inexpensive flights and housing, large facilities, and major travel hubs.”

Selecting a venue away from a major metropolis can reduce site costs, Bennett indicated, but the inconvenience of arranging ground transportation discourages this option.

Casely Essamuah of the Global Christian Forum (GCF)—which brings together leaders from the WEA, World Council of Churches, Vatican, and Pentecostal World Fellowship—worked through significant logistical challenges to hold a GCF Global Gathering in Ghana last spring.

“Hosting is not easy for Global South leaders,” he explained. “For them, it’s easier to find the money to go elsewhere, even though holding events in the Global North is more expensive. Two of my executive committee members were concerned about the quality of medical facilities in Ghana. I had Westerners wanting to book travel a year in advance and hosts telling me their currency changes its value every few weeks.”

Essamuah hoped to use a church-owned conference center as the venue but eventually abandoned the idea due to inadequate internet access and accommodations. “I can’t put archbishops in a dormitory with 10 people to a room and no internet,” he said.

Instead, the Global Gathering met at a hotel in Accra, the capital city. “That tripled the cost, but we had comfort, internet, safety, and peace of mind. Someone wrote to me afterwards saying this was his sixth trip to Africa and the first time he was assured of a hot shower. What he forgot was that he paid for it.”

The World Council of Churches’ (WCC) site selection process for its general assemblies every eight years resembles the Olympics, with prospective hosts submitting bids. WCC staff then visit each candidate location and write a summary report (without a recommendation) to the WCC’s central committee, which makes the final decision.

Doug Chial, director of the WCC’s office of the general secretariat, highlighted a disability-friendly environment as an important criterion, noting that about 100 of the 4,000 people attending a WCC assembly have some type of disability that requires special consideration.

The WCC prefers a church-owned conference center or a university campus with single-occupancy dorm rooms over hotels. “A university campus reminds people of their student days, and everyone feels equal,” Chial said.

Lausanne does not request formal bids, but Bennett described local interest, as evidenced by invitations and encouragement from Christian leaders in a prospective host city, as a “very significant factor” in site decisions for both the third congress in Cape Town in 2010 and the Seoul-Incheon congress this year.

Meaningful exposure to local churches and local history is important to some groups. The GCF conference in Ghana included a poignant visit to Cape Coast Castle, built by Portuguese traders in the 16th century as a slave trading post. The Religious Liberty Partnership held a global consultation in Abuja, Nigeria, to express solidarity with the church in northern Nigeria as it faced severe persecution. And the WCC recently held an executive meeting in Colombia that included exposure to the peace-building process between the government and the FARC rebel group.

Fedun said that World Without Orphans seeks to hold events “in countries where orphans and vulnerable children face significant challenges but may not have a strong voice,” to raise awareness and support local efforts.

Carrie Reinhard, the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s director for events, said a venue’s family-friendliness is a high priority, because the Alliance encourages participation by families with children at some global conferences. She planned a recent event in Málaga, Spain, where she found an affordable hotel with swimming pools, kid-only areas, and a beach across the street.

Efforts to hold conferences in some locations can arouse objections to the host country’s human rights record. The WEA’s Chiang said he heard concerns about the group’s decision to go to Turkey, “but the head of Turkey’s evangelical alliance is so well regarded that, while we were there, [Turkish president Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan invited him to participate in a ceremony at the opening of a historic church. We were able to make it known to everyone that the president respects evangelicals.”

Another challenge Turkey posed for Chiang was the popularity of smoking, which forced him to look for a hotel with nonsmoking floors and good ventilation. Individually controlled air conditioning units became an important attraction. Furthermore, “we wanted a place with a ballroom conducive to intimacy with God and people,” he said. Chiang sensed that feature at a Radisson hotel in Istanbul, but before deciding, he sent photos and videos to a group of intercessors who prayed with him.

Steffen Zoege, chief operating officer of the mission agency OM International, emphasized the need for assurance that conference participants could speak freely without being observed or monitored. OM has held its recent annual global meetings in Indonesia, Cyprus, and Thailand.

One point on which all interviewees agreed was that, even in the age of virtual events, in-person conferences, despite their cost and logistical demands, are still essential.

For the GCF’s Essamuah, much of the value of global gatherings “isn’t the plenary sessions but the small table conversations where you can go deep with people, and the people you meet while on the bus from the hotel to the venue. You can’t do that with Zoom.”

“You might get some level of connectedness and oneness [virtually], but it’s not intimate enough to close the deal,” Chiang observed. “Christians want to have fellowship with an actual presence, rather than mediated by technology.”

Nevertheless, some organizations now offer a virtual option to those who cannot attend personally. Criswell said the 2023 IFES World Assembly included an online component offered through a secure connection. And Lausanne hopes to have as many virtual as in-person registrants for its upcoming conference. “We want to make the virtual experience as robust as possible for people with economic limitations,” Bennett said. “But 6 hours on Zoom are exhausting, whereas 12 hours of face-to-face contact can be energizing.”

Chial said the WCC encourages online participation but will not permit hybrid decision-making processes because of the imbalance of engagement opportunities between in-person and virtual participants. He added that trying to fit the whole world’s time zones into a single meeting creates a consistent inequity: “It inevitably falls to people in the Pacific to take responsibility for staying awake into the middle of the night.”

Bennett said that for the Lausanne Movement, “reflecting the realities of the global church” remains a crucial driving factor. “Many Latin Americans are having financial struggles getting to Korea,” he lamented. “There are no inexpensive flights. We are working hard to find subsidies for them.” In addition, conference registration costs are generally lower for Majority World participants.

But to reach overlooked groups, there’s no substitute for bringing conferences to where the left-out people are. “When we have a meeting in Africa, we get more Africans,” Bennett averred. “It’s the same in Latin America. We know that many Majority World leaders, when they see a pattern of meetings in Europe or North America, feel they are secondary voices in the conversation. They need to be primary voices.”