Langham Live June 2026 with Carl Moeller, President of Langham Partnership USA, and John Libby, National Director of Langham Partnership UK and Ireland
Event Transcript
John:
It’s my great pleasure and privilege to introduce my friend and colleague, Carl Moeller, who’s speaking to us from San Diego. Carl is my equivalent, our president of the US operation and he’s going to share a little bit from his perspective on that side of the pond, if that’s okay. So Carl, welcome.
Most of the natives here are friendly, and some of them are prayer warriors who will pick up what you say and commit to praying. And that is the value of this time. So you’re speaking from San Diego, You’ve got family there?
Carl:
Yes, we had the opportunity to move to San Diego from Orange County, California a few years ago and my wife is from California originally and has her sister living a bit north of us here in San Clemente.
We have four adult children and three of whom are currently connected to Southern California, which is really wonderful. We have our oldest daughter and her husband and their one-month-old baby is living across the street from us here in Oceanside, California, which is near San Diego. And then our, our next daughter, our son, our next daughter lives in New York City with her husband. He’s just finishing up his graduate school work there. And they’ve also had a grandchild for us in, in early May of this year.
So we are two for two with that one. My son and his wife live in Southern California near Los Angeles about 90 miles away. And they, they also are expecting our third grandchild. So we’re, we’re actually seeing a bumper crop of grandchildren this year. We’re very, very blessed and excited about that. And our youngest daughter is also currently living with us as her husband is a helicopter pilot in the Persian Gulf right now on one of the aircraft carriers there. And so we’re praying for him and his safety and quick return home. He’s, he’s scheduled to return home sometime in July, but it’s looking more and more likely that he won’t, that he’ll be delayed. So, but yes, we live here in, in San Diego County.
We do happen to have a cold front coming through. So sorry to say to all of my UK friends and colleagues, there will be about 16 to 17 degrees this weekend and a little bit cooler than what you’re experiencing there in the UK right now.
John:
Well, some of us might leap on a plane to get over to a more reasonable temperature in California. You know, that’s not bad. So, grandmother and grandfather holding up in all of this?
Carl:
First of all, I am not quite comfortable yet with that moniker, so I’m going to have to adjust a little bit, but we’re doing great. Of course, I always contribute the fact that all of our children are sort of moving back to Southern California to the gravitational pull of mom. And so now Grandmom is quite happy with that reality. And, and you know, I, I, I’m just, I’m overwhelmed by God’s goodness. To us, so far, these two little ones are just, are just precious additions to the family and really very grateful for that.
How Carl came to faith
John:
So, so you’ve got the, the family home in San Diego, and I know you worship at a church there, which we’ll be interested in hearing about in a moment, but can you tell us a little bit about how you first came to know the Lord?
Carl:
You know, sure. I think it’s best to say, you know, I was raised in a Christian family. My, my father had become a Christian with a Billy Graham crusade in New York City when we lived on the East Coast in New Jersey. But it’s fair to say that I didn’t make a real personal faith commitment to the Lord, really, until college. I think I, I had all of the outside religious experiences, but it wasn’t until I was away at college that I made my own adult life a choice to follow Christ. And I would say, of course, it’s never a matter of we choose Christ, but Christ chooses us. And drew me through a ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ in those days to, to really be discipled and to grow in faith. And from there, I joined the staff of Campus Crusade and eventually met my wife on the Crusade staff, and we worked in Eastern Europe for a bit of time and then eventually came back, left staff and went through graduate school, and did a few other things after that.
Ministry in Europe and a front-row seat to historic change
John:
So, so you share with me again where, whereabouts in Eastern Europe, were you?
Carl:
Well, we actually were based at the time, this was prior to the wall coming down. We were based in Western Germany, if you remember the country of West Germany World Cup. Now records are, are often described by World Cup West Germany records. And I was like, oh yeah, I remember West Germany. We used to live there, and we beat them in 1966, just in case people have forgotten. Anyhow, we won’t mention that, mention that at all. Rare occurrence, I have to say, or the hand of God gold. But we won’t talk about that <laughs>.
I honestly believe that there’s, you know, there was a really interesting time to be in Eastern Europe. We worked in Poland, in Hungary and Czechoslovakia for Campus Crusade, doing some obvious visiting churches, mostly persecuted churches during those years. And we were helping them bring about evangelism and discipleship training to their, to their congregations. And then, within a few months, literally of leaving Europe, the Berlin Wall came down and a whole variety of things changed, including your ministry, bore quite a sudden fruit then. Yeah, I won’t exactly make a, a direct correlation, but there was a correspondence to those things at times. Now I, I will say it was, it was a beautiful, amazing time to be there.
One quick anecdote was that I was with our director for the country of Poland, and we were in Warsaw the day that Solidarity was legalised. And one night we went to bed, and the entire straight streets were stolen grey. And the next morning, we woke up and in every window in the city of Warsaw, there were red and white Solidarity flags and posters. And it was, it was a remarkable thing to see that happen. I remember that really well myself. I mean, there were two things with, well, the USA doing that movement, but then also, I think it was around about the height that Gorbachev gave an interview from a balcony in one of the apartment blocks.
And basically, people were saying they wanted to secede from the USSR, and he said, well, where are you going to stop if Poland does or if Warsaw votes, do they cede from Poland and USSR? And he took it right down to if this apartment decides that they want to secede from, does that mean, you know, where are you going to join the line? I mean, it obviously didn’t work in terms of. But it was an interesting logic as to what defines our communities and the right to vote. And so it’s a special time. Yeah, very fascinating, very fascinating time.
Discovering Langham
John:
At some stage, presumably after that, you came across the word Langham. Tell us what happened there.
Carl:
Sure. Well, it was actually a little bit before that when I was in university, I went to a missions conference called Urbana81. And it was at that conference that I heard from John Stott and…
John:
Sorry, John? John who? <chuckles>
Carl:
I’ve had the biggest challenge in taking on the leadership of Langham, as everyone here calls him Uncle John. And I have a great reluctance to call him Uncle John because I never knew him as that. I never actually met him personally. But, but that was the first exposure to the, the vision of the, the majority world church that John Stott so eloquently and powerfully articulated. And we call it the Langham logic today.
But it was later on in my ministry career when I was working primarily with a ministry called Open Doors with Brother Andrew. And I was working alongside many other places around the world where Christians are persecuted. And they were, they were Langham scholars, people like Riad Kassis and people like Hikmat in Lebanon as well, and throughout the Middle East in Cairo and other places where we would go, there were Langham-related people, scholars and authors that I came across and had an incredible respect for the work that Langham was engaged in. Of course, our work was focused on a slightly different direction, but we were there serving the church through the ministry of Open Doors. And many of those church leaders were, in fact, Langham authors or Langham scholars. So that’s how I first came across that.
And then later, I had a more direct connection with Langham through Christopher Wright and the Cape Town Conference, the Luzon Conference I went to in 2010, where Chris Wright wrote the Cape Town Commitment. And I was so impressed with the level of support and engagement with the majority world church. And, yeah, so my, my, my favourable impression of Langham was formed early and often in my ministry career.
Leading Langham US — structure and focus
John:
And you now lead a significant part of that ministry. Has that favourable impression continued after the appointment?
Carl:
Well, with the notable exception of one friend who leads the UKI office, I would say no, with respect, it’s done nothing more than be enhanced. I can only say the closer you get to Langham, the closer you get to the majority world, and the closer you get to the majority world, the more you see this incredible robust richness of faith and, and, and really leadership for all of us as believers.
I don’t believe in a us-and-them model of Christianity in any way. I believe that we are all one in the body. And when I see my brothers and sisters from the majority world leading through their scholarship and their pastoral training and what they’re able to write and produce to bless the whole church. It’s inspirational to me as an American to say, hey, Western Christians, we need this. We are not separated by buying us in them, but we need to integrate the lessons, the leadership of our brothers and sisters. So the closer I’ve gotten to Langham, the more it’s been a deep affirmation of what God is doing throughout the majority world. And let’s pray in the Western world as well through that, through that input.
John:
So can you describe just roughly what the shape of the US operation is and what, what sort of happens, what are the kinds of things that come over your desk, and what team have you got to address them?
Carl:
Yes, great question. And we are so grateful for all of our colleagues globally. The US Organisation is, in some ways, unique because we, we don’t have a singular office. I guess we do have a mailing address, of course, but our staff are located all the way from Washington D.C. and North Carolina on the east coast, all the way here to the southwest of the US or up in Oregon on the Northwest. And we meet regularly to encourage one another and to provide the tools to equip the church in the US to be aware of what the majority world church situation is all about.
I would say our, our primary mission in the US Part of Langham is to bring awareness and engagement with the American church about what God is doing throughout the global church. So it’s really a, it’s really bringing people into robust prayer and engagement through donation and fundraising for the majority of the work that we do around the world. So it’s, it’s a great privilege that I have, and John, I probably speak for you as well, it’s such a joy for me to meet with Americans all over this country and to share the ministry of Langham to bring, to bring it into new communities and new churches, but to also meet with the faithful, prayer supporters and, and those that, that stand with us every day.
So our work has donor relations at the centre. It has a communications team, of course, we have a finance and administrative team that really helps us maintain high integrity with the resources entrusted to us. And then of course we’re also part of this global fellowship, this beautiful network of organisations around the globe, from everywhere, from Hong Kong and in Australia, all the way through the Netherlands, in the UK and we, you know, we try to be good partners in the Langham partnership to help our brothers and sisters around the globe.
John:
Well, thank you. I mean, you just mentioned your marketing team and everything. They produce resources that I think most people on this screen will have benefited from the videos that are prepared for the Vision weekend and a load of marketing materials that we’re all grateful for the team resourcing those.
Carl:
I’ll be sure to share that, that appreciation with them. They do work hard. I like to say to use a, to use a boxing analogy, we punch way above our weight class. You know, we’re a small team relative to a large country, 350 million plus in America, and we have 16, 17 part-time and full-time staff. So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a small staff. Team relative to the big job that they do. And I’m very, very grateful for each one of them.
Christian philanthropy in the US — trends and challenges
John:
How, as you go about your business, so to speak, how are you finding the climate for Christian philanthropy in the U.S.? Is there anything that you can spot there by way of a trend or a gauge, just curiously?
Carl:
Yeah, well, I think it’s interesting and you know, I’ve been in this role in different organisations now for, for a few decades and I, I can tell you the, the volatility economically is still very real for Americans. You may have heard some of the rumours of affordability crisis here in America in terms of housing, or just gasoline or living, and you may have similar experiences over there. We do. I don’t know. But, but it, it’s one thing to say that, you know, philanthropy in general falls at the bottom of people’s list when it comes to affordability. First and foremost will be family. Sometimes they’ll be looking at their long-term savings and how they survive. You know, what can they be doing there? And then maybe down the list a bit will be philanthropic endeavours.
But the one thing I have seen, and I mean this quite sincerely, I’ve been deeply encouraged by the level of faithfulness of Christians in philanthropy, to say in the midst of this current economic instability, we want to be faithful. We want to be, we want to be men and women who trust the Lord in the midst of this and not feed, you know, after all of these other things, some little pittance to the ministries that we support. But we’ve seen some very, very encouraging gifts. It doesn’t mean that people aren’t under pressure, but I think people are, are stepping out in faith. And, I do believe that God is always faithful to us and uses moments like this for us to hone our faith and to trust him as much as he wants us to grow into.
I think that’s our experience as well here. I mean, we are facing some fairly strong headwinds in that particular sector of the donor market. The Christian philanthropic is under pressure because I think there is quite a lot of need, particularly on the social side, at this instant in war zones and things. But you know, it is a privilege being stewards for people’s Christian commitment.
John:
I’ve just taken an hour out of our board meeting to spend time with you. Thank you very much. You guys. Plural. And you know, it’s, it’s an interesting time at the moment in terms of setting budgets and, and trying to meet targets and support the programmes.
Carl:
Yeah. And if I may, John, I think it’s more important than ever that we, as Langham, whether we’re in the UK or in the US to, to call people, to an attitude of faith and prayer and to, you know, to be the verbal encouragers of people, to, to stand in the midst of this and to be part of, you know, whatever it is that God is laying on people’s heart to, to be that encouraging word back to people to say, God will be faithful. He’s faithful to us. And we say that to our brothers and sisters in the majority world as well.
You know, we want to do everything we can to continue to provide as much as we can for those ministries that are doing such incredible work. And so I believe that this is a time where we are standing, we are being called to stand up for that. And, I think I see God enabling people to do that with us.
Prayer and a unified global vision
John:
In a few moments, we’ll be dividing into small prayer groups, and you’ve kindly sent some prayer topics which will be made available in the chat box. That means that folks, when we go into the prayer cells, you haven’t had to get writer’s cramp taking down the prayer topics from Carl, so that they’re all available for us in the groups. But I wonder, just before we do that, whether you’d like to point us in a particular direction and, you know, feel free to not be so discreet as you might have to be in writing them down or to expand where you think, but give us something that maybe you found difficult to express or, you know, thanks or.
Carl:
Thank you. I think many of the folks on this call will already be aware of some of the general principles behind these prayer points. That’s not to say that because they’re familiar, they need to be less. We need to be less reminded of them. But I want to say one thing, particularly about the last one, the Unified Vision through Langham Partnership Worldwide.
The reason I want to just highlight that one is several years ago now, it’s well out of print, but I wrote a book called The Privilege of Persecution. What the Global church knows that we don’t. And I really believe in this idea that there needs to be a unified, a unification, if you will, of what God is doing throughout the globe.
There’s an incredibly encouraging story being told right now among our brothers and sisters worldwide. The church is growing. It’s growing at an enormous rate. I think by some estimates, over 80% of the Christians in the world will live outside of North America and Europe by the year 2030. I mean, that is, that is an incredible fact and a story to be told. And so when I say the leadership of the majority world church is the leadership of the church globally, I’m not just. I’m not just saying that in a wishful way. I think John Stott’s vision 50 years ago is actually being fulfilled.
Where the church is growing so rapidly, there’s a need for Langham more than ever in those places. And we need here in the west to learn what they have experienced too, to adopt a posture that says humbly, where God is growing, the church is where we need to be listening to what he’s saying to that church.
And, I think this unified vision of the church writ large across the world is something that I feel is something we need to pray for. That, that we in the west need to be completely given over to the idea that when God is moving, he doesn’t work by our frameworks, he works by his and his spirit moves. And it’s moving right now in the majority world. So I really believe that it’s our responsibility to engage with our brothers and sisters there, to joyfully respond where they have needs and to joyfully receive where they have abundance in terms of their experience and to learn from them and to truly rebalance this equation in a unified vision.
John:
Well, thank you. I’m sure you can be confident that there will be people praying into that today and onwards.
For more about Langham Partnership and how you can join us in prayer and support the majority‑world church through resources, training and scholarship, visit Langham Partnership UK & Ireland: https://uk.langham.org
Prayer Points
- For Growing Awareness Among US Believers
Pray for LPUSA as we work to share the needs of the majority world church with a wider audience across the United States. Ask God to open doors for new conversations and connections, so that more believers become aware of the urgent needs of the global church and are moved to partner in this vital mission of equipping pastors. - For the Global Church to Experience Healthy Growth
The global church is experiencing incredible growth, often in areas characterised by poverty, pressure, and great potential. Pray for the pastors leading these expanding congregations—many of whom lack formal training—that they would receive the equipping they need to effectively shepherd their flocks and foster deep, biblical discipleship amidst rapid change. - For the Multiplication of Local Leaders
To meet the overwhelming challenge of training enough pastors for a rapidly growing global church, pray for the local theological leaders. Ask God to grant them strength, endurance, and wisdom as they train others, multiplying their impact and creating self-sustaining movements of biblical preaching in their own countries. - For the Expansion of Culturally Relevant Resources
As the church grows worldwide, the need for solid, accessible biblical resources grows with it. Pray for Langham’s publishing efforts, that God would provide the means to produce and distribute more books written by local leaders. Pray that growing churches will have access to materials that speak deeply to their unique cultural contexts. - For a Unified Vision Through Langham Partnership Worldwide
Pray that Langham events and the sharing of global impact stories will deeply resonate with the US audience. Ask that these testimonies of God’s work will bridge the gap between the US and the Majority World, inspiring a shared vision, joyful generosity, and a united front in facing the beautiful challenges of global church growth.