Gathering of International Pastors and Leaders Kicks Off Synergize 2020 Conference
ORLANDO, January 28, 2020 – More than 100 Global Church Network (GCN) international core leaders assembled over the past two days in Orlando, Florida, for its annual Global Leadership Meeting to strategize God’s work in fulfilling the Great Commission worldwide.
The leadership meeting occurred prior to the start of Synergize 2020, the 10th biennial conference of GCN that will take place January 28-30, 2020, and be livestreamed and attended by more than 850 international church leaders representing more than 100 denominations and 60 countries – from Cape Town to Kathmandu.
GCN, formerly known as Billion Soul Network, was co-founded in 2001 by current GCN President James O. Davis and Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade (now Cru), with a mission to plant 5 million new churches around the world with the goal of saving 1 billion souls.
“Since then, we have remained faithful to our vision and last November 7, surpassed our initial goal,” Davis said. “Now, as we enter a new decade, we are racing to the finish line, and God is continuing to grow the network. What started as two individuals representing two denominations has expanded to include more than 660,000 churches worldwide representing over 2,600 denominations.
“But there is still much to be done, as there are more than 3,000 unreached people groups who have never heard the Gospel,” Davis added, emphasizing that can only be accomplished by continuing to work together. “Synergize means to add compounding value by affirming others, rather than seeking credit for oneself.”
During the leadership meeting, Davis recognized and honored four individuals who have modeled exemplary collaborative leadership. These included presentations of two annual Synergize Awards given to Dr. David Mohan, co-founder of New Life Assembly in Chennai, India, which averages more than 50,000 weekly attendance and whom Davis described as the “spiritual father of India,” and Dr. David Sobrepeña, senior pastor of Word of Hope Christian Church in Manilla, The Philippines, which averages 61,000 in attendance each weekend.
Rev. Edmund Chan, founder of the Global Alliance of Disciple-Making Churches received the Global Church Teacher Award, for being “an extraordinary leader, multiplier and disciple-maker.” The Global Church Ambassador Award was given to Dr. Glenn Burris, president of Foursquare Church, in recognition for his tireless efforts in representing the Church around the world.
As GCN looks to reaching its next goal through the initiative FINISH 2030, leaders gave special emphasis to focusing on two of the hardest places in the world to reach with the Gospel. These included more than 57 million people without a church living in 20,000 villages high in the Himalaya Mountains spanning 1,500 miles through the “Give Me This Mountain’ initiative.
“We want to begin with the highest villages,” Davis told three Nepalese church-panting pastors attending the conference. “If we start there, everything else is downhill.”
Rev. Lazarus Yeghnazar, a refugee Iranian pastor who is broadcasting the gospel into Iran and the Iranian global diaspora, gave an update on the religious landscape in that nation that has resulted in “an unprecedented hunger for the Gospel. As a result, the fastest growing church in the world is in Iran, as mosques are empty but churches are developing.”
The progress shared during the Global Leadership Meeting will carry over to Synergize 2020 which began Jan. 28. The conference allows pastors and influential leaders the opportunity to mobilize for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Additionally, the groundwork for FINISH 2030 will begin at Synergize 2020. Speakers at this year’s event include James O. Davis, Kenneth Ulmer, Paul Daugherty and Luke Barnett. A full list of speakers, the conference schedule and livestream information can be found at synergize.tv.
About Global Church Network
As a part of the international Body of Christ representing different church organizations around the world, the Global Church Network (GCN) recognizes its role and responsibility in fulfilling the Great Commission, which leadership prays and aims to accomplish by the 2,000th anniversary of the Church in 2030.
Priorities include finding the remaining unreached people groups around the world and engaging them through denominational and organizational platforms for the purposes of cultural understanding, missional strategies, Bible translation, evangelism, church planting and discipleship, and challenging national churches to translate the Bible into every remaining language and place a missionary presence in the unreached communities.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: For questions about the conference, livestream information or to arrange an interview, please contact Kristin Nill at knill@alarryross.com or 248-231-1766.