You Are Invited To The 2000th Birthday of the Church

I write to update you on a powerful story; a revolutionary journey. You are invited to mark your calendars for the Synergize 2030 Conference scheduled for June 9-11, 2030, in Jerusalem, Israel. At Synergize 2030, we will begin celebrating the 2000th Birthday of the Church. Yet, how did we arrive to this historic point in time?

BIRTH OF A VISION

In March, 2015, Dr. Leonard Sweet, renown author/leading evangelical and CoChair/Global Church, and I were talking about the 500th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther, nailing his 95 thesis on Castle Church door, in Wittenberg, Germany. While talking together, Dr. Sweet asked, “James, I wonder if the Church will celebrate this historic landmark?”

I could not get his question out of my mind, “I wonder if the Church will celebrate the 500th Anniversary?” I researched that question for many weeks and concluded that no meaningful celebration was going to take place. In other words, we were not going to copy anyone or another organization. With that in mind, I made an appointment Dr. Hana Kasparick, President of the Wittenberg Seminary, who also managed Castle Church. After the appointment was confirmed, I flew to Berlin, took a train to Wittenberg, and walked to the Wittenberg Seminary.

At 11:00am, Dr. Kasparick and I met and confirmed that the final day of the Wittenberg 2017 Congress, November 1, 2017, would be held at Castle Church. The Billion Soul Network, was the only ministry in the world permitted to use Castle Church on this day. Even though October 31, is the day that Dr. Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis, it was on November 1, when the 95 Thesis were read and the Reformation began. In the Catholic tradition, this is All Saints Day.

BUILD THE VISION

For two and a half years, our team prepared for the Wittenberg 2017 Conference, which esdscheduled to convene on October 30-November 1, 2017, in Berlin and Wittenberg, Germany. Our featured speakers are highlighted below.

Within the matter of months, the Wittenberg 2017 Congress was sold-out. Key leaders made their plans to come from all 12 major world regions.

During the Wittenberg 2017 Conference, the Billion Soul Network and the Global Church Network launched FINISH throughout the Body of Christ. The FINISH acronym was written by Dr. Timothy Hill, General Overseer of the Church of God, Cleveland, TN. FINISH stands for Find, Intercede, Network, Invest, Send and Harvest. These are the six steps to the Finish Line, or the completion of the Great Commission.

Additionally, we were blessed by the Praise And Worship Team from Word of Hope, Manila, Philippines. Dr. David Sobrepena, CoChair/East Asia for the Global Church Network and Founder of Word of Hope, brought an amazing team to the Wittenberg 2017 Congress.

The Finish Declaration
Castle Church Wittenberg, Germany

As a part of the Body of Christ, representing different church organizations, from different groups of believers from every world region, we come together to make the following commitments to FINISH the Great Commission.

We commit to FIND the rest of the unengaged, unreached people groups around the world and to engage them through denominational and organizational platforms for the purposes of cultural understanding, missional strategies, Bible translation, evangelism, church planting and disciple- ship. We will strive to have a Bible in every language and a missionary presence in the remaining 3000 unengaged, unreached people groups by 2030;

We commit to INTERCEDE throughout the entire Body of Christ for harmony in the Church, humility before Christ, healing of the sick and harvest of the lost. We will study ourselves to death and pray ourselves back to life again! We will pray to know our part in God’s heart and our role in God’s goal. We will ask our Lord to send a sweeping, weeping, reaping revival like this world has never witnessed before;

We commit to NETWORK for the synergizing and mobilizing the entire Body of Christ toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Even though we have may have come from different streams of Christianity, we recognize all of us are in the mighty river of salvation today! We pledge to not allow our egos and logos to stop us from tying relational knots for global impact throughout the Global Church and to the ends of the earth;

We commit to INVEST our time, thoughts, talents, temples and treasures into unengaged, unreached people groups and into the Kingdom of God worldwide. We choose to not duplicate the efforts of our fellow-servants and spend our God-given resources wisely. We will encourage Christ-followers everywhere to move from criticizing to complementing, from complaining to connecting and from competing with each other to completing Great Commission together. We do not care who gets the credit as long as God gets the glory!;

We commit to SEND missionaries not only to regions where the Gospel is, but into regions where the Gospel is not in order to consistently move toward the finish line. We will measure our local church’s success not only by seating capacity but by the sending capacity. We have moved from the West going to the Rest to the Best around the world going to the Rest of the world. The mission field has become a mission force!;

We commit to HARVEST together until the last person has heard the saving Gospel of Christ. We will motivate our leaders to run toward the finish line and mobilize our churches to grow and go and not to dry and die!. We collectively cast vision to the ends of the earth and establish a goal to FINISH by 2030-33!

BROADEN THE VISION

Since the Wittenberg 2017 Congress, the Global Church Network and the Billion Soul Network have continued to synergize, mobilize and finalize the Great Commission. At the time of this writing, the Global Church Network

• has more than 150 Hubs, scaling to 1000 hubs by 2030
• has trained more than 70,000 pastors/leaders through the Global Church Divinity School (www.GCDS.tv)
• has hosted Finish Summits in Asia, the Caribbean, and West Africa, with the remainder of the regions scheduled
• has launched the Million Ministers Mandate (www.MillionMinistersMandate.com), to equip 1 minion new ministers to preach the Gospel.

SYNERGIZE 2030 CONFERENCE
IT IS FINISHED!

As the Global Church Network continues to synergize and mobilize the Body of Christ, we have been making plans for years to host Synergize 2030 in Jerusalem, Israel on June 9-11, 2030. Synergize 2030 will begin the celebration of the 2000th Birthday of the Church. We will begin on Pentecost Sunday! Our theme will be, “It Is Finished!” In honor of the 3,000 who came to Christ on Pentecost some time between 28-30 AD, we will be inviting 3,000 Kingdom-minded leaders, to join us for Synergize 2030 at the International Convention Center in the heart of Jerusalem. Registration will open in February 2024!

When the Lord calls us and commands us to complete an assignment, He expects us to finish it. We have enough technology, enough talent, enough treasure, enough teams, and now enough tenacity. We have enough members, enough money, enough methods, enough models and now enough momentum! We our Lord shouted, “It is finished!” from the Cross, He was saying what the Father had commanded Him to do, He had completed it. Additionally, God was saying that every blot and every blur and every stain and every sin, has been paid for through the blood of Christ.

When the late Dr. Bill Bright, Founder of Campus Crusade and I hosted the first Synergize Conference in 2002, we cast vision of the planting of 5 million new churches for a Billion Soul Harvest, before 2020. We achieved this goal in November, 2019. Additionally, we stated, if the Global Church could get in a strong leadership position, it would be possible to complete the Great Commission in our lifetime. Even though there is still a lot of work to be done, the finish line is in sight.

We are running the race, not to wish, but to Win!