This promises to be the largest gathering of Christians…ever. Here’s how you can join in

What would you do if you knew Jesus was coming back? That was the question that prompted Jennie Allen to start planning what’s set to become the biggest ever global meeting of Christians. She shares her vision for Gather25

The night before my life-changing dream, I was thinking I should quit. Some of my beloved team were leaving, and I didn’t really see the way forward. For almost ten years I’d been running a women’s conference called IF:Gathering, reaching more than one million women around the world. But now, I was asking whether I ought to continue. And, if not, what was I supposed to do next? I shared my feelings with a friend, who prayed that God would speak to me as I slept that night. 

I’m not a person who has a lot of dreams, but on this night, I did. And it left me with one, clear question: “If Jesus were coming back soon, what would we do?” I know that, as Christians, we often think it would be good for Jesus to come back soon. I have even been in rooms full of international church leaders who have cheered at the thought. But when I woke up, I wasn’t excited. I was filled with urgency. 

I don’t live with a lot of regrets, and I don’t generally go through life feeling scared of messing up or of God being disappointed in me. I certainly don’t live in fear…but I am compelled by the fact that there are people I know who don’t know Jesus. And billions of people on this earth are perishing without the hope that we, as Christians, hold.