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

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.

My great-grandparents were alive when the world had a population of 2 billion people – and that was just 100 years ago. Latest estimates put the population at 8 billion. Along with that growth, more people are believers than ever before. In fact, right now there are an estimated 2.5 billion believers on the planet – more than the number of people alive when my great-grandparents were born! But if there are 2.5 billion believers, there are more than 5.5 billion people who don’t yet know Jesus. 

A clear instruction

So how can we mobilise the 2.5 billion Christians on planet earth to reach the 5.5 billion who aren’t? This isn’t a new question. We know that this was Jesus’ strategy, shared when he ascended to heaven, saying: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).

I just love the clarity of Jesus’ instructions in this verse. He didn’t say: “Go and fix everyone’s problems.” That should encourage us. His strategy hasn’t changed, but we have so many more tools with which to reach the ends of the earth with his gospel. Although people are feeling hopeless right now and discouraged about the world and the Church, we still have the answer. 

In so many ways, the dream made it clear what I was supposed to do next. I was to share the incredible stories of God moving and working in people’s lives with the 2.5 billion believers, in order to reignite the call we have to reach the ends of the earth.

We don’t know when Jesus is coming back but, if it’s soon, I don’t think we’re ready

In my work, I have the privilege of seeing and hearing stories that have challenged how I think about the Church, how it can grow and how the gospel can spread. In the last year, I’ve been on the ground at university campuses across the US , and I’ve seen thousands of university students get baptised. 

For an hour after an event at Texas A&M University, students were confessing their sins publicly. The same thing happened at another student gathering in Texas at Baylor University, except even more amazing things happened. Students declared over the microphone that suicidal thoughts no longer had power over them. 

At Auburn University in Alabama, we walked down the road to a lake and baptised streams of students for over two hours. I’ve heard stories since of lives changed, of how real this was for them; that they truly are making hard decisions with their lives, for Jesus.

On the other side of the world, I recently had the honour of meeting a pastor from India who had been stoned twice for preaching the gospel. As we spoke, he shared how this was a common occurrence in his area; many other pastors in his community have also been stoned for their faith in Christ and sharing the good news openly. When one of them gets injured and is taken to the hospital, they stay at each other’s bedsides to provide protection – and they also immediately start raising money. This is not for the injured pastor’s medical bills, it’s because, when a pastor gets stoned, they know the church is going to grow tenfold. At the very least, they’ll need a whole lot of new chairs!

Gather together

We don’t know when Jesus is coming back but, if it’s soon, I don’t think we’re ready. There are too many people who don’t know Jesus, and the mission before us is great. So, for 25 hours on 1 March 2025, we’re going to come together as the global Church. We’ve called it Gather25, and our mission is to commission the 2.5 billion Christians who love Jesus to reach the 5.5 billion who don’t yet know him. 

Gather25 is going to be one giant live broadcast, and we’re literally going to go around the world hearing the stories of the global Church. We’ve got the technology to make this possible for the first time in history and will live translate it into 14 different languages. 

Despite what we hear, the Church is growing and God is moving

Imagine being able to travel the world over 25 hours and hear all the incredible stories of church growth, from countries around the globe. That’s the beauty of new technology – we can join worshippers in a slum in Uganda, a megachurch in Singapore or the underground Church worshipping together behind closed doors. 

But ultimately, Gather25 will be filled with ‘old things’ – prayer, worship, repentance, commissioning and telling the stories of what God is doing on earth. Because, despite what we hear, the Church is growing and God is moving. Hearing the stories of the young people who have been baptised at universities across America, as well as the testimonies of Indian pastors enduring heavy persecution, have encouraged and inspired me to be a part of this huge move of God. 

Because he is moving and we should all want to be a part of it. When we come together, I hope we’re reminded of what God is doing in cultures and contexts so different from our own. It’s humbling, beautiful and incredibly powerful.

For his glory

People have asked me how we’re preparing for this event and, if I’m honest, even the preparation for Gather25 is beautiful. It feels a little like Moses must have felt when God asked him to lift his arm and part the Red Sea. Sometimes I look at my life, and the things God is asking me to do, and think I should be scared out of my mind. On many levels, it feels impossible to even comprehend bringing Christians together for an event of this scale. 

But I don’t feel panicked – and that’s because of God. I want Gather25 to accomplish the purposes that he wants to accomplish. And, because of that, it is possible. I’m doing the parts he’s asked me to do. Ultimately, the Red Sea parts because God does it, not because of anything we can do.

To gather the global Church, we need Christians from everywhere! Gather25 is big because we’re inviting the whole world, but it’s small because we’re inviting every Jesus follower to gather right where they are in their homes, churches and communities. Not just to join the event, but to host Gather groups – you, your community, church, family and friends coming together to join Gather25. 

So, here’s my invitation to you: join us for Gather25, wherever you are. Bring your community and let’s meet together as one global Church. For 25 hours, we’ll share the stories of what God is doing across the world; we’ll worship and pray together and we’ll remember that we’re part of a global Church body. This isn’t just an event; it’s a call to all believers to step forward with urgency and hope, knowing that every single one of us is part of God’s beautiful story. Let’s be ready, together. 

Join the Gather25 live, continuous broadcast, starting in the United States at 01:00 UK time on Saturday 1 March 2025 and ending in Peru at 02:00 UK time, Sunday 2 March 2025. Find out more: gather25.com