Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Organizers already are gearing up for Gather25, a 25-hour worship event planned for next March. Jennie Allen, a Bible teacher and author who is the founder and leader of the initiative, says that her decision to organize the worldwide event began recently when she asked herself, “What if Jesus came back in 10 years?”
“The idea that he might return soon made me feel urgent, like there was so much left to do,” Allen said. “Wrestling with this question led me to the thought that maybe we should just have a really large church meeting, like the whole church. Doors began to open, conversations began to be had and we realized that, thanks to technology, for the first time in history, the entire global church is actually able to gather.”
Gather25 already has partnered with more than 25 organizations for the event, including YouVersion, the Bible Project, Illuminations, Right Now Media and many organizations outside of the United States.
“We knew from the beginning we could not do this alone,” she said. “We’ve had over 30,000 people show interest in hosting a Gather Group in their community, and over 350 ministries reached out to do the same. We have been amazed because as we began assembling the team, it became so clear that this is a shared vision of so many Jesus followers across organizations and ministries. God is speaking to leaders across different streams about the next 10 years of the church.”
Allen believes Gather25 “is the greatest group project we may ever be a part of.”
“As we have been speaking to church leaders in other countries, we hear them all saying the same thing — that God is doing something new,” she said. “The world wants to label this generation as distracted, apathetic, cynical and divided, but we see a generation who wants to make their life count for something bigger than themselves.
“Our hope is that every believer walks away from this event knowing that they have a unique role to play in God’s story. He has not called them to watch on the sidelines but to play an active role in sharing the hope of Jesus with the 5.5 billion people on Earth who don’t yet know him.”
More information is available at www.gather25.com.
