GO Movement: a catalyst for evangelism and fulfillment of the Great Commission

I just discovered that May is GO Month, which is part of GO Movement, which in turn . . .

. . . unites all believers in pursuit of our central and purest mission: praying for the harvest, caring for the people, sharing the Gospel and making disciples. That is not a program.

As denominations, organizations and churches, we know programs come and go, but this appeals to our DNA as Christians; to who we are as witnesses for Christ. This is the purpose of the church – this is who we are.

Fleshing out their view, they say:

People face a Christless eternity.

The majority of people on earth do not know about the wonderful salvation that is available through Jesus Christ. They face a Christless eternity. That is tragic! But we can change this!

Meanwhile, the majority of church doesn’t actively share their faith. Many believers are afraid, are not equipped, or struggle to share their faith. Evangelism has been a professional ministry sport for far too long. We need to stop treating it as a Great Suggestion and embrace it for what it is: the Great Commission to all believers. (“Go and make disciples of all peoples.” Matthew 28:19)

Werner Nachtigal, President of GO Movement, describes how it all began:

It was the 2010 Reformation weekend when I had an intense encounter with God. I was in Pakistan, a very dangerous area for evangelization. We had to be guarded by several snipers. Precisely in this situation God gave me a tremendous vision

I saw a huge wave going around the world and an endless number of Christians preaching the Gospel. This wave of evangelism encircling the earth was all about Jesus, not about a ministry or a church movement. Every Christian, every church or denomination united for evangelism.

The kick-off for the first GO Day (Global Outreach Day) took place in 2012 at the world’s largest arena with room for a million people in Lagos, Nigeria. It belongs to the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Between 2013 and 2019 Go Day spread to over 100 nations. Covid slowed the movement in 2020, but millions still prayed together.

In October 2020, there was a historic digital gathering of 175 key leaders from over 80 countries, passionate about the Great Commission being fulfilled.

Representatives of some of the biggest denominations and ministries, such as World Evangelical Alliance, Baptist World Alliance, Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches of North America, GMO, GKPN, CRU, YWAM, EHC, GDOP, EE, 24:14, GACX, and many others, agreed to stand together to reach the world. They formed the Global Coalition to mobilize believers for prayer and evangelism.

The GO Movement is aiming to reach every person on earth during the GO Decade, ending in 2033 (2000 years since the resurrection of Christ).

GO Movement’s methods are straightforward enough – creating a network and asking people to participate: “It is simple: To be a witness for Christ means you just need to talk about what Jesus has done in your life and for all humanity. Join millions of Christians in prayer and evangelism.”

May is GO Month:

Every year during May we set our focus on evangelistic activities.

Pray for the harvest, care for the people, share the Gospel, and make disciples of new believers.

GO Month is about making yourself available to God to share the Gospel with others. Let’s impact our society to create a catalytic momentum for prayer and evangelism.

May 18 is GO Day:

The concept is straightforward, but organizers realize that reaching out personally is not always easy:

Sharing the Gospel can feel challenging. Our 3Steps training is designed to overcome fear and embrace the challenge of sharing our faith.

Learn the basics of sharing the Gospel with others:

• • Step 1: How to start a conversation
  • Step 2: How to explain the Gospel
  • Step 3: How to lead a person to Christ

Go here for a brief Manual and here for a Training Video.

(I also recently discovered that the very day after Go Day (ie, May 19) is International Day for the Unreached, sponsored by another network seeking to fulfill the Great Commission. Leading up to that day they are presenting three Gateway to the Unreached webcast events, May 14 – 16.)

Global Evangelism Network

A key partner in the GO Movement is the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), which represents some 600 million evangelicals in about 140 nations.

Here is the recent WEA statement of support for the GO Movement:

The GO Movement is a united, collaborative effort of many denominations and ministries to mobilize and equip every believer to witness and reach the world together. In 10 years, over 64 million people got saved and reached over one billion people in this collaborated effort.

In May, the GO Month and GO Day (former Global Outreach Day) are a catalytic momentum with millions of active believers to pray, care, share. The GO Decade has the goal to reach every person with the Gospel according to Matthew 28:19 until 2030.

The other WEA partners involved in the Global Evangelism Network are:

• Christian Vision (CV): A global Christian ministry with a vision to introduce people to Jesus and encourage them to become his true followers.
• GACX: A global alliance for church multiplication, inspires and facilitates intentional collaboration among churches and missions organizations so that there will be a healthy, multiplying church for everyone.
• Finishing the Task: is a coalition of thousands of believers, churches, denominations and organizations coming together to fulfill the Great Commission. It’s a call to mobilize all of Christ’s Church, in all its diversity, to do all Christ commands, with all people, in all places, all for God’s glory by 2033, the 2000th anniversary of the instructions given to us by Jesus.
• Indigitous: In our connected and digital world Indigitous is a global movement taking the gospel to new people, new places and new spaces.
• Global Network of Evangelists: Creating communities of evangelists who are committed to completing the great commission together.
• The Luis Palau Association: Exists to proclaim the Good News, unite the Church and impact cities worldwide.
• RUN (Reaching Unreached Nations) Ministries: We equip the local church to: PRAY for the revelation of God and His Kingdom, RESCUE people from the evils of slavery, EMPOWER leaders with training and tools and MULTIPLY movements that impact their world for good.
• Advance: The gospel is good news to be proclaimed and has lost none of its power to save. Through small group mentoring, Advance helps Jesus followers to share His love with their lips and their lives to the world around them.
• Cities Project Global: We see a world where leaders live out their calling, transforming their cities into flourishing centres for the common good of all people. Just as God Intended.
• Teach Every Nation (TEN): A global Christian education program that trains pastors and church leaders to disciple and grow the Christian church in the Global South.
• 110 Cities: Our vision is to see the 110 most unreached cities in the world reached with the Gospel, praying for thousands of Christ-exalting churches to be planted among them!
• Joshua Project: A research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christ. Accurate, updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission.
• Transformation Prayer Foundation: One of the most important prayer foci is the remaining task of reaching all the Unreached People Groups, those ethnic groups differentiated by language, culture and religion that are still by and large without the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
• 24:14 (Multiplying Movements Together): Amazingly, in the last 25 years we have seen the rapid emergence of hundreds of [church planting] movements worldwide, often in places most resistant to the gospel.

The WEA launched the Global Evangelism Network (GEN) to put a renewed emphasis on its historical role in uniting evangelicals around proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. GEN is part of the WEA’s Global Witness department alongside the Mission Commission and the International Missionary Training Network.

(I attended the WEA General Assembly in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2019; you can read what I wrote about it here and here.)