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A broad group of global and Australian Christian leaders gathered at Advancing The Kingdom Initiative 2025 to co-design strategies for unity, revitalisation, and renewed evangelism, charting a collaborative path for Australia’s Gospel future.

From the 18th to 21st of November 2025, a diverse assembly of megachurch pastors, movement leaders, prayer leaders, youth influencers, and Kingdom business leaders convened for the Advancing the Kingdom Initiative (ATKI).

ATKI was wonderfully hosted by Pastors Jonathan and Angie Stockstill at Bethany Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The gathering was designed not as a passive conference but as a strategic co-design process, and is an initiative of Ps Elias Dantas of the Global Kingdom Partners Network (GKPN).

There was a formidable team of ten leaders from Australia. Other key leaders included Ps Rick Warren (FTT Finishing the Task), Werner Nachtigal (GO Movement), who worked with the Canberra Declaration on the Australian Evangelism Roundtable and its key outcome: Reaching Australia 2033.

In addition, the new Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, Rev Botrus Mansour from Nazareth, Israel, was there, and I was able to have significant interactions with him.

While ATKI was focused on regions, ours being Oceania, we decided that as only Aussies were represented at the gathering, we would not speak on behalf of the rest of Oceania. It was agreed that New Zealand, PNG, and the South Pacific Islands develop their own strategies and ideas — that way, everyone owns their own patch, and Australia does not swamp smaller groups. Many thanks to Ps Dale Stephenson of Crossway Baptist, who chaired our group and kept us on track.

Personally, I feel ATKI was a significant step forward for the Gospel of the Kingdom. It was an honour to represent the Canberra Declaration, the Australian Evangelism Roundtable, and International Prayer Connect on behalf of Dr Jason Hubbard. Catching up with global friends is always encouraging. Building and maintaining relationships is critical to unity, collaboration, and progress.

Below, I will attempt to tease out and summarise the key parts of the ATKI report that are currently relevant to Australia.

The Current State of Evangelism in the Church

This is from the ATKI report, which is very comprehensive and well worth a good read:

The Current State of Global Christianity

Global Christianity is currently growing at approximately 1.8% annually. While this represents millions of new believers each year, the rate of growth has slowed in many regions, and the Church faces unprecedented challenges, including secularisation, nominalism, internal division, and a rapidly changing cultural landscape. To reach a 5% annual growth rate would require not just incremental improvements but transformative change in how the global Church approaches evangelism, discipleship, collaboration, and mission.

The strategic discussions were grounded in a realistic assessment of the current state of the Church, utilising the metaphor of “dry bones” from Ezekiel 37.

• The “Dry Bones” Reality: Many congregations were described as disconnected and lifeless, with a noted statistic that 4,500 US churches closed in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Spiritual Autoimmunity: The Body of Christ often suffers from “spiritual autoimmunity,” where various parts compete and fight one another rather than collaborating.
• The Pastoral Crisis: Revitalisation depends on pastors, yet many lack the margin to avoid burnout. It was noted that “if it’s cold in the pews, there must be a polar bear in the pulpit”.
• Three Stages of Revival: The vision presented involves moving from “dry bones” (dead churches) to “dead bodies” (connected organisations without spiritual vitality) to an “exceedingly great army” (a unified, Spirit-filled body).

The Global Reality

While the challenge is great, the potential is greater. The Church remains the largest single group on the planet — 2.5 billion strong — larger than the population of China. However, a vast portion of this number includes “cultural” or “nominal” believers who require re-evangelisation.  The consensus of the room was that global evangelism is impossible without first revitalising the existing Church, starting with its leaders.

The Current State of Evangelism in Australia

The report shows the following for Australia, which was derived from our discussions, scribed by Bethany staff — with thanks to Ps Anthony from Bethany Baker campus.

Australia / Oceania

Primary Focus: Leader health, national unity with contextual sensitivity, and strategic replanting.

Strategic Emphases

• Targeting catalytic leaders, not crowds
• National coalition and shared banner
• Long-term change management planning
• Large-scale creative campaigns
• Digital evangelism strategy for youth
• Replanting unhealthy churches when necessary
• Indigenous and immigrant contextualisation

My own take is that the following key issues need to be addressed by Church movements, denominations, pastors and leaders:

1. Unity/Oneness: We must value each other in humility and respect, to the point of dropping our logo at the door and recognising we are all one in Christ.
2. Co-Operation: We must learn to walk and work together. We need both Psalm 133 and John 17 in action.
3. Reignite our Passion for Sharing the Gospel: This is particularly important at the local leader coalface. We cannot take people on a journey without leading by example. We need to share Jesus in everyday life, not just in a church or pulpit context.

We are often so busy with programs and activity that we have lost the real purpose of the Gospel, which is that God wants a family (John 3:3 — babies are born into a family), and for us all to grow into disciple-makers.

Australia Well Represented

I was quite surprised to find that Australia has a higher level of unity and co-operation than most other countries or regions. This is evidenced not just by the Australian Evangelism Roundtable, but many other collaborative initiatives, particularly at the Local Government Areas (LGAs) level. We need to build on this as rapidly as possible, remembering that collaboration grows at the rate of relationship.

Werner Nachtigal visited our workshop table and noted that there were ten Australians present while only a few Europeans were in attendance. Werner had some fun dialogue with us, and I offered him to be an honorary Aussie. What our time with him showed me was that Australia is quietly setting a standard, even though we still have a long way to go.

Some other nations are experiencing significant issues of disunity amongst denominations and ministries. We need to pray that we can all walk together in Christ for the sake of the lost and dying.

It would be easy to say we are doing well, but I know that to continue requires humility and commitment to each other to serve the Lord for this nation.

Areas for Growth

Given the three points above: Unity/Oneness, Co-Operation, and Gospel Passion, we need to build together to enable the release of every believer as a minister of the Gospel.

This is the core goal of Reaching Australia 2033. One method is ACORN (as promoted and taught by the Canberra Declaration — see the appendix below) to engage people in conversation.

From the ATKI report, the global consensus was:

When participants reflected on what purpose they sense God calling the global Church to unite around in this season, several critical themes emerged:

• To be and make disciples of Christ
• Complete the Great Commission
• Unite for God’s missional purpose
• Reach the unreached and all nations
• Evangelism and discipleship that makes disciples who make disciples
• Prayer and collaborative action

Participants identified which areas need the most strengthening for healthy disciples to multiply and evangelisation to accelerate. The top priorities included:

• Collaboration between churches and organisations
• Discipleship programs and methods
• Prayer
• Church health
• Leadership integrity (character)
• Pastoral and leadership training (competence)
• Evangelism mobilisation

While substantial agreement emerged, several areas of productive tension surfaced:

• Evangelism vs. Revitalisation: Some regions (South Asia) prioritised more evangelism first, while others (Western Europe, USA) emphasised re-evangelising existing church members first
• Big Events vs. Daily Practices: Western Europe pushed Pentecost-focused initiatives while other regions warned against event-only strategies
• Technology vs Simplicity: Brazil and USA maximise digital tools while Africa, South Asia, and rural Europe emphasised simple relational systems
• Replant vs. Revitalise: Some regions (Australia, Far East Asia) see replanting as essential, while others emphasised revitalising existing congregations.

I agree with these points completely. The big question is how to implement relevant action plans to address these issues. Australia is heading in the right direction.

Action Plans

Quoting from the report, here are the key global actions that I feel align for Australia at all levels (national, state and LGA). I am particularly encouraged that prayer is the number one item:

Across every continent and cultural context, seven themes consistently appeared, constituting the global core of leadership development for collaborative evangelism and discipleship:

1. Collaborative Prayer as the Engine of Movement

All regions identified corporate, united prayer as the primary catalyst for evangelism and discipleship breakthroughs. Prayer is never isolated; it is tied to unity, mission acceleration, spiritual authority, and breakthrough among the lost. This finding reinforces the centrality of prayer established in previous themes.

2. Leadership Development and Multigenerational Leader Pipelines

Every region named leadership development as an essential lever, including training pastors, raising next-generation leaders, empowering lay leaders, and developing multigenerational leadership pipelines. This appeared in Africa’s pastor-development focus, Brazil’s decentralisation vision, the US’s ambitious pastoral mobilisation initiatives, and Latin America’s missionary-culture model.

3. Collaboration Instead of Duplication

Regions consistently called for networks, coalitions, shared best practices, joint missions, joint prayer and outreach, and resource pooling. The shared sentiment is clear: we go further together. This collaborative spirit represents a fundamental shift from competitive to cooperative ministry models.

4. Evangelism as a Lifestyle, Not an Event

Many regions critiqued event-driven evangelism, calling instead for relationship-based outreach, marketplace witness, everyday mission, and family and small group evangelism. Brazil and the US expressed this strongly, but it surfaced everywhere as a corrective to unsustainable event-centric models.

5. Missions and Church Planting as Core Expressions of Health

Across regions, sending missionaries, planting churches, reaching unreached or unengaged groups, and adopting regions or countries were identified as essential. Africa emphasised saturation planting; the US highlighted adopting global regions; Latin America sees missions as renewing the local church. This missional focus reflects a Kingdom-centred rather than church-building paradigm.

6. Data, Mapping, and Understanding the Field

Especially strong in Sub-Saharan Africa but present globally, data is used to identify unreached groups, track church presence, map engagement gaps, and make strategic decisions collaboratively. This evidence-based approach provides accountability and enables more effective resource allocation.

7. Reaching Youth and the Next Generation

Regions emphasised schools, students, children, and young leaders as the most responsive mission field and the key to long-term movement sustainability. Africa and Australia showed the strongest emphasis, but this theme appeared universally as both an urgent opportunity and a critical priority.

These seven high-level actions align very well with what is already happening here in Australia. We need to implement local action plans based on these priorities.

What Can We All Personally Do Now?

This is a call to action for every believer! Here are some things we can put into action immediately:

First, share this information widely with home group leaders, local pastors, movement leaders, and state and national leadership. If you are a leader, reach out to other leaders in fellowship and plan cooperatively. This helps multiply all our efforts.

Secondly, use a method like ACORN to personally share Jesus with people. Over the time of my travels to and from ATKI, I had nine ACORN Gospel interactions with people. We must lead by example.

Thirdly, connect with a small group and/or prayer partners to share what God is doing and to support each other. It is much easier to share the Gospel from a loving and supportive family. We are not alone in this endeavour.

Appendix: ACORN

Below is an outline of the ACORN method.

Ask, ‘Lord, is there anyone beyond the church You want me to connect with today?’ Then, when God…

Calls and reveals a person for us to get alongside, we simply…

Obey and follow through by contacting them in any way appropriate. We then just ask the person, “How are you?” God is already there, with the other. Our job is to find out what God is doing and join God in that conversation. God then reveals deeper hurts, desires, or another opening for the Gospel. Christians then frequently gather to disciple and encourage each other by…

Reporting or testifying about what God has been doing in and through them, and by…

Noticing or sharing feedback with the group about what God is doing in the other person.

When you share the Gospel, use a conversation guide like the Gospel in 7 app, Steps to Peace with God, 3 Circles, or whatever works for you.