In early August they were in Holland as part of the Amsterdam 2000 World Conference of Evangelists sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. A little over 10,000 evangelists were present, representing many nations of the world. Steve and Mark were part of a working group that had been selected from around the world. Six hundred had gathered around small tables to discuss one question, “What would it take to complete the Great Commission?” Day after day they dealt with how to solve the greatest challenges we face in missions.

On the third day of the gathering they looked at a list of 252 untargeted, unreached people groups. These were large ethnic groups that had never been engaged with the Gospel in all of church history. The leaders present were asked to “adopt” one or more groups. The first 140 groups were adopted quickly by various organizations represented in the room. But the second half of the list – the most difficult to reach – were not being adopted. The room had grown silent and no one was moving. This is when Dr. Douglass leaned over and asked Mark the question, “Why don’t our two organizations, Campus Crusade for Christ and YWAM, adopt the rest?” Mark tells us what happened next:

“With my mind spinning, thinking about what this might mean, I agreed. This is when a whole new adventure began and my life in missions would be forever changed. Shortly after Amsterdam, Steve and I began to meet with a select group of leaders who we would work together with in reaching the targeted people groups. We called ourselves “Table 71”, the table number we sat at on that important day in Amsterdam.

Another key piece began two years later when Dr. Bill Bright began the Global Pastors Network. He envisioned the pastors of the world coming together, working on finishing the Great Commission. Through a series of unexpected events I became the president of the Global Pastors Network in January 2007. As I assumed this new role it became clear that the vision of GPN needed to be expanded. We needed not only the religious leaders to work together in strategic unity; we had to call Christian leaders from all spheres of society to join in this major task. This gave birth to call2all in May 2007.

It was in early 2007 that I had a major encounter with the Lord. In a 6 hour time of personal shaking and sovereign illumination, God made the vision for call2all very clear. At one point in this encounter, the Lord spoke the following, ‘The time has come for the Son of God to be glorified’. This is out of John 17:1, the unity chapter. The assignment from heaven for the call2all Movement was clear: we were to help the global body of Christ come into strategic unity with heaven to reveal Jesus on the earth, leading to the completion of the Great Commission.”

Thus, the first call2all Congress was held in January, 2008, designed to strengthen the partnership among Christian leaders to finish the task Jesus gave us. The vision began catching fire among leaders all around the world. The call2all Movement together with its partners has brought together 28,000 leaders representing more than 1,400 organizations.