Participants prayed around the world and were commissioned to take the Gospel to the nations and to every person on Earth
AMSTERDAM, June 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Empowered21 Amsterdam2023 EveryONE conference concluded Saturday with a global worship, prayer and commissioning service for the thousands who gathered in The Netherlands this week before returning to their home countries. More than 5,000 individuals from over 125 nations attended the conference in person at the historic RAI conference center, with thousands more joining online from 150 countries around the world.
Saturday's event got underway at 1 p.m., after 700 conference attendees participated in outreach throughout the city during the morning, inviting guests to join the evening portion of the event at Olympic stadium, which included a free concert with Australian band PlanetShakers and a presentation of the Gospel at 6 p.m. Over 300 people made decisions for Christ during this time.
The global worship and prayer tour began in The Netherlands, with an extended time of music by Iwan & Rebekah and the Church band choir, interspersed with prayers and encouragement by Dutch leaders like Ruben Flach, Jan Pool, Felix Govers and Arleen Westerhof. During the international "sing in," flags from all the countries of the world entered the arena, surrounding a large white cross, in a moving moment for the crowd. "We live in a time of confusion, crisis, division, fear, loneliness and depression," Pool said. "So many people are looking for an answer, and we have the answer – it is Jesus."
The next stop on the global journey was Europe, with worship led by UK group Chroma and prayers and encouragement shared by UK pastor Ben Fitzgerald, Norwegian church leader Anne Christiansen and German pastor Markus Wenz. "There has been a lot of darkness in Europe, but in the midst of the darkness, the bright light of Jesus is shining and thousands of people are coming to Jesus," Christiansen said.
Latin America was the next continent visited, with Brazilian group Dunamis leading in worship. Brazilian-born missionary evangelist Rubens Cunha prayed for his nation and others in South and Central America. Argentinian pastor and evangelist Claudio Freidzen and his daughter and fellow pastor Daniella Freidzon-McCabe shared about his experience being transformed at the first Billy Graham Amsterdam conference in 1983 when he was a young pastor, and he believes others will be similarly transformed by their time in Amsterdam this week.
Nigerian Bishop E. A. Adeboye started the time of prayer and focus on Africa, followed by Goodwill Shana and a rousing time of worship with a group from House on the Rock church in Lagos, Nigeria. Evangelist Daniel Kolenda wrapped up the time in Africa speaking of his predecessor Reinhard Bonnke and his historic work in Africa seeing 88 million decisions for Christ. Kolenda shared Bonnke's vision near the end of his life that an entire generation of evangelists would follow him, reaching all the nations for Christ.
Pastor Gail Stathis from Greece brought her friend, a Muslim convert from Tunisia who distinctly understands the challenges of sharing Christ in that region, to lead a prayer for the Middle East and North Africa.
Asia was next, with church leaders from that continent leading in prayer, including Shekhar Kallianpur from India, Brother Yun from China and Niko Njotorahardjo from Indonesia. "We cannot fulfill the Great Commission in our own strength but it must be done through the power of the Holy Spirit," Njotorahardjo said. Empowered21 Global Chair Dr. Billy Wilson announced that the next EveryONE conference would be held in Indonesia next summer, focusing on reaching EveryONE Asia.
U.S. ministry leader Cindy Jacobs began the time of prayer for North America, followed by U.S. evangelist Nick Hall and Canadian leader David Wells. The Oral Roberts University worship band from Tulsa, Okla., lead a time of praise and worship. Australian pastors Russell Evans and Tim Hall concluded the global journey with prayers for Oceania, kicking off the concert by renowned Australian band PlanetShakers.
Following the evangelistic presentation by Nathan Morris, there was a time of prayer for healing led by Swiss evangelist Jean Luc Trachsel and Belgian ministry leader Martin Koornstra. Mattheus van der Steen, Dutch evangelist and Founder of Harvest Fields International, who served as Empowered21 event liaison for the Netherlands, also led in the time of prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to move in people's lives.
The SEND's Téo Hayashi, founder of the Dunamis Movement, alongside Dr. Wilson, commissioned those in attendance to answer God's call of "whom shall I send, who will go for me," with "here am I, send me," as they committed to being one of the "ones" who will be needed to reach EveryONE in the next decade. Brian Alarid encouraged the attendees to pray for people by name as part of the effort to pray for every person on earth by name by 2033. A final time of worship was led by a combined group from Dunamis and ORU Worship.
Dr. Wilson's closing encouragement included the thought that if just two people shared the Gospel with others and those two shared and those two shared, and so on, it would only take 33 days for every person on the earth to have an opportunity to experience an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ. "We can do this!" he exclaimed.
About Empowered21
Empowered21 (E21) is the world's largest Spirit-empowered relational network. E21 is comprised of a global council, international and regional leadership teams, and various work groups. E21 organizes regional and global events to inspire the Spirit-empowered community. E21 mobilizes efforts to recognize and implement effective models to answer the cry for spiritual fathers and mothers, connecting generations for intergenerational blessing and impartation and focusing on crucial issues facing the movement. For more information about Empowered21 and Amsterdam 2023, visit https://empowered21.com and https://amsterdam2023.com, where the entire EveryONE conference is still available for online viewing. The closing global worship rally is archived at https://www.facebook.com/empowered21/videos/697173592236199.
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SOURCE Empowered21