During his years serving as an evangelist, Dr. James O. Davis, president of Global Church Network (GCN), formerly known as Billion Soul Network, learned that more than 90% of pastors worldwide have no formal education. Burdened by the lack of ministry training among teachers and pastors, in 2001 he shared his vision with the late Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade (now Cru), with whom he co-founded the organization that has since gone on to impact millions of people across the world. In August of that year, they announced before the Assemblies of God General Presbytery their ambitious mission to help plant five million new churches around the world with the goal of saving one billion souls.

GCN equips pastors and church leaders from around the world for outreach in their surrounding communities by holding its international, biennial Synergize conference and annual leadership summits, which have been attended by more than 85,000 individuals.