New Bulgaria Leadership Hub Advances Networking and Synergizing Process to Complete the Great Commission

Sir Edmund Hilary: “Complete the hardest assignments first”

ORLANDO, March 19, 2025 – Following advice personally shared by world-famous mountain climber Sir Edmund Hilary many years ago, Global Church Network (GCN) – the world’s largest pastors’ network – is focusing efforts to complete the Great Commission in Europe by establishing Global Leadership Hubs in nations that historically have been the hardest to reach with the Gospel.

GCN Founder/President Dr. James O. Davis had the opportunity to interview Sir Edmund Hilary in his home on August 31, 2007. During his lifetime, Sir Edmund -- the first to climb Mount Everest on May 29, 1953 -- learned the leadership lesson of not procrastinating about accomplishing the hardest assignments first.

Dr. Davis took this advice to heart and 18 months ago gathered nearly 400 European ministry leaders and pastors in Zurich, Switzerland, for the Global Church Network’s FINISH Europe Summit, with a goal to synergize and mobilize the work of many individual churches and ministries to finalize the Great Commission by 2030. Since then, Global Leadership Hubs have been established in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Moldova, Romania, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Croatia, and Serbia.

Bulgaria will be added to that list when a new ministry training hub launches in Sofia on March 21-22, 2025. Hundreds of pastors and leaders are expected to converge together to synergize relationships, systematize the best training and strategize for the unreached people.

“Surprisingly, European nations represent some of the most difficult places to plant churches, to network leaders and to equip pastors,” said Dr. Davis. “Meanwhile, the long-established models of training and preparation for full-time ministry cannot keep pace with the unprecedented growth of the global Christian Church, resulting in a significant shortage of trained pastors and ministers.”

“What we started in the FINISH Europe Summit, we are now expanding with the Bulgaria Hub,” said Bulgaria Assemblies of God Superintendent Rev. Rumen Bordjiev. “We are honored to partner and serve in the Global Church Network toward the fulfilment of the Great Commission.” 

For nearly 25 years, GCN has synergistically partnered with thousands of organizations and more than 775,000 churches, spanning virtually every denomination and world region, to complete the Great Commission. The finish line: 2030 -- the 2,000th birthday of the Church. Referred to as FINISH 2030, the collaboration includes regional FINISH 2030 Summits, where targeted leaders gather to establish a collective goal of the number of pastors and ministers needed to be trained in the next 10 years to complete the Great Commission in their region.

Rev. Ludmil Arsov, the Bulgaria Hub Leader and an Assemblies of God pastor, states, “We are thrilled to be hosting the Bulgaria Hub. We attended the FINISH European Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, and caught the fire of the Spirit toward the completion of the Great Commission.”

Referencing GCN’s approach to finishing the Great Commission by synergizing and mobilizing primarily in the hardest places first, Dr. Davis said, “FINISH 2030 is about reaching the hardest places in the world with the Gospel—sooner rather than later. This is not something that any individual person, church, denomination or ministry organization can do alone. We are moving past ego and logo to ‘we go together.’ The Church is moving from competing with one other to working together to complete the Great Commission.”

With the launch of each European Hub, including this new one in Bulgaria, every Hub member – equating to hundreds of pastors in each region – receives a complementary membership to the Global Church Divinity School (GCDS.tv). In addition to the 30 Hub courses, GCDS contains more than 200 courses in 100 languages, taught by 200 plus faculty from around the world. Since its inception in 2001, tens of thousands of pastors and leaders have received GCDS training to equip them to fulfill their divine calling in their nation.  

In the words of Sir Edmund Hilary, “If you only do what others have done, then you will only feel what others have felt. However, if you will dare do something that no one else has ever done, then you will feel what others have never felt.”

“The Christian’s Mount Everest is the Great Commission,” Dr. Davis said. “I believe this is the generation that will place the cross of Christ on the roof of the world and do something that has never been done; fulfill the Gret Commission.”

About Global Church Network
Established in 2001, Global Church Network is a growing coalition of more than 2,800 Christian ministries and denominations synergizing their efforts to build the premier community of pastors worldwide to help plant five million new churches for a billion soul harvest. The Global Church Network now consists of more than 775,000 churches and has become the largest pastors’ network in the world. For more information, visit gcnw.tv.

About FINISH 2030
On November 1, 2017, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, FINISH 2030 was launched at the graveside of Martin Luther at Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. More than 600 distinguished leaders representing every major stream of Christianity and all 12 world regions together declared they would work collaboratively to finish the Great Commission by the 2,000th birthday of the Church. FINISH 2030 seeks to network and partner with synergistic-minded leaders, churches, and organizations from every denomination, every stream and every region of the world. The Western Church cannot finish the Great Commission by 2030, but the Global Church can — and working together with effective, proven global strategies to FIND, INTERCEDE, NETWORK, INVEST, SEND, and HARVEST, we will. For more information: Finish2030.com