CGI marks 50 years with call for faith across generations

Church Growth International (CGI), an international church growth research organization founded by the late Rev. Cho Yong-gi, will hold a four-day conference in Seoul starting Wednesday to mark its 50th anniversary, bringing together church leaders from around 50 countries.

The 2026 CGI 50th Anniversary Conference, running Oct. 28 to 31, is hosted by Yoido Full Gospel Church and organized by CGI. It will take place at the church’s main sanctuary in Seoul, Jamsil Students’ Gymnasium and Osanri Choi Jashil Memorial Prayer Mountain in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Organizers expect about 7,000 registered participants, including 3,000 from overseas and 4,000 from Korea.

Under the theme “The Holy Spirit Across Generations,” the gathering will examine how churches can pass on their faith and ministry experience to the next generation while responding to a changing social and technological environment.

Lee Young-hoon, senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church and chairman of CGI, identified leadership succession and the Christian response to the age of artificial intelligence as key issues.

“We must overcome the crises of our time together through a powerful Holy Spirit movement and solidarity in prayer,” Lee said in a message ahead of the event.

The conference aims to encourage cooperation among churches across national and cultural boundaries, alongside prayer for peace on the Korean Peninsula and around the world.

Participants will also share how churches have served their communities, including children’s food and education programs, addiction rehabilitation and support for the disadvantaged.

Four days of worship, lectures and prayer

The program begins at 10 a.m. at Yoido Full Gospel Church with an opening worship service led by Lee. James Marocco, senior pastor of King’s Cathedral & Chapels in Hawaii, and Bob Rodgers, senior pastor of Evangel World Prayer Center in Kentucky, will give welcoming remarks and Rev. Dominic Yeo, chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, will deliver a congratulatory message. Workshops featuring church leaders from different countries will follow in the afternoon.

Plenary sessions on Thursday will explore the experiences of churches worldwide, with speakers including Hendrik Vorster, president and founder of Cornerstone Ministries International; Satish Kumar, founder and pastor of Pakanati of Calvary Temple in India; Rev. Dishan Wickramaratne of People’s Church in Sri Lanka; and Rev. Edwin Alvarez of the Hosanna Apostolic Community of Panama. Prayer services will follow on Oct. 30 at Osanri Prayer Mountain and, in the evening, at Yoido Full Gospel Church.

Prayer rally to be relayed live

On Saturday, CGI’s Grand Prayer Rally will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Jamsil Students’ Gymnasium in Seoul, while also commemorating the 73rd anniversary of Hansei University.

The event will be relayed live to the main sanctuary of Yoido Full Gospel Church. Organizers expect about 6,000 participants at Jamsil, split evenly between overseas and Korean attendees, and 10,000 congregation members at the sanctuary. The official broadcasters are GoodTV and FGTV.

The morning begins with a celebratory performance by Hansei University. Its orchestra and concert choir will perform the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, followed by the Hansei Musical Theater, which will present numbers from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” an original dance drama and “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman.”

A worship service and rally will follow, with sermons by Marocco, Rev. John Milton Rodriguez of Colombia’s Mision Paz a las Naciones and Dag Heward-Mills, founder of the Ghana-based United Denominations. Lee will deliver a special message and lead a united prayer.

“I hope the scholarship of Hansei and the spirituality of CGI will combine to spark a flame of revival in a world church that has stagnated,” Lee said. “I earnestly pray that your prayers will become a work of healing that changes Korea and brings peace to the world.”

The rally continues a tradition that began on Oct. 3, 1987, when Yoido Full Gospel Church held a national prayer rally at Yoido Plaza that drew more than 1 million people.

The event has since been held regularly, with prayers for the nation’s stability and reunification, and has expanded into an international gathering for world peace with thousands of overseas participants.

Half a century of exchange

CGI was founded in November 1976 by Cho, who built Yoido Full Gospel Church into one of the world’s largest congregations. The organization shares the experience of Korean churches and supports exchanges among pastors worldwide. According to CGI’s own figures, it has held 600 seminars in 100 countries over the past five decades, with cumulative attendance exceeding 12 million.

The anniversary conference will bring those international exchanges back to Korea to consider how churches can work together for future generations and their communities.