On March 24-25, 2026, Assemblies of God World Missions held their first Gospel Access Summit in Washington, D.C. At this two-day event, several hundred AG pastors and leaders gathered in our nation’s capital to hear more about God’s mission for the world and discover their church’s role in bringing the gospel to those who have never heard about Jesus.

“This isn’t just another gathering,” said John Easter, executive director, AG World Missions. “It’s about sending our spiritual sons and daughters to the fields of our world. It’s about establishing the Church among all peoples everywhere.”

This summit centered around AG World Missions’ new vision: Gospel Access.

The goal of the Gospel Access Vision is to increase the number of AG World missionaries to 4,000 by 2033, with an intentional focus on reaching people with little-to-no access to the gospel.

This vision is fundamentally impossible without the local church — without pastors and leaders who are willing to pray, support, and send their spiritual sons and daughters from their churches to the mission field. AG World Missions designed the Gospel Access Summit to encourage and equip the local church to fully participate in God’s mission.

During the two-day summit, pastors and leaders worshiped, prayed, and attended sessions and workshops on missiology, church leadership, and the priority of missions in the local church. They heard from global workers who are currently on the field, from pastors in roles much like their own, and from missiologists and theologians who delved into some of missions’ most pressing questions.

A Place of Faith

Mark Batterson and National Community Church (NCC), Washington, D.C., hosted this summit. NCC is “known for its bold prayer, creative outreach, and deep commitment to missions,” according to Easter.

Batterson, addressing pastors, said, “There’s so much faith in the room. There’s so much sweat equity. There’s so much blood, sweat, and tears in the kingdom of God. It’s unbelievable.”

NCC has long stood as a light for the gospel in Washington, D.C., with a congregation that has remained faithful to God’s plan. However, their vision doesn’t stop there; they have a heart to reach the whole world.

Batterson reminded pastors: “I love this city. We’ve been serving it for 30 years. But there’s a hill higher than Capitol Hill. It’s a hill called Calvary. And the kingdoms of this world are becoming the Kingdom of our Lord.”

That theme echoed throughout the Gospel Access Summit: We need to reach our world. Those without gospel access deserve to hear about Jesus. This mission is impossible without pastors who are willing to step out in faith, create a culture of missions in their churches, and send the next generation of workers to the field.

Called in Real Time

Not only were these two days dedicated to equipping pastors, but AG World Missions announced several new focuses that will play a part in advancing Gospel Access.

First, they announced the Global Deaf Peoples Initiative, a part of International Ministries. Pastor Emory Dively, recently appointed AG World Missions worker, will lead the Global Deaf Peoples Initiative.

Dively, who was born deaf, responded to the gospel when someone told him “Jesus loves you” through sign language.

Doug Marsh, AG World Missions International Ministries director, told pastors, “God gave Dively a mission to tell deaf people all over the world that Jesus loves them.”

The Global Deaf Peoples Initiative will target 123 unreached, unengaged deaf people groups, working within the Gospel Access Vision to send workers to these groups that have no adequate gospel witness.

Throughout the summit, students from the University of Valley Forge volunteered as staff. One student had a call to reach the deaf community long before the summit took place but wasn’t sure how she could answer that call. While working at the summit, she overheard the announcement about the Global Deaf Peoples Initiative. Struck by her own call to reach the deaf, she connected with Dively, and now, she has a direction for her future ministry.

God called her, then used pastors and global workers to help equip and empower that call in real time.

Equipping through Prayer

Another initiative announcement came from AG World Missions global worker Dick Brogden. Brogden announced DOXA, a new collaboration between the World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF) and AG World Missions.

In September 2025, missions directors and general superintendents from around the world gathered and declared: We’re going to partner together for the glory of Jesus among every unengaged people group around the world. “That partnership is called DOXA,” Brogden explained.

DOXA, which is the Greek word for “glory,” focuses on prayer for and engagement with unengaged people groups.

DOXA gives people opportunity to choose an unengaged people group, sign up for daily prayer points and updates, and pray 10 minutes each day for an unengaged people group. DOXA’s goal is 24-hour prayer coverage for every unengaged group. Churches and networks can also “adopt” an unengaged unreached group: “A church-led commitment to pray, give, and send so gospel access can begin.”

Jeff Garrett, global worker and leader of the gospel access prayer initiative for AG World Missions, said, “We are dreaming God’s dream, pursuing His mission, and embracing Christ’s passion. That’s what our praying is.”

Garrett declared: “We are praying in global alignment with all 129 Assemblies of God fellowships around the world. How powerful is that?”

No group or country can reach every unengaged people group in the world. However, together and through the power of Jesus, we can. With the collaboration of pastors, missionaries, and fellowships around the world, we can accomplish the Gospel Access Vision.

Ongoing Momentum

What started in Washington, D.C. is spreading.

Joelene Taylor, lead pastor of Journey Church, Kenosha, Wisconsin, one of the summit’s speakers, said, “The local church’s role in missions is to send. This is the trajectory of every discipleship effort. This is not a side gig of what the Church does. This is what the Church is.”

Pastors and global workers across the nation, and across the world, are joining together in the vision of bringing the gospel to people who have never heard it. Pastors left this summit with the practical tools they need to get further involved in this vision.

Days after the summit’s conclusion, AG World Missions held a Gospel Access Virtual Field Tour, a virtual, condensed version of the summit for the AG World Missions team in Springfield Missouri, and the global worker family around the world. More than 700 people attended, all with an aligned view of their roles in God’s plan.

This first AG World Missions’ Gospel Access Summit will not be the last. It was just the beginning of equipping pastors to participate in a call that the entire World Fellowship is answering.

It’s Time to Take the Mountain

The time to step into this vision is now. As more pastors and leaders gain practical tools and valuable missiological foundations on which to base their churches, God will call more sons and daughters to bring the gospel to the world’s darkest corners.

Easter, with a final address to the pastors, said, “We’ve got one shot. Let’s leverage it. Let’s dream God-sized dreams. Let’s step out in courage. Let’s step into the moment as our forefathers did to see the greatest sending history of our movement. Let’s take this mountain.”

By Joy Moorman