Eight years might not be long enough
When you read this, most likely my wife and I will be either en route or already in Geneva, Switzerland for the JC2033 Global Gathering. What an amazing experience it will be to meet in person people from all over the planet with whom I’ve been praying online monthly for the last year!
If you’re not familiar with JC2033, it’s one of countless efforts around the globe to see Jesus’ John 17 prayer for unity answered in preparation for the 2000th anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection. JC2033 is specifically focused on Easter Sunday, April 17, 2033. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the most important event in human history… so the 2000th anniversary ought to be the largest celebration in human history.
Incredibly, I’ll have three up-front opportunities to be a messenger of John 17 while in Geneva. The founder, my good friend Olivier Fleury, asked me to address the whole gathering concerning the relationship between unity and truth on Thursday morning at 11:21 am, Geneva time. (They’re Swiss, after all. Times should be precise!) Then late Thursday afternoon, I’m doing a workshop on John 17, and on Sunday I have the privilege of preaching in an evangelical church in Geneva. Each of these will be translated into various languages. If you weren’t already praying for me and our time, this would be a great time to start!
You are welcome to watch any of the plenary sessions live HERE, JC2033's YouTube channel. The full program can be found HERE (though my Thursday morning presentation is not listed). And 11:21 am in Geneva is the lovely hour of 3:21 am in Tucson. Anyone wild enough to watch live, just let me know and I’ll take you to lunch!
When I’ve shared the vision of a united Easter celebration in 2033, significant enough that literally nobody alive that day should be left unaware of what took place 2000 years earlier, I usually get one or more of these three responses:
How incredible that we get to be alive for such an event!
Sounds challenging!
Sounds great, but eight years ahead of time? I’m still planning next week.
An unprecedented level of humility will be required to pair unity and truth in a life-giving way so that there aren’t arguments about what a Tucson (or anywhere) celebration looks like, who’s on stage, whose worship style wins, who gets to make the planning decisions, and more. It hasn’t happened in the last 500+ years, so achieving that level of trust and collaboration in the next eight? Yeah, that will take an act of God on par with the Exodus and the first Easter.
Which explains perfectly why Jesus would have prayed what He did! If human effort could achieve this, a great sermon or pep talk would suffice. This will truly take the heavens parting and the angels descending, doing battle with the evil one… whose chief strategy is to divide and conquer, stealing, killing, and destroying whatever measure of unity we’ve experienced.
Let’s hit our knees now, since time is short. And then let’s respond in obedience when the risen King of Kings and Lord of Lords reveals our assignment in this heavenly mission.
Dave Drum, Founder