Harvest Church Invites South Georgia Churches to Join the 2033 Vision

Pastors across South Georgia are uniting around a simple conviction: the Great Commission deserves our greatest intentionality.

What does it look like for an entire conference of churches to align around the mission Jesus gave his followers?

At the 2026 Annual Conference of the South Georgia Annual Conference of the Global Methodist Church, pastors Jim Cowart of Harvest Church, Jimmy Towson of Park Avenue Church, and Conference Superintendent Jay Hanson introduced a new, conference-wide emphasis centered on Finishing the Task, inviting churches across South Georgia to work together toward fulfilling the Great Commission by 2033.

Rather than presenting Finishing the Task as another ministry initiative, the leaders emphasized that it is a practical framework to help churches become more intentional about the mission they are already called to fulfill.

“We’re already trying to do this. This will just help us be more intentional.”

Building on the Great Commandment and the Great Commission

Throughout the presentation, the speakers returned to Jesus’ two foundational commands:

• Love God and love your neighbor.
• Go and make disciples of all nations.

From those passages, they reminded attendees that every church is called to worship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and community—not as separate priorities, but as expressions of faithful obedience.

As Jay Hanson explained, salvation and stewardship belong together. God saves us by grace, but he also leaves us here with a purpose.

“If it was simply a matter of believing,” he challenged, “why doesn’t God just take us to heaven immediately?” Instead, believers remain on earth because God has entrusted them with his mission.

A Shared Vision for 2033

The South Georgia initiative aligns with Finishing the Task’s global vision of seeing the Great Commission advanced by 2033, the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s resurrection, Pentecost, and the birth of the Church. The movement is mobilizing churches, denominations, ministries, and individual believers around five shared goals:

• Believers — Equip every believer to confidently share their faith.
• Bibles — Help make Scripture available in every language.
• Bridges of Love — Serve people who are hurting through practical acts of compassion.
• Breakthrough Prayer — Pray intentionally for unbelieving people and nations.
• Bodies of Christ — Plant new churches so every person has access to a local community of believers.

 

During the presentation, the speakers connected each of these goals to the ministry of Jesus himself through the familiar PEACE framework:

• Proclaim the Good News
• Equip believers
• Alleviate suffering
• Continually pray
• Establish new churches

 

The point was simple: these are not new priorities—they are the very things Jesus modeled throughout his earthly ministry.

Living the Vision at Harvest Church

For Harvest Church, embracing Finishing the Task is not about launching an entirely new ministry—it is about bringing greater focus and intentionality to work the church is already doing.

Across its local, regional, and global missions, Harvest has intentionally aligned its ministry around the same priorities reflected in the five “B” goals.

The church is helping equip Believers by encouraging every member to view themselves as a minister and confidently share the story of what Christ has done in their lives. Throughout the conference presentation, Pastor Jim Cowart emphasized that the Great Commission belongs to every Christian—not only pastors—and challenged believers to become more intentional about living as everyday witnesses.

Harvest is advancing the Bibles goal through its partnership with Wycliffe Bible Translators, helping bring Scripture to people who have never had access to God’s Word in their own language. One example is the church’s support of Bible translation among the Jonam people of Uganda, reflecting Harvest’s commitment to seeing every heart language reached with Scripture.

The church also lives out Bridges of Love by serving both its local community and global neighbors. Harvest invests in ministries that meet practical needs—from community spaces that welcome families and children, to food pantry partnerships and disaster relief efforts, to Compassion International, where Harvest families sponsor more than 800 children around the world. International partnerships also include providing clean water, greenhouse projects, and other practical expressions of Christ’s love alongside gospel ministry.

Through a strong emphasis on worship and prayer, Harvest encourages Breakthrough Prayer as the foundation for everything the church does. During the conference, leaders challenged churches to pray intentionally for unbelieving people and nations, noting that worship and prayer cultivate intimacy with Christ and fuel faithful obedience to his mission.

Finally, Harvest has long invested in the multiplication of Bodies of Christ, partnering with other churches in leadership development and church planting while encouraging every congregation to consider how they can help establish new churches in places where people still lack access to a local gospel community.

As Pastor Cowart reminded attendees, Finishing the Task is not about creating new priorities—it is about becoming more intentional in the mission Jesus has already given his Church.

Every Believer Has a Role

One of the strongest emphases throughout the presentation was that the Great Commission is not reserved for pastors or missionaries.

“Every Christian is a minister,” Cowart reminded the audience, encouraging ordinary believers to share the story of what Christ has done in their own lives. He pointed to the rapid growth of the early Church, not through church buildings or pulpits, but through faithful believers living and sharing the gospel wherever they went.

The conference also announced the formation of a South Georgia Finishing the Task task force, training opportunities for churches, and partnerships with organizations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators to help congregations participate in the global effort in ways that fit their own unique context.

Beginning with Proximity to Jesus

The message concluded with a reminder that finishing the task is not ultimately about better programs or bigger strategies.

Using Jesus’ teaching in John 15, the speakers emphasized that lasting fruit comes from remaining close to Christ.

“It’s not with great intelligence. It’s not with great personality. It’s not with great programs,” Cowart said. “It’s staying close to Jesus and saying, ‘Jesus, what do you want me to do today?'”

That daily faithfulness, they said, is how believers—and churches—can play their part in helping fulfill the Great Commission.

As Harvest Church and the South Georgia Global Methodist churches move forward together, their invitation echoes the heart of the Finishing the Task movement: not to add another program, but to unite around the mission Jesus has already given his Church.

By becoming more intentional in evangelism, discipleship, compassion, prayer, Bible translation, and church planting, churches of every size can help ensure that more people encounter the hope of Christ by 2033.

Learn how you can get your church involved in finishing the task of the Great Commission at https://finishingthetask.com/10-steps/