Pastors J.D. Greear and Andres Corson focus on reaching the lost during Global Focus Week Convocation

Global Focus Week at Liberty University climaxed Wednesday morning when pastors J.D. Greear and Andres Corson brought words of hope and encouragement to the student body at Convocation.

The morning began with the Parade of Nations, a Global Focus Week tradition in which Liberty international students carry the national flags of a multitude of countries into the Vines Center during the opening song, performed in multiple languages by the Worship Collective.

Pastor Andres Corson from Colombia joined Senior Vice President for Spiritual Development David Nasser on stage to discuss what the Lord has done for his congregation. His church is the second-largest church in Colombia and offers 10 services every Sunday. The church began in 1993 and often leads over 800 people to Christ each week, Corson said.

Corson was born in Australia but fell in love with Colombia as a child when his parents served the country as missionaries. When he was 12, he began to have a vision of what he desired in a church, which he described as a place of excitement and energy. Now in 2020, his vision has fully come to fruition.

“We started with 12 people 26 years ago and now it’s over 40,000 people,” Corson said.

He said that his church follows five principles in everything they do: worship, evangelism, planting the people in church, discipleship, and equipping people to serve God. The five principles are what they believe attract people to the church.

“Our nation has had a bad image in the world, and we want that to change,” he said.

Corson said the most important thing his church can show Colombia is the transformation that occurs in the lives of people who come to Christ. He and his congregation trust that the power and love of Christ in them will be evident to those they come in contact with.

Nasser prayed over Corson, his church, and the people of Colombia before welcoming the morning’s second guest to the stage, J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C.

Greear preached from Acts 6, reminding students that the Lord is more concerned with our availability than He is with our ability. Greear gave the student body four phrases to remind themselves from the sermon before closing out the morning: God wants to use me, the Holy Spirit fills me, as Jesus was to me so I will be to others, and Jesus is worth it.

Greear will return to the stage at Campus Community for a more extensive opening of God’s Word tonight at 6:30 p.m.

Also during Convocation, Nasser announced that Liberty student Izzy Herman passed away six days ago from a rare form of cancer. He asked for prayers for the Herman family, as Izzy’s father and brother had also passed away from the same form of cancer and her sister is in remission.