Fulfilling Christ’s Command

Your support is mobilizing a new generation to finish what Christ began.

The Great Commission is more than a calling; it’s a command. In Matthew 28:19–20, the resurrected Christ told His apostles: “Go … and make disciples of all the nations” (NKJV). Jesus also instructed them to baptize new believers and teach them “to obey all that I have commanded you.”

Your generous support for Regent University is helping carry out that biblical mandate through the School of Divinity’s Center for the Great Commission (CGC). This new Holy Spirit-led initiative is built on one core conviction: every believer is called to share the gospel around the world.

“The Center for the Great Commission is a place born from a command that has never changed and a calling that has never diminished,” Regent Chancellor Gordon Robertson explains. “The CGC will serve as a hub for training, collaboration, and global engagement. It will bring together scholars, practitioners, and students from around the world in the shared task of proclaiming the gospel.”

Robertson adds that the Center has the potential to catalyze new research, foster global church partnerships, and equip leaders with practical tools for missions in a rapidly changing world.

“In many ways,” he says, “the Center embodies Regent’s commitment to not only teach about the Great Commission, but to actively participate in its fulfillment.
I see it as a vital instrument for the university to mobilize this generation to carry the gospel to the ends of the Earth.”

Formally dedicated on June 13, 2026, and launched on July 1, the CGC addresses five areas of need: research, faculty development, staff formation, student discipleship, and church resourcing. Founding Executive Director Dr. Joseph Umidi says now is the time to point others to Christ through our testimony and worship.

“On June 13, we committed to cancel the ‘cancel culture’ of our day — the mindset that says the Great Commission is optional,” he recalls. “The Holy Spirit wants a laser focus on Jesus’ command to share the gospel in this hour, more than ever before.”

The Center’s Success Depends on Friends Like You

Your generosity is helping the CGC to focus initially on students in the School of Divinity’s Master of Arts in Church Planting and Master of Arts in Evangelism & Mission degree programs — with plans to expand to all Regent students and, eventually, people outside the university.

Dr. Corné Bekker, Dean of Regent’s School of Divinity, says the CGC closes a critical gap by providing rigorous research on evangelism, missions, and church planting.

“The School of Divinity has trained pastors and scholars with excellence,” Bekker shares. “But that excellence has not always been joined to sustained, field tested research aimed at specific nations and specific harvests. Congregations and pastors on the ground need more than encouragement from afar.”

With your prayers and support, the CGC can become the fullest expression of its mission to equip Christian leaders to change the world for God’s glory — training students to live out The Great Commission through every vocation and sphere of influence.

Umidi sees the CGC becoming a resource hub for pastors, churches, and ministries far beyond campus. Plans for student engagement through the Center include “boots on the ground” training, course work in church-planting, short-term missions trips, and other outreach opportunities.

“I call it accelerated mobilization of all students,” he says. “There are significant opportunities for them to do ministry. Hopefully, donors can help with seed money — I know alumni who have a heart for specific people groups that would love to help us reach them.”

Lee Leleux, a recent School of Divinity graduate, puts it this way: “We are to make disciples in every nation, people, and culture,” she states. “God is already at work in many ways we can’t see. My recent trip to Kenya and Tanzania strengthened that conviction. He can multiply the efforts of just one person to change a nation.”

How Your Support Advances the Great Commission

Because of you, Regent University equips and sends Kingdom ambassadors in ministry, law, business, education, media, healthcare, and many other disciplines with wisdom, excellence, innovation, and integrity. Your faithful prayers and generous financial support are crucial to the CGC helping fulfill Matthew 28:19-20 in our lifetimes.

“If the Lord is calling you to give,” Leleux says, “the donor’s earthly eyes will not see the impact their every dollar had on The Great Commission, but they will surely hear the words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 5:21).”

“What donors may not yet realize is that we stand at a moment unlike any before it,” Bekker insists. “For the first time in the history of the Church, technology has placed the possibility of reaching every person on earth with the gospel not as a distant hope but as an achievable task for this generation. That possibility is also a responsibility, and the center exists to help the Church meet it, rather than merely admire it.”

Robertson also acknowledges the importance of this moment: “I want this center to be a place where we expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.”

The task is great, but so is the opportunity. Thank you for helping fulfill Christ’s command — for the sake of the nations, and for God’s glory.