A handful of church and marketplace leaders prayerfully set out to inquire if a movement of this magnitude is in the timing of God and within the rhythm of the city. This phase includes forming a steering team, walking through an invitation checklist, and making sure the right leadership is in place to move things forward.

Once the local steering team has met all the requirements on the checklist—including recruiting an initial number of churches, acquiring the initial pledges, and securing the right level of ownership by leaders throughout the city—a major launch event is executed, and the Palau team officially begins partnering with the local leadership team. Building the foundation includes connecting with a wider array of churches, laying the groundwork for the CityFest team at large, and mapping out a strategic timeline of impact.

Until now everything has been focused on finding and recruiting the right leaders to guide the effort. Now the focus shifts to include everyday Christians. During this phase, the church will unite to carry out a large pastors and leaders gathering, as well as a larger gathering for believers from throughout the region to join together in prayer, worship, and awakening. Christians will be activated in their passion for evangelism through relationship evangelism training, and also motivated to be the hands and feet of Christ through major short-term and long-term service efforts around the city.

United together, the local Church endeavors to saturate the whole region with the Gospel through multiple strategies. This includes prison outreaches, evangelistic luncheons, and other affinity-focused evangelistic events that make sense for the city. This all leads up to a major family-friendly festival with cutting-edge action sports demonstrations, kids’ activities, and Grammy-level artists.

And each day of the festival culminates with a message of Good News by Andrew Palau.

All of this is used as a tool for the 1000s of Christians around the region who have been activated to pray for and invite their friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to attend and to be exposed to the Gospel.

This whole endeavor is not about an event. It's about a Gospel movement. As the local team moves forward, they ask some big questions like: What are key points that have emerged through this process on which we can focus and unite? How do we work together to continue to impact our region with the Gospel? What are opportunities that emerged around prayer, service, and evangelism, where the united Church can find common ground, synergy, and impact?

Every step of the way, our team will help guide encourage and support you, giving you insight and wisdom from our 60-plus years of experience.