26,000 Join Seoul Prayer Rally for CGI 50th

A total of 26,000 people joined a prayer rally in Seoul on 31 October 2026 to mark the 50th anniversary of Church Growth International (CGI). The crowd split between two venues — 6,000 at the Jamsil Student Gymnasium and 20,000 at Yoido Full Gospel Church — and included 3,000 pastors from 60 countries. Fifty years after a Korean pastor started sharing his church's story with the world, the world came back to Seoul to pray.

CGI was founded in November 1976 by the late Rev. David Yonggi Cho, the pastor who built Yoido Full Gospel Church into one of the largest congregations on earth. His idea was simple: share what Yoido had learned about growth with churches everywhere. Half a century later, that idea fills stadiums.

Seoul Prayer Rally: 26,000 Mark CGI 50th Anniversary

The rally was the emotional high point of a four-day gathering. The 2026 World Church Growth Conference ran from 28 to 31 October under the theme "The Holy Spirit, Across Generations", and the rally on the final day brought the whole conference together in prayer. Worshippers raised their hands under a glowing cross while flags from dozens of nations waved through the crowd.

The numbers tell the story of CGI's reach. At the rally itself, 3,000 pastors from 60 countries stood shoulder to shoulder with Korean believers. The conference that preceded it drew more than 3,000 pastors from 22 countries, according to NoCut News — a separate figure for a separate gathering, and a measure of how far Cho's vision has travelled.

Two venues, one prayer. The Jamsil Student Gymnasium held 6,000 people, while 20,000 packed into Yoido Full Gospel Church, the very congregation where the movement began. For the pastors who had flown in from 60 countries, it was a chance to stand in the room where it all started — and to pray, together, for the churches they would go home to lead.

Church Growth International Founded by David Yonggi Cho

David Yonggi Cho founded CGI in November 1976 to share Yoido Full Gospel Church's growth experience with churches worldwide. The World Church Growth Conference has been held in Seoul every two years since, drawing pastors from every continent to study how a church grows — and how it stays faithful while it does.

Cho died in 2021, but the movement he started has outlived him. The conference he founded is now run by a new generation of leaders, and the 50th anniversary was their chance to show the work continues.

The theme said it plainly: "The Holy Spirit, Across Generations." This was not a museum piece. It was a handover.

That handover is the real story of the Seoul rally. CGI began as one man's vision in 1976, and today it is a global network. The people running it now are the spiritual grandchildren of the man who started it.

The rally was their way of saying the vision did not die with its founder.

Lee Young-hoon Leads 50th Anniversary Conference

CGI president Rev. Lee Young-hoon, the senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, led the 2026 conference. He was joined by Jeong Dong-gyun, president of the General Assembly of the Assemblies of God of Korea, who prayed for revival in Korean and world churches. The programme packed in 20 track ministry workshops, five plenary lectures, revival meetings and prayer meetings across Yoido, the Osanri Choi Ja-sil Memorial Fasting Prayer Mountain and Jamsil.

Big gatherings of church leaders are a hallmark of the global Pentecostal movement, and Seoul's rally echoes the World Assemblies of God Congress in Accra earlier this year, which drew 10,000 delegates, as reported in World Assemblies of God Congress Accra 2026: 10,000 Delegates, First Time in Africa. The two gatherings, months apart and continents apart, tell the same story: the centre of gravity in world Christianity keeps shifting, and it is no longer in the West.

Prayer rallies on this scale are becoming a familiar sight. In America, 80,000 Christians packed AT&T Stadium for a night of prayer, and in Manchester 800 people turned to Christ at a Franklin Graham event — moments that suggest the appetite for mass prayer is growing, not shrinking, as covered in 80,000 Christians Pack AT&T Stadium for Night of Prayer: Is America Waking Up? and Franklin Graham Sees Pockets of Revival After 800 Turn to Christ in Manchester.

The appetite is showing up on campuses too. At Appalachian State, 700 students recieved Christ as a campus revival spread, as reported in 700 Students Receive Christ at Appalachian State as Campus Revival Spreads. Seoul's 26,000 and Appalachia's 700 belong to the same season — different continents, different crowds, the same hunger.

What the Seoul Rally Means for the Next 50 Years

The conference theme — "The Holy Spirit, Across Generations" — was chosen on purpose. CGI's founders are passing the torch to leaders who were not yet born when the movement began, and the rally was designed to show that the next generation is already in the room. The workshops, the lectures and the prayer meetings were all built around that handover.

Fifty years from now, will anyone remember a rally in Seoul on a late October day? That depends on what the 26,000 who gathered do next — and on whether the pastors from 60 countries carry the fire home with them. The next World Church Growth Conference is two years away, and the story of what happened in Seoul will be measured not in crowds, but in churches.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.