History
In 2017, eight Christian school associations from around the world gathered in Orlando, Florida, to host the first Global Christian School Leadership Summit (GCSLS). After the success of this event, two more events (2019 in San Antonio and 2022 in San Diego) were held. In 2022, the event name was changed simply to “Converge.” Now occurring once every three years, Converge is collaboratively planned and organized by a Steering Committee composed of representatives of host organizations (currently a total of 11). Host organizations are school associations, research and practice centers, think tanks, or related organizations that support the ministry of Christian education worldwide.
Vision & Mission
The vision of Converge 2025 is to connect, inspire, encourage, and equip those called to lead Christianly in educational settings across the globe. The mission of Converge 2025 is to provide a top-quality conference for Christian education leaders, with a focus on networking, shared learning experiences, and collaboration around relevant challenges and opportunities facing Christian schools worldwide.
Organizational Relationships
It is hoped that by bringing together the best of Christian education from around the globe, attendees will have the opportunity to learn and grow in different ways than they might from attending an event planned and hosted by a single organization. At the same time, it is important to note that—while all Steering Committee organizations and their representatives affirm the historic Apostle’s Creed as their shared statement of faith—they remain distinct organizations with their own unique missions, visions, goals, values, and constituents.
As such, this means that host organizations’ collaboration together for Converge does not constitute and should not be construed as formal partnership, endorsement, or any other kind of affirmation of another host organization or its work. Likewise, while host organizations collaborate to plan Converge, there may be programmatic elements of Converge (e.g., speakers, sponsors, sessions, etc.) that may not be representative of a given organization’s beliefs, perspective, approach, or emphases.
Expectations
As would be expected in bringing together constituents from 11 host organizations from across the globe, attendees should be prepared to encounter differences in views and perspectives. Each attendee is responsible for exercising personal discernment and conviction in regard to content, resources, materials, recommendations, etc. shared by speakers, sponsors, and other attendees. At the same time, attendees are expected to practice Christian hospitality and charity toward others at Converge. Our posture should be that even when we do not agree, we can still learn from and with each other—especially when it comes to furthering the cause of Christian education worldwide.
Questions
For questions regarding a specific organization’s involvement in Converge, please contact the organization directly. For event-specific questions and logistics, please email [email protected].
We look forward to seeing you at Converge 2025!
