Cities are being transformed! Whole nations are beginning to receive the gospel message! God is doing a marvelous work in the earth!

In the mid-70's God began a foundational work in the Philippines by Dr. James Montgomery. As the movement has grown it has been labeled as the DAWN (Disciple A Whole Nation) strategy. This strategy has been embraced by the World Evangelical Fellowship (parent organization to the NAE), the AD2000 & Beyond Movement, the Lausanne Movement, Mission America and over one hundred nations worldwide, as the most effective means of completing the Great Commission in our generation.

The strategy is to bring together Christian leaders and pastors to reach the whole nation as "one church." This has proven very effective in many nations. For example, Cali, Columbia has gone from being the drug capital of the world to being a more Christian city.

The US is such a diverse and large nation that it would be very difficult to reach the whole nation at once. God has begun a process in the US of reaching entire cities. As the cities are reached the nation will receive the gospel. A good example is what is happening in Littleton, Colorado with churches and pastors coming together to deal with a tragedy but also to do serious outreach to the unbelievers in the community.

In 1989, Dr. Joe Aldrich created Northwest Renewal Ministries (now International Renewal Ministries) to bring pastors together for 4-day prayer summits. Literally thousands of pastors have now been coming together for prayer.

A large push forward was Promise Keeper's Pastors Conference in Atlanta in early 1995. Forty thousand pastors found out they could pray and worship together regardless of their denominational or doctrinal differences.

Out of the Spokane Pastors Prayer Summits, God led local groups of pastors to choose Servant-leaders who would lead the prayer movement in their city. These Servant-leaders brought the pastors together on a weekly or monthly basis for prayer between the annual Prayer Summits.

Over the past two years, God has begun to use these Servant Leaders as the "leadership of the church of the city." At the same time, God was raising up Servant Leaders in many other cities. In February of this year Dawn Ministries of Colorado Springs brought together Servant Leader teams from twenty cities across the country. It was at this conference in Houston that many people realized God was doing something extraordinary. (See article on Planting Urban Churches)

On April 15, 1999 the Spokane Servant Leader team signed a partnership agreement with CitiReach International to work toward having a strategy in place by 2001 for reaching our entire area (Spokane, WA and the Inland Northwest) with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sixteen other cities have signed the same partnership agreement. It is expected that one hundred cities will have been brought into the movement by the end of the year 2000.

It is very exciting what God is doing behind the scenes in our nation to accomplish the Great Harvest. Truly, the fields are white and ready for harvest and God is preparing the harvesters!