About ten years ago God began a movement through Dr. Joe Aldrich out of Multnomah Bible College in which pastors in the Portland area were called together for four days of prayer and worship with no agenda except to seek the face of the Lord.

Dr. Aldrich formed a ministry known as Northwest Renewal Ministries to organize these Summits. The ministry name was later changed to International Renewal Ministries as the influence spread across the US and later Canada, Japan, Russia, Israel, Australia and elsewhere. There are now over one hundred Summits held each year.

In 1991 the Pastors Prayer Summits came to Spokane with over sixty pastors gathering at Riverview Bible Camp for such a time. A tremendous time of reconciliation among pastors of various denominations and backgrounds occurred at that Summit.

At the end of the Summit it was realized that someone needed to plan the next Summit and to also call pastors together on a more frequent basis. Pastors Tom Starr (Valley Fourth Memorial Church, at the time), Bob Smith (Community Bible Church) and Ivan Correll (Zion Christian Fellowship) were chosen to lead the prayer times.

They organized a weekly time of prayer from 7:00 am to 9:00 am each Thursday morning at the Union Gospel Mission. That prayer time continues to this day with pastors never missing except on the Thursdays which fall on a holiday. As the years passed other pastors were chosen to help plan the prayer times. By the Prayer Summit of 1997 this number had risen to about seven or eight people.

In December of that year, our group was contacted by International Renewal Ministries and asked if we would agree to a consultation. We agreed to see what they had to say but informed them that we were not interested in any programs they might bring.

They came with two other ministries - Dawn Ministries out of Colorado Springs and Houses of Prayer Everywhere out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They came to tell us what God seemed to be doing all over the US with the leaders of the Prayer Summits. They said that God seemed to be raising up these groups of pastors to lead the Church of the City to work together in unity to complete the Great Commission.

They asked us if we were prepared to accept this responsibility. We were rather stunned, as we had not considered we were being called for such a day as this.

After the meeting our leader - Tom Starr - asked us if any of us felt we were being called by God to such a service on His behalf. As Tom went around the room all of us confirmed that we were feeling such a call. He then asked us if we were prepared to accept that responsibility.

We all said "yes" and held a time of prayer to confirm our commitment before the Lord. We began to be called Servant Leaders and began to faithfully seek the Lord for what He was laying out before us. Slowly He began to reveal not only other leaders who were to join with us - there are now 13 - but also a vision, mission and goals that He wanted us to accomplish in the next five years.

In 1998/99 we did a survey of all the churches in Spokane County to determine the Harvest Force - how many Christians were in church each week. We also purchased survey information on the Harvest Field - the population of the County.

On September 30, 1999 we called the Church of Spokane together to tell them what we now understood about the harvest field and force. This breakfast/seminar called, "A Look At The Harvest", brought together over 180 people representing 86 churches or ministries.

In January 2000 we officially applied for and received incorporation papers in the state of Washington under the name Mission Spokane. As of June 19, 2000 we are an officially recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Mission Spokane is now accepting donations and working toward writing grants from major foundations to help finance the goals God has given us for the Church of Spokane. Those goals were given to us by the Lord through two different two-day retreats when we went away to seriously seek direction from Him.

Our Vision is "The whole city transformed by the whole gospel through the whole church."

The goals God has given us between now and January 1, 2005 are:

Mission Spokane now moves forward on its knees daily seeking the face and will of God for where He wants to take us from here. We will be holding many activities and prayer times to prepare the Church for what God plans to do in Spokane County and the area.