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In Summary The following is a description a working model of the Proclaim movement, a mission renewal movement among students in the Pacific Northwest, USA. The model is described in two parts. Part one lists 8 foundational convictions that have influenced the design and direction of the movement. Part two describes the specific elements of the vision and structure of the movement.

Foundations Of The Movement

1. Delegated Power and Authority. God is a Sovereign King who administrates his kingdom by the principle of delegated authority. The Father has given all authority in heaven and on earth to Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18). Christ, in turn, is now administrating this authority "through the church" to demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God to principalities and powers in the heavenly realms (Eph. 3:10).

2. Unified Purpose and Structure. It is the Father's will to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (Eph. 1:10). God's pattern is one unified purpose and one unified authority structure with Christ as head to carry out that purpose. Thus, fullness of unity in the church is necessary for the fulfillment of God's purpose through the church (John 17:23).

3. Discipling Nations. Christ has commissioned the church to "disciple all nations" (Matt. 28:19). Although this task includes discipling individuals, it ultimately involves discipling the nations these individuals are members of. The full release of Christ's authority through a united church is necessary to complete this task. Although the church today has some power to win individuals to Christ we believe greater power and unity in the church is needed to disciple whole nations.

4. Restored Power. We believe that God will restore the church in the last days to fulness of power and unity even beyond that of the church in the book of Acts. Yes, to our amazement he will show us even greater things than these (John 5:20) and will release such power that anyone who has faith in him will do even greater things than Jesus did (John 14:12).

5. Unified City Churches. We believe that the New Testament pattern for visible unity in the local church is to be manifested supremely at the city level. The New Testament standard is for all the saints in a city to agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among them and so that they will be perfectly united in mind and thought (I Cor. 1:10). In the book of Acts, church planting teams (Apostolic teams) were birthed and sent out from unified city churches (Acts 13:1-3) and went forth to complete the task of discipling nations by founding church planting movements based out of unified city churches (Romans 15:19).

6. Intercessory Prayer. We believe that the means God has ordained to restore the church to the New Testament pattern of power and unity is intercessory prayer. The Lord promises to give the nations to those who ask him (Ps. 2:8: Rev. 2:26, 27). Therefore, all efforts in world evangelization not established by intercession will result in nothing of lasting eternal value and will be burned up on the day of judgement (I Cor. 3:15). Jesus Christ will spit out of his mouth those who engage in attempting to fulfill the Great Commission with the attitude that they "have acquired wealth and don't need a thing" (Rev. 3:17).

7. The Wineskin Principle. Men do not pour new wine into old wineskins (Matt. 9:17) and neither does God. We believe that God expects the church to prepare wineskins (i.e., proper authority structures such as unified city churches) before he will release the fullest measure of his new wine (i.e., the power of the Holy Spirit). The Scripture says that God withholds the new wine when his people are busy building their own houses while the temple of the Lord lies in ruins. (Haggai 1:9,10).

8. Plundering Nations. Both renewal movements in the church and church planting movements among the unevangelized flourish or flounder according to the same set of building principles and spiritual dynamics. Therefore, we believe that leaders who are first trained properly to pray for and structure renewal movements in "Jerusalem" will be the most effective laborers in establishing church planting movements in "the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Laborers who first learn to plunder the kingdom of darkness in their home cities and regions will be better prepared to exercise sufficient power and authority to pull down Satanic principalities and powers over entire nations.

Vision And Structure Of The Movement

There are seven facets to the overall vision and structure of the Proclaim movement.

1. A vision for the church and the nations.

The vision of the Proclaim movement springs from the eternal perspective that it is the desire of the Son to redeem a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev. 5:9). The Son is now purifying this people to be a glorified church that will be the Father's inheritance (Eph. 1:18; Deut 32:9). Furthermore, it is the Father's desire to give the nations to his Son as his inheritance (Ps. 2:8). The movement has adopted this interrelated, two-fold vision for the church and the nations.

2. Stirring the church, adopting people groups.

Our eternal perspective for the church and the nations is translated into the two-fold emphasis on spiritual renewal and world evangelization. This vision is expressed by the movement as, "Students mobilizing to stir the church to complete world evangelization."

First, the movement is committed to fullness in the church. Our vision is to stir up current church leaders and influence the upcoming generation of church leaders (Christian students) to be zealous in prayer and planning for the restoration of the church to the New Testament pattern of power and unity, especially at the city level. Therefore, many of the programs and activities of the Proclaim movement are viewed as an "arena" in which to raise up leaders. Although we rejoice when hundreds come to a regional student missions conference, we rejoice even more knowing that the students who were trained to organize the conference have been better prepared to serve the church.

Second, the movement is committed to fulfilling the Great Commission. Based on the fact that the church in North America has enough resources to reach at least 6,000 of the remaining 12,000 unreached peoples, and that the church in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington has the resources to reach at least 460 out of this 6,000, the Northwest student movement is adopting 23 (5%) of these 460 unreached peoples. Our vision is to mobilize an average of 700 students as home-front supporters per unreached people group. In all, the movement seeks to attain and maintain a mobilized home-front of over 16,000 students to pray and give toward these 23 unreached peoples. The larger vision of the movement is to stir the whole church in the Northwest, by its example and influence, to adopt at least 460 unreached peoples.

3. A renewal movement within the church.

A new mission movement is spreading through the entire church. An increasing number of students from various fellowships (of local congregations and Christian campus groups) have been committing to the agenda of this movement since the early 1970's. Now this movement is beginning to take on a more visible, organized form as people link together in various kinds of commitment structures such as Mission Accountability Groups, Concerts of Prayer, Perspectives courses, and regional missions conferences. Even more recently, coordination structures such as city and regional mobilization teams have been organized to facilitate communication throughout the movement.

The Proclaim movement is an organized expression of this renewal movement among students in the Northwest, USA. It is not a creation of any single person or organization, but is rather a prayerful, organized and cooperative response of Christians from many fellowships to what God is already doing. The Proclaim movement is not the student mission movement in the Northwest, but only one of many valid expressions of the growing mission renewal movement within the church.

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Boyd Morris is a staff worker with the Student Foreign Missions Fellowship of Inter Varsity in the Pacific Northwest. Part of his time is loaned to the Proclaim Committee.


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