The WHAT NEXT conference celebrates a small event that had major consequences, since it turned out to be the beginning of the North American foreign missions movement. We are calling together students and church people from the upper mid-west region to recall what God has done in the past, examine the state of the Church, and tune our hearts and thoughts to hear from God what He wants to do in our generation. We are gathering to ask God, "What’s next?"
Sept. 27-30, 2006 – Madison, WI
St. Paul’s Catholic Center & High Point Church
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known. Habakkuk 3:2
It was a hot August afternoon in 1806 when Samuel Mills and four friends were returning to the Williams College campus after their weekly prayer time. Thunderclouds broke open the sky, driving the students to seek shelter from the rain at a haystack. Their prayers had been informed by their classroom studies of Asia and their burden was that Christianity be sent abroad. These extraordinary young Christians decided to continue to pray through the storm until they dedicated themselves to become missionaries.
One small prayer meeting changed history.
Samuel Mills and his friends knew there were no foreign mission agencies in North America in 1806. They formed a secret society and transferred to other colleges to spread the vision. A few years later, they humbly appealed to their denomination to form the first North American missions board. By 1810, Adoniram Judson became the first of thousands of missionaries streaming out of the USA.
There is a little known monument at the site of that prayer gathering, where generations of Christian leaders have made pilgrimage to pray, "Oh God, where water once flowed, let it flow again." In our generation there is a similar longing to see Christ proclaimed and worshipped throughout the earth. New initiatives are emerging. Churches are partnering with communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Students on universities & colleges across the USA are spontaneously forming new communities with a lifestyle of Christ-centered, mission minded prayer.
The world is a radically different place today. Globalization is changing the face of missions. The WHAT NEXT conference provides us with an occasion to pray, to review the missions history of the last 200 years, and to take stock of the state of the Christian church around the world. Who knows? As God meets with us, we may even receive new a missions strategy for the world in which we have been placed.
Plenary speakers, Dave Howard of InterVarsity and World Evangelical Fellowship; Andrew Walls, director of the Center for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World in Edinburgh, Scotland; and Lamin Sanneh, Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale University as well as other guests from around the world will present us with insights of the past, present, and future of the Church.
Meetings will begin at the St. Paul’s Roman Catholic University Center on campus (across from the UW Memorial Library) on Wednesday evening (Sept. 27) and Thursday evening (Sept. 28). Late night Harp & Bowl worship and prayer times will take place at the Pres. House next to St. Paul’s. High Point Church will host the conference on Friday evening (Sept. 29) and Saturday morning and afternoon (Sept. 30) where attendees can choose from sixteen Discovery Group gatherings, network with churches and ministries in the Madison area, and partner in prayer and creative strategies for mission. We then return to St. Paul’s for the final evening (Sept. 30) with a special prayer focus for new initiatives. Throughout the event, special 24/7 prayer spaces will be available at the Catacombs Coffeehouse in the basement of the Pres. House and at High Point Church for unbroken prayer.
Online registration is available at www.haystack.org. At the web site you can find the schedule, download promotional resources, a brief audio clip from David Howard’s address, blogs and articles and information about the plenary speakers and discovery groups. To help as a volunteer or make an important financial donation to this event, please contact: Dr. Vern Visick, vvisick@aol.com, or New College Madison: 608-442-5829.
John Henry is a member of the planning team for the What Next? Conference. He works with Youth With A Mission.