Jack Dennison 1

  

Jack was at the headwaters of the city reaching movement. He was at the beginning in the early 90's. It's 15 years old. If you have begun in your city and things are going slowly, be encouraged that we are building a mighty river of transformation.

Eric and I trace our beginning in this vision back to Jack Dennison. Whatever blessing you have received from us in this movement, it can be traced back to Jack.


Jack Dennison

For the last two years I've had no connection with city reaching. Now I can relive this journey with you. It brings back a flood of emotion for me.

I look at Hans-Peter and Axel and remember being with them on 9-11 when an East German spoke in my ear about Tom Clancy's novel. It sounded so strange. I couldn't believe it. He verified this in the back of Hans-Peter's church. This brought a great outpouring of feeling. My wife left a message on Hans-Peter's message machine that was very emotional. It was a very moving experience.

I traveled to India to see Viju and almost died. These are the experiences that bond us together.

1990-1993 I taught in Multnomah Pastoral school.

I became chaplain in the military in the Army reserve. I went to Iraq, called into action, expecting to die in chemical warfare. And then it was over. Back home in April of 1991 I reflected on this experience. The military has had a major influence on my life and perspective. I reflected deeply after expecting to die.

I saw problems in the church. Pastors bailing out. Churches unable to renew themselves or impact their communities. It looked like we were losing the battle, at least in America and probably around the world.

I asked myself if this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. In 1992 I went for a week of training at Ft. Lewis Washington in a hospital. I took a book with me: The Last of the Giants by George Otis.

I was a third of the way through the book and I had a vision. What I saw was a flat picture of the globe. I saw the garden of Eden and how that spot on the Earth went black with sin and covered the earth. But as the vision continued I saw in Palestine, Jerusalem, I saw a flicker of light which was Jesus. I saw this light, the people of God, moving out to replace the darkness with light. Everything now was white with light. I saw God like a general working out his plan and strategy, bringing his forces to bear against his enemies, pushing them back to where they began, winning the battle.

I was filled with hope. God was winning and would win and soon everything would be covered with the light of his glory and the power of his presence.

When you see this kind of vision, you must be a part of it. When I went back to Multnomah I reread the book and couldn’t find anything that would have prompted this vision. God turned the light on for me. I went back ready to give my life to this vision.

I didn't know what to do. In April of 1992, I was invited to a meeting of alumni of Fuller Seminary. C. Peter Wagner was supposed to be there but he was delayed. He arrived and didn't have anything prepared so he just began to talk about global prayer in the 10/40 window. He was giving voice to the concepts that I had been reading about and were part of my new found hope and vision.

I went up to him and explained to him what I experienced. I felt God saying to me "Help that man be successful". I asked how I can help. They said you can become the global coordinator for the united prayer movement. I had list of global leaders and a fax machine. This was very difficult. I gather information on the fax machine and then he would synthesize it and disseminate it.

What we were hearing was beyond incredible. Mass conversions of whole villages, resurrection from the dead, unity, breaking down barriers. Now vision was given substance.

Language, principles and trends were now visible. We found out what God was doing and joined in. This went on for several years.

At the same time I became frustrated with our local Portland area. I asked God what to do and he said to call together leaders of denominations in the Northwest. I did that and cast vision for unity and collaboration and transformation. Every single one said they were hearing the same thing from God. After meeting with 18 leaders, we met as one and started talking about what this meant. There were enclaves of people groups who didn't have a present witness for Christ. We began to ask how to reach them.

We began to gather information to understand our mission field and develop an appropriate plan. We formed a group called Harvest Northwest. I heard that Jim Montgomery from DAWN ministries new something about church planting. It is always wise when you are starting out doing something you don't know how to do to find someone who does.

Jim said he had a book that gave language to the concepts and he sent out a consultant. DAWN asked me to be a regional coordinator in the northwest. I joined the team and took the message to leaders in 200 cities. National strategy and national leaders had little importance to local pastors. We found as we listened in prayer and otherwise that the focus was not national but local. Not a nation but a city. The focus was not on church planting but on transformation and impact. We took the pieces that were repeated and put it together and shared it with others.

There was immediate and profound resonation on these matters. We simply listened and gave voice to what God was already doing. We became "in tune" with what God was saying.

My theological background was challenged in this process. I was taught that the gifts of the spirit have ceased. The supernatural realm was irrelevant. But I traveled with C. Peter Wagner to Argentina. I heard it, and then experienced personally things that were outside of my theological grid. I saw things that shifted me theologically. At that moment the whole world of spiritual dynamics opened up to me.

After working with DAWN for 5 year and many other key leaders I felt that we needed to share the entrustment that we had experienced with even more leaders.

Write a book in order to systematize and disseminate this information.

Start a pilot project to demonstrate effectiveness and test your concepts. Having workable models is essential to influencing your network of relationships. This helps early adopters to embrace the concepts of innovators.

Begin an organization in order to involve the masses of people.

 

Innovators are the idea people. Early adopters create models. Middle adapters need to see a working model. Late adapters need to see demonstrated effectiveness. Everyone can be convinced but not at the same time and the same way. These are the stages of a movement.

When there are no examples or books to teach you how, this is how you begin and disseminate a vision and movement.

Jack Dennison: City Reaching

There some concepts that transcend cultures, but it takes local innovators and early adopters to apply concepts locally.