A new initiative launched at Onething

USA (MNN/Charisma) — “Something historic that has never happened before is happening before our very eyes with the prayer movement joining hands with the Bible translation movement.” Those were the words of The Seed Company CEO Roy Peterson talking about a meeting that took place at the Onething Conference hosted by the International House of Prayer (IHOPK).

More than 30,000 people from 100 countries gathered in Kansas City for the event. Charisma News reports the late December conference was more than that, though. It was also the first annual summit of major leaders in the missions, prayer, and Bible translation movements and a partnership with the Seed Company of Wycliffe Bible Translators.

According to the founder of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, Mike Bickle, “We want to see the Gospel preached and 24/7 worship and prayer in every tribe and tongue.”

Bickle told Charisma, “We’re believing for 10,000 prayer chains or prayer ministries across the earth. We’re hosting the first meeting bringing together the movements in church planting, missions, prayer, and Bible translation. There’s one movement in God’s heart, and some people think a call to prayer and fasting is a call to isolation and disengage. The missions movement needs the prayer movement, and the local church needs to be filled with the glory of God.”

More than 500 leaders from around the world met for the first Onething Leadership Summit. “We sent letters to 200 leaders inviting them to this summit six weeks ago,” says Daniel Lim, CEO of the International House of Prayer. “Over 80% of the leaders we invited said ‘yes.’ This is such a unique meeting because we have a common urgency that we need to pray.”

IHOPKC leaders unveiled the results of a survey at the summit that revealed houses of prayer are in 18 nations on 6 continents. The main proponents of prayer are millenials, with over 60% of the participants under the age of 35. Over 30% of the houses of prayers have 40 hours a week of corporate prayer.

Leaders at the summit also pledged to pray for over 300 languages that still need to be translated by Wycliffe’s Seed Company. “There are over 6,000 Wycliffe Bible translators who go to places no one wants to, they are hated by locals, and [they are] unsung heroes of the Body of Christ,” says Bickle. “They work 8 to 10 hours a day writing and translating the Bible,” reports Charisma.

Brian Kim, director of the Luke 18 project at IHOPKC, added that 4 billion people have no Bible. “This is the ultimate injustice.”

Bickle sees the House of Prayer movement as a catalyst for missions, evangelism, and Bible translation. “We’re just hosting the dialogue and providing the platform for new relationships, new ideas, and new plans every year in Kansas City,” he said. “The House of Prayer movement is the banner for all of these over movements.”

The House of Prayer movement has dramatically expanded in a city famous for its Prayer Mountain: Seoul, Korea. “We’ve been in Seoul for four years,” says Hojong Boaz Pank, leader of the House of Prayer in Korea. “We have over 100 churches involved with 112 full-time and part-time staff. I came here in 2011 with my whole family, including my mother-in-law, from Seoul to receive training. Today’s meeting (with summit leaders) was very strategic, and I’m expecting some great things to come.”