Every Nation Churches is an organization of Charismatic Protestant Christian churches. From its inception in 1994 until 2004, it was known as Morning Star International (MSI). The new name embodies its goal of reaching "every nation in our generation" with the gospel. The charismatic movement began with the adoption of certain beliefs typical of those held by Pentecostal Christians —specifically what are known as the biblical charisms of Christianity: speaking in tongues, prophesying, etc. ...

Every Nation performs many of the same functions of a denomination. However, because of its emphasis on relational ministry ties it prefers terms like "family" or "movement" as way of emphasizing this distinction. This is common for many Charismatic organizations. It is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee; a suburb of Nashville, with international offices in Manila, The Philippines. Brentwood is a city in Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. ... For other cities named Nashville, see Nashville (disambiguation). ... The City of Manila (Filipino: Lungsod ng Maynila), or simply Manila, is the capital of the Philippines and one of the municipalities that comprise Metro Manila. ... This article is about the country in Southeast Asia. ...

History

In 1994 ministers Rice Broocks, Steve Murrell, and Phil Bonasso formed Morning Star International as an umbrella organization for their ministries. At its July 2004 conference, Morning Star announced that it was changing its name to Every Nation. At this conference, the organization's chief "prophet," Jim Laffoon, said the new name had been revealed to him in a message from God.^[1] 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has directly encountered the numinous and serves as an intermediary with humanity for the divine. ...

What am I saying tonight? The nations, the earth, are up for grabs. Up for grabs. God has bestowed a new name on us. Every Nation Churches and Ministries.

– Jim Laffoon , “To Reach and To Rule” MSI/EN World Conference

Other factors behind the name change were a desire to have a name more in line with the organization's vision of "reaching every nation in our generation." There had also been some confusion with other ministries named "Morning Star" or "Morningstar," most notably Rick Joyner's ministry.^{[citation needed]} Rick Joyner is a Christian leader. ...

Churches Leaving Every Nation Group

The 2005 - 2007 period has seen a significant number of churches leaving the EN group.

January 2006 saw Every Nation's entire network of Indonesian churches leave the organization. As of January, 2007 there are 34 churches in what is now known as the GAP Network. [12] There have also been a number of Austrian churches, along with many American churches leaving - Arizona, Kansas, Los Angeles, Missouri, Mississippi, and Texas. With Every Nation stating 400 member churches, this means approximately 10% of churches have left the group.

Structure

Every Nation Churches states that it "provides spiritual leadership for approximately 400 member churches worldwide." According to their website, this includes the following main responsibilities: ^[2]

1. maintaining doctrinal orthodoxy;
2. mediating leadership conflicts;
3. assisting in the event of moral failure of a local church pastor or elder;
4. helping with leadership transition in the event of the death or incapacity of the senior pastor; and
5. encouraging member churches to uphold the vision, values and standards of Every Nation.

Every Nation member churches are fully responsible for the governance and direction of their respective local churches. Member churches responsibilities include:

1. subscribing to the vision, values and standards of Every Nation;
2. supporting official Every Nation conferences and events;
3. contributing 10% of their general revenue to Every Nation which in turn provides for the global oversight function and for the development of resources to support the churches; and
4. recognizing the role of Every Nation's International Ministry Team in the spiritual leadership of their local churches.

Inside the USA Every Nation is a convention of churches. ^[3]

According to Every Nation, spiritual oversight for the ministry is provided by the International Ministry Team (IMT),^[4] which is a broad-based grouping of leaders drawn from seven geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and India, Latin America, North America, and the Pacific Islands. Members of the International Ministry Team also serve as regional directors for the geographic region of the world they represent. The primary responsibilities of the International Ministry Team are to provide a global perspective for the leadership and oversight of Every Nation; to train and develop new regional directors; and to fulfill their own roles as regional directors.

Roles and responsibilities for regional directors for the seven geographic regions include: providing pastoral support and encouragement for the leaders of their region; communicating the vision, values and policies of Every Nation; facilitating conferences and other regional events; helping to train and appoint local church elders; mediating church conflicts when necessary; and helping to coordinate regional church planting and missions efforts.

The International Policy Council (IPC) ^[5] is a nine member subset of the International Ministry Team which is tasked with overseeing Every Nation.

Church Planting

The mission statement of Every Nation is "To honor God and advance His Kingdom through church planting, campus ministry and world missions." [13] Its core values are: Lordship, Discipleship, Leadership, Family, and Evangelism.[14] Every Nation emphasizes church planting, and actively recruits among existing churches. Through these two methods, Every Nation has continued to grow steadily throughout its lifespan. It has been involved in ministry on six continents, including locations like Turkey, South Africa, the Amazon region of Peru, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Canada, Austria, and the People's Republic of China. Within the United States Nashville, Los Angeles, and more recently New York are all centers of activity. Furthermore, key EN leaders also live in South Africa, Nigeria, Philippines, the Middle East, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the United States. Amazon River basin The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. ... For other cities named Nashville, see Nashville (disambiguation). ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...

Every Nation's strategy for church planting is called the “2010 Initiative"[15]. The goal of the 2010 Initiative is for every local EN church to establish or “plant” at least one new church every three years. The ultimate outcome of this initiative would be that, by the year 2010, hundreds of new churches would have been established all over the world. The initiative also envisions that, eventually, all EN churches would be church-planting churches. Because Every Nation's ultimate vision is to eventually have a church in every nation of the world, a particular emphasis is placed on nations where it does not yet have any presence.

Examples of church-planting churches include the following: the Every Nation church in Manila, Philippines has planted churches in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The EN church in London has planted a church in Dublin, Ireland; a church in Nashville collaborated with a church in North Carolina to planted a church in New York (Morning Star New York) and also planted a church in New Zealand; the EN churches in Sierra Leone have planted several churches in Liberia; and the church in Tarapoto, Peru has planted over a hundred churches in the Amazon Region of South America. Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ...

Every Nation's emphasis on church planting can also be seen in its strategy for world missions. In Every Nation, world missions are viewed as a launching pad for cross-cultural missionaries who go to the nations, make disciples, plant churches, and then raise up indigenous leaders who can then pastor their churches as well as plant new churches.

Every Nation has missionaries in some of the nations that have historically been the most resistant to the Gospel, including: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Turkey, Vietnam, and the nations of the Middle East.

Doctrine

Every Nation states it adheres to the foundational Christian beliefs of the evangelical Protestant church. They adopt the same Statement of Faith^[6] as that agreed upon by the National Association of Evangelicals^[7] as well as the Nicean Creed of AD325 and the chalcedon creed of AD451. The organization is unmistakably charismatic in orientation, despite no statements to this effect in Every Nation's doctrinal statement.

Foundational core beliefs also include: salvation by grace – that is, that a person receives salvation by the grace of God alone (sola gratia)^{[8] [9]} through faith alone (sola fide)^{[10] [11]}; the supremacy of Christ and Scripture (solus Christus^[12] and sola Scriptura^[13]); the belief in the Trinity^{[14] [15]} – that is, that there is one God, existent in three persons: the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit; and that everything they do is for the glory of God (soli deo gloria).

However, like many non-denominational churches, when it comes to issues that Every Nation considers non-fundamental or non-essential such as positions on eschatology or Arminianism vs. Calvinism, the practice of its Bible school, ENLI, is to present the evidence and arguments for the differing theological positions but allow the individual to decide for him or herself which position he or she will choose^[16].

Freedom of Conscience

For Charismatic churches that have a discipleship policy the issue of level of authority given to the person doing the discipling varies. Maranatha Campus Ministries or other churches that were part of the Shepherding Movement used to demand almost total obedience. Every Nation claims to take a moderate position of trying to capture the positive relationships without demanding actual obedience. ^[17] Maranatha Campus Ministries was a Charismatic/Pentecostal-oriented Christian ministry which existed from 1971 to 1990. ... The Shepherding Movement (sometimes called the Discipleship Movement) was an influential movement within American charismatic churches in the 1970s and early 1980s. ...

Controversy

Links to Maranatha

Some of^[specify] Every Nation's ministers and ministries have past ties to Maranatha Campus Ministries,^{[18][verification needed]} a controversial Charismatic organization from the 1980s. Every Nation has publicly renounced Maranatha's more controversial teachings and states, "Every Nation has been making every effort in the past couple of years to root out negative practices and doctrine precisely because that is not condoned. We are realistic enough to acknowledge that there probably still are bad apples in the mix but the fact remains that if any Maranatha-style doctine or practices have crept into an EN church, it is still not official doctrine or policy or practice, nor is it condoned." ^[19].

Legal disputes

2005 saw complaints regarding a chapter of Victory Club (Every Nation's outreach to high school students) at Hillsboro High School in Nashville. This chapter is linked to Every Nation's flagship church, Bethel World Outreach Center in Brentwood. Parents of two students there charged that Victory Club had hidden its true nature and that their daughters had been psychologically damaged by it. One is said to have suffered a nervous breakdown with the other attempting suicide. The student had been taking anti-depressant medication for a previous suicide attempt but discontinued the medication when a church staff member allegedly told her that her relationship with God was strong enough that she no longer needed to take anti-depressive medication. As a result, the parents sued Victory Clubs (which has since been folded into Every Nation Campus Ministries), Bethel and the Metro Nashville government in the the spring of 2005.^[20][21] The suit was dropped with prejudice in the summer of 2006 after both parties agreed to a settlement [16], and all documents related to the case have been sealed.

Links with New Apostolic Reformation

Missiologist C. Peter Wagner identifies Every Nation as part of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement in charismatic and evangelical Christianity to restore the offices of apostles and prophets to the Church and its leadership. Rice Broocks authored a chapter about Every Nation in Wagner's The New Apostolic Churches,^[22] a key book about the movement. There are some doctrinal differences^{[citation needed]} between Every Nation and Wagner and in spite of the strong unofficial ties and similarity in approach; Every Nation does not consider itself part of the New Apostolic Reformation and has no official ties with Wagner. Missiology, or mission science, is the area of practical theology which investigates the mandate, message and work of the Christian missionary. ... Charles Peter Wagner (1930-) is a former professor of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission. ... The New Apostolic Reformation is a movement in Protestant Christianity that grew out of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, that asserts that God is restoring the Lost Offices of Church Governance, namely the Offices of Prophet and Apostle. ... The charismatic movement began with the adoption of certain beliefs typical of those held by Pentecostal Christians —specifically what are known as the biblical charisms of Christianity: speaking in tongues, prophesying, etc. ... The word evangelicalism usually refers to religious practices and traditions which are found in conservative, almost always Protestant Christianity. ... Alternate meaning: See Apostle (Mormonism) The Christian Apostles were Jewish men chosen from among the disciples, who were sent forth (as indicated by the Greek word απόστολος apostolos= messenger), by Jesus to preach the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, across the... Prophets may refer to: The Prophets (Neviim), which is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). ...

Affiliated Businesses

Global Cafe

In January 2005, Bethel World Outreach Center opened the Global Cafe in Nashville, a restaurant used for youth ministries and other church-related gatherings. It is a for-profit entity owned by the church. Broocks serves as CEO, with two other Bethel pastors serving as board members. This structure may violate IRS regulations which forbid church officials from serving as officers or directors of for-profit entities owned by the church.

Inpop Records

InPop Records, a major contemporary Christian music recording label, has strong ties to Every Nation, even though the two are separate entities. The label's president, Wes Campbell, is a member of Bethel World Outreach Center. Broocks is a major stockholder and board member, as is Washington Redskins quarterback Mark Brunell. Tony Boselli, a former teammate of Brunell's on the Jacksonville Jaguars, is also on the board. Brunell and Boselli are members of Champions for Christ, and helped start an Every Nation church in Jacksonville.^[23] Contemporary Christian Music (or CCM) is a genre of popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith. ... City Landover, Maryland Other nicknames The Skins Team colors Burgundy and Gold Head Coach Joe Gibbs Owner Dan Snyder Fight song Hail to the Redskins League/Conference affiliations National Football League (1932–present) Eastern Division (1933-1949) American Conference (1950-1952) Eastern Conference (1953-1969) Capitol Division (1967-1969) National... Navy quarterback Aaron Polanco sets up to throw. ... Mark Allen Brunell (born September 17, 1970 in Santa Maria, California) is a left-handed American football player who currently plays quarterback for the NFLs Washington Redskins. ... Don Anthony Tony Boselli, Jr. ... City Jacksonville, Florida Other nicknames The Jags Team colors Teal, Black, and Gold Head Coach Jack Del Rio Owner Wayne Weaver General manager James Harris Mascot Jaxson de Ville League/Conference affiliations National Football League (1995–present) American Football Conference (1995-present) AFC Central (1995-2001) AFC South (2002-present...

The Newsboys are one of InPop's best-known artists. The group's lead singer, Peter Furler, is a member of Bethel, and Campbell doubles as the group's manager. At one point, the Newsboys Web site included a link where visitors could purchase Biblical Foundations, a Bible study workbook published by Broocks and Murrell. It is popularly known as "The Purple Book". The link pointedly asks the question, "Have you done The Purple Book?" The site also included a letter from Furler descibing how "doing The Purple Book" has changed him. A daily teaching by Laffoon was also given prominent space.^[24] The Newsboys began downplaying their Every Nation ties on their site in the winter of 2005, though there is still a link to Laffoon's teachings there. Newsboys are a Christian pop/rock band. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Affiliated Organizations

• Morning Star International (MSI; now Every Nation Churches)
• Campus Harvest Ministries
• Champions For Christ (CFC)
• Force Ministries
• Victory Campus Ministries (now Every Nation Campus Ministries)
• Every Nation Leadership Institute (previously Victory Leadership Institute) - A two-year, local church based Bible school. Courses include those such as New Testament, Old Testament, Discipleship, and Leadership.
• Every Nation Churches/Ministries (ENC)
• His People Churches (based mainly in South Africa)

References

External links

• Every Nation Churches and Ministries Website
• Every Nation Leadership Institute
• Webpage of Victory Christian Fellowship in the Philippines
• Factnet