In 1975, Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, and Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission (YWAM), were together over lunch, when God simultaneously gave them each a message to give to the other. The message revealed a strategy to bring Godly change to nations, by affecting culture, through these spheres of influence or mountains. Francis Schaeffer and Pat Robertson were given a similar message around this time, on how to impact culture through these mountains.
In order to bring transformation to a nation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, these seven mountains of society need to be reached, namely:
- Family
- Religion
- Education
- Government
- Media (and Technology)
- Arts & Entertainment
- Business
While the revelation is a segmentation of what key spheres of influence drive culture, a large part of modern church leadership has failed to equip and support believers to manifest the kingdom of God in the six mountains outside of Religion. An over emphasis and error in self-serving local church agendas, church growth programmes, and bigger gatherings has been the goal of a subtly deceived church. God was quite comfortable disrupting the known world with 12 disciples. Many of the problems we see in society today, are a direct result of the absence and silence of the church, where darkness has been given permission to rule and gain a stronghold in society. In line with the Seven Mountains strategy, I am convicted with what I call “The Other Six Days“. What should the kingdom of God look like outside of the Sunday service culture (the Religious Mountain). We love the formal church, and understand the challenges many leaders face, but our hope is to empower believers beyond Sunday. We cannot continue as the body of Christ only being relevant to the body of Christ, we have to impact culture.
Herein lies the challenge, and at the same time, part of our vision, is to facilitate the equipping of the saints to go and do the work of ministry in each of the Seven Mountains of culture. Our focus on raising up multiple generations together, to pursue their purpose in obedience to Jesus through faith, love and the empowered Gospel, to GO into all the world and preach, live out and demonstrate the kingdom of God. We carry a burden for leadership to step into the right purpose and position of their calling – that original passion they had, when called by God. It’s a radical re-alignment to the church built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the apostles. Many leaders face burnout, or disillusionment around the original spark they had, and the outworking of the day to day church. We love to help restore leaders in Christ in their gift to the body of Christ.
References:
- Generals International: https://www.generals.org/the-seven-mountains
- YWAM Values – https://www.ywamvalues.com/the-seven-spheres-of-influence.html
