Christ followers in Metro Washington want to see the Gospel saturate our entire region, but this not happening because the Church of the DMV is not functioning as Jesus intended. In the Great Commission and in His prayer for unity in John 17, Jesus communicated two important commands:
The Church’s weaknesses in these areas has adversely impacted our consistency in demonstrating and communicating the gospel as Jesus intended. As a result, Kingdom growth of new Christ followers is not keeping up with growth of the population because people:
Observe our disunity - we are fractured along racial, theological and other lines.
Experience philosophical dissonance with us on the issues of the day.
Perceive an insufficient response to mounting social needs.
We have not been getting the job done! OneHeartDC exists to help change this – locally and regionally. There are two things that ‘want’ to happen but are not:
Metaphorically speaking, our partners are the seeds that God waters to produce fruit, but OneHeartDC adds ‘fertilizer’ to increase gospel saturation yield in four ways:
OneHeartDC clears the path to make Jesus’s expectations for His followers and His Church a reality. We help leaders to do the immediate work of their ministries in making disciples and reaching their local communities AND we help leaders mobilize and collaborate with other leaders to expand the collective reach of the gospel. The result is transformation inside these expressions and multiplication of gospel impact outside these expressions.
OneHeartDC cultivates a shared vision and commitment to action. The burning platform of the need for gospel saturation is kept central – that every man, woman and child has an opportunity to see, hear and respond to the gospel.
OneHeartDC provides a strategy for gospel saturation through a network of leadership clusters. Collectively, these clusters provide coverage of all people by focusing on geographies, people groups, affinity groups and needs. Accountability at local levels divides a large region into manageable pieces.
OneHeartDC provides a platform necessary to support an inter-dependent collaborative network. Knowledge, influence and capacities are networked to optimize and monitor gospel impact.
What God did
The story of OneHeartDC is intertwined with the stories of many who came before. For decades, faithful saints prayed and labored for revival and transformation of our great city of Washington DC and the surrounding region. The earliest indications that a new wind was blowing became evident in the summer of 2014. It was then that Lon Solomon, Sr. Pastor of McLean Bible Church, acted on a Spirit directed conviction. God had shown him that he and his church needed to join with other pastors and churches in the region to repent of disunity and to unite in carrying out the Lord’s work together.
Pastor Solomon called a number of small prayer gatherings with other pastors. The prayers at these gatherings focused around a common theme of 2 Chronicles 7:14. Lon and the pastors were on their knees, humbling themselves, making personal confessions and asking God and each other for forgiveness.
At the end of summer, the pastors affirmed a need to continue in prayer and fellowship. This led to the Washington Prayer Gathering (WPG) at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on October 13th. Over 5,000 people across denominations, generations, racial and ethnic diversities attended; thus, providing a tangible expression of unity. Prayer focused on confession of personal sins, the sins of our churches, the sins of our region and for revival. The next year, the WPG grew to over 9,000 participants.
The WPG was a catalyst for quarterly prayer gatherings of pastors and ministry leaders held around the region. The regional representation and diversity uniquely differentiated these gatherings from others that tended to be more homogeneous and local.
Throughout the year, God was changing many leaders’ hearts in similar ways. There was increasing brokenness about the spiritual condition of the region: 1) for people who need a personal relationship with Jesus, 2) for the lack of unity within the Church, and 3) for the need to be a greater blessing and to stimulate hope in our communities. There was a deepening conviction that we were failing in getting the job done. Collectively, we were only serving and reaching a fraction of the region and at least a part of the reason was our lack of true John 17 unity. There was growing recognition that no one church, even the larger churches, could accomplish the mission alone.
In early summer 2015, we witnessed a broader and more diverse spirit of Oneness with 'one heart' centered upon Christ, the Gospel and the needs of our community. A growing number of leaders wanted to seize this Kairos moment. They decided to continue in prayer and fellowship and to embark upon mission together. Hence, the birth of a regional Gospel movement named OneHeartDC to glorify God. The leaders adopted Romans 15:5-6 (NIV84) as the guiding verse:
OneHeartDC was patterned after many other gospel movements sweeping the US. The leaders affirmed a vision of churches being ‘better together’ by:
Celebrating what God is doing here – creating greater visibility and awe of God within our churches and communities.
Accelerating the spread of the good news in word and deed to over 5.5 million residents by sharing information, resources and teams for greater impact.
What God is doing
God continues to work in two extraordinary ways:
He is supernaturally shaping the hearts of greater numbers of Metro Washington Christian leaders.
He is using the OneHeartDC movement to unite and mobilize greater numbers of churches, church networks and other organizations to work together.
A powerful movement of the Spirit is fueling an uncommon level of commitment. But passion alone is not enough. We remain fully dependent upon God to open hearts and show us the way.
The Metro Washington area is a large, complex and diverse socio-economic system made up of many people grouping, needs and interests. Reaching a region like ours requires a comprehensive and unifying strategy. Big problems and big regions like Metro Washington mean that the best of our individual efforts added up will not be enough. We need the empowerment of a shared platform that is supernaturally multiplied.
Early on, we lacked experience to guide us and needed greater clarity on ‘how’ to impact the entire region for Christ. Some felt that the evangelistic pathway should be through a movement focused on prayer, or reconciliation, or social justice or any number of other worthwhile aims. We were introduced to Kevin Palau, President, Luis Palau Association, Tom White, Frontline Ministries and the Christ Together network who were used by God to show us that the focal point for mobilization needed to be gospel saturation. With this vision at the center, we could mobilize and begin to learn strategies for collaboration, multiplication and transformation applied on a regional scale.
We are unifying around a great vision to saturate the Metro Washington DC region (DMV) with the Good News of the Gospel:
Missional Objectives: OneHeartDC provides a platform or eco-system to release latent Kingdom building capacity for Gospel Saturation of the DMV. God showed us three foundational ‘pillars’ to interconnect the Body of Christ so we are more fully functioning:
Prayer – We are founded and fueled through prayer that strengthens our communion with God and maintains covering over our mission. We sponsor prayer and worship gatherings as catalysts for building a regional culture of prayer. We seek to cover households across our entire region in prayer by name.
Unity – We help the Church display a "witness of oneness" (John 17:21-23), making Christ and the Gospel more visible and tangible. We are a movement of churches, Christian leaders and organizations united in our belief that the Good News of Jesus Christ changes lives. Thus, we assume collective accountability for reaching every man, woman and child with the Gospel. Our bonds around this goal and core Christian theologies allows mobilization and collaboration together and sets aside any denominational, generational, racial and ethnic barriers. Our unity helps us to assess regional coverage of the Gospel, to develop missional leaders and to assure multiplication through new church plants and missions in the gaps. Our unity results in bridge-building, reconciliation, and thriving communities.
Hope – We offer hope by proclaiming the gospel in Word and demonstrating it in deed. This occurs through local and regional mobilization and collaboration together. We provide a network for sharing information on events, equipping for mission, service projects and resources, and sharing stories that inspire hope and point people to God and His glory.
So how is OneHeartDC structured for our mission of Gospel Saturation of Metro Washington?
A regional platform: We discovered that the Church was isolated into a myriad of expressions that too rarely interacted. We also discovered that individual expressions were facing challenges to disciple and empower their members on mission. This means that there is a significant quantity of untapped ‘passive’ capacity. OneHeartDC is determined to help turn this passive capacity into active capacity by linking like-minded people together and by creating a supportive infrastructure (connecting people, churches and organizations; sharing information online and through our Good News for the City radio show; networking resources, tools and training; assessing coverage and impact of the gospel in Metro Washington).
Using a 'constellation' metaphor, the churches, church networks and Christ centered groups are the 'stars' (or nodes). They maintain their unique identities as they serve and reach people in their locales or scopes. OneHeartDC creates channels (lines) for information and resources to flow between the nodes to multiply Kingdom impact. Thus, OneHeartDC provides an organic ecosystem or platform for bringing together the necessary ingredients for mission - knowledge, influence and capacity.
Local networks: Leadership Clusters are groups of either pastors and ministry leaders or marketplace leaders who meet regularly for prayer, encouragement, sharpening and mission. These platforms encourage collaboration and accountability for geographic locales (communities and entire counties), people groups or needs and provide broad coverage across the region. Through relationships in Leadership Clusters, we strengthen capacities for transformation of people and communities through discipleship, service and evangelism - advancing the missions of each church or organization locally and the gospel movement regionally.
Leadership: The movement progresses at the speed of relationships amongst leaders and their impulse to work together. Seven (7) senior leaders serve on the Board of Directors. Hundreds of other leaders are committed to tithing their time to the movement. Over 40 clusters of church and ministry leaders and marketplace leaders are doing life and ministry together across the region. Dozens of Catalysts are making connections and strengthening collaboration - providing a stimulus, a spark, an impetus that accelerates the OneHeartDC. Coordinators lead teams focusing on prayer, NextGen, racial reconciliation, inner city, marketplace and more. Movement support is being provided by the Luis Palau Association, Christ Together Network, Frontline Ministries, Movement Day, OneCry, Pulse / Together, CS Lewis Institute, and others.
Stories: Are the currency of our culture. Through our radio show, at events and online we are highlighting how together OneHeartDC partners are providing every man, woman and child repeated opportunities to see, hear and respond to the gospel.
WAVA 105.1 FM Salem Radio Network’s premiere 50,000 watt outlet and OneHeartDC are partnering on a weekly radio show called Good News for the City (5:30pm Saturdays, 9:00pm Sundays and podcast www.goodnewsforthecity.com.) The show highlights how God is working through our partners. Listeners are exposed to stories of greater Body partnerships, everyday people mobilizing and living out their faith, and the impact of interpersonal and organized prayer. Our stories:
ENCOURAGE Christ followers and church leaders by displaying Christ brightly (Matt. 5:16) through stories of transformation - in lives and communities.
Expand believers’ view of God and the scope and power of His work in our area.
Show the community and community leaders that the Church is a valued asset for the common good.
INSPIRE ordinary people to be used by God to multiply His work.
DEMONSTRATE the power of collaboration and working together – churches, nonprofits, schools, government, etc.
EQUIP the Church through case studies that highlight the principles of outreach – to meet needs and share the Good News of the Gospel.
EMPOWER action by providing specific connections to participate or start new activities.
Catalytic gatherings: We produce events and form partnerships for prayer, worship, training and service to bring the broadest possible cross-section of the Body of Christ together. Examples of these prayer and worship gatherings include the Washington Prayer Gathering, the Capital Region National Day of Prayer, Together, UniteDC; unity and racial reconciliation includes UniteNoVA, United in Action and Repairing the Breach; service includes CityServeDC / Awaken My City; evangelism includes Take the City. These gatherings provide an opportunity for Christ followers to experience the Church as it really is – across our denominations, generations, racial and ethnic diversities – and build Oneness of spirit and purpose.
Resourcing: We encourage, coach and resource our partners to accelerate the gospel movement by connecting with other church and parachurch organizations. In particular, we partner with the Christ Together network (http://www.christtogether.org/) and use their resources:
• Gospel Saturation Primer: consisting of 6 guided conversations to establish a shared Kingdom culture and vision – the Principles or ‘Why’.
• Gospel Saturation Accelerator: consisting of 6 Learning Community experiences to establish shared priorities and strategy for the vision – the Priorities or ‘What’.
• Gospel Saturation Coaching Guide: a manual for developing strategic plans for individual churches and shared areas of accountability – the Practices or ‘How’.
Missional Clearinghouse: OneHeartDC is building a web based resource that identifies what God is doing in the region through His Church, captures outcomes and impact and points others to resources that will help them multiply these good works in their contexts.
This is where we stand:
Individual churches and ministries committed: >600
Metro Washington jurisdictions represented (District of Columbia, 10 counties and 5 cities):
Counties: Arlington, Alexandria, Calvert, Fairfax, Frederick, Loudoun, Montgomery, Prince Georges, Prince William, Stafford
Cities: Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church and Manassas
Key people groups: African (Ethiopian, Nigerian), African American, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Latino, Muslim origin (Arabic, Persian, etc.), South Asia (Indian, Nepalese, Pakistani) and more.
Our Call to Action
Direct:
Join the movement.
Join or start a Leadership Cluster.
Mobilize and collaborate.
Transitional:
Tap into information and resources.
Participate in local and regional gatherings and projects.
Be inspired by stories of transformation.
Enter into relationships with like-minded people.
Community profile highlights:
Demographic Diversity
25% African American, 15% Latino, 10% Asian.
23% millennials (Gen Y) and 23% youth (Gen Z).
There is 2/3 chance that 2 people randomly meeting will not be of the same race or ethnicity.
22% are foreign born.
27% speak a language other than English at home.
Socio-Economic
1/5 residents struggle to meet physical needs; in DC 1/3.
In DC, a 34% increase in homelessness between 2009 - 2016.
Loudoun County is richest in nation ($125,900 median household income for 2015). Other locales in mission field: Falls Church City, Virginia $122,092, Fairfax County, Virginia $112,844, Arlington County, Virginia $104,354, Fairfax City, Virginia $99,671, Prince William County, Virginia $99,206, Calvert County, Maryland $98,937, Montgomery County, Maryland $98,314
Spiritual
Approx. 50% of people are not actively connected with a church.
1/4 people are connected to either an evangelical, mainline denomination or historically black protestant church.
40% of churched go to churches of size under 100 attendees.
More information?
Contact Howie Levin, [email protected], 703.489.9200 cell.
