Charismatic ministries, festivals disband and regroup

Charismatic ministries, festivals, and conferences around the world have recently been closing, though not necessarily for lack of success and numbers, reports Charisma magazine (March). Ministries and conferences including Onething, TheCall, the UK-based Soul Survivor conferences, and Germany’s Augsburg Prayer House conferences, which reached over 10,000 people annually, closed down in 2018 or will cease operations this year, with most of the organizers and leaders claiming a divine call to withdraw from such activities, writes Joshua Olson. One leader said that he had not witnessed so many closings before and compared it to the rapid founding of prayer ministries 20 years ago. In fact, several of the ministries ceasing operation are related to organizations such as the International House of Prayer and other “houses of prayers,” such as Onething and TheCall. The reasons given for such closures often have to do with disenchantment with the business models and competitiveness of these operations that set them apart from congregations.

Mike Pilavachi of Soul Survivor said that the process in many ministries of business hiring and firing as they select the best from other organizations was seen to be counterproductive. A sense of burnout and the need to pass on the torch to younger leaders were factors in other ministries’ closings. Some of these ministries and conferences are spinning off smaller ones led by the younger generation. Soul Survivor will spawn three new charismatic conferences in its place, led by young leaders who grew up in it, while the Augsburg Prayer House will start a smaller conference called SCHON, which will seek to build bridges between Christian and secular communities in Germany. In the U.S., TheCall has led to The Send and The Briefing movements, which focus on prayer, prophecy, and evangelism.