Find a thorough case study analysis of the Haystack Prayer Meeting in historical context and our current situation in a globalized world, at What Next Case Study.  

 The 
What Next Conference was a collaborative four-day, multi-denominational, prayer and mission conference in 
Madison celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Haystack 
Prayer Meeting, when in 1806 just five American students prayed and pledged their lives in commitment to the Great Commission. This small prayer meeting in a haystack in Western Massachusetts effectively birthed the North American missionary enterprise.

 
The What Next conference sought to bring together two vital streams in the Church, one representing new prayer movements and the other 
representing significant scholarship about church and mission. New College Madison convened this gathering to ask 
questions about missions and church growth, particularly the 
newest surge of growth outside the Western nations.
 

It was five students, influenced by the early 
beginnings of the Second Great Awakening, who began a study of 
William Carey’s “Enquiry” into the responsibility of the Church to 
present the gospel to the unreached, particularly in Asia. As they 
prayed through a storm under the shelter of a haystack, they dedicated themselves with 
the words, “We can do this if we will.” 

By 1810, these students approached their church denomination to form the first North American Foreign Missions Board.
 

What makes this time period and the haystack prayer gathering 
so significant? It was the coming together of two streams: prayer and mission. When the Church is 
revived and when mission commitment is renewed, the most significant 
expansion of the Church occurs.


 

Christian faculty who attended a luncheon with Sanneh were astonished 
by the depth of the distorted view of Christian missions, the belief 
that Christianity is Western Imperialism, what he called “a 
debilitating Western guilt complex.”
 Walls told us that the “frontiers of retreat 
of Christianity are in the ‘civilized’ world.”  Sanneh told us the 
“collapse of colonialism has not inhibited the advance of 
Christianity.” To the contrary, Christianity in Africa has increase 
from 4 million to 354 million in the past sixty years. Along with a 
shift in continental identity in Africa, Sanneh states, “Pentecostals 
and Charismatics may become the leaders in global political changes.”  “I can't help 
feeling that something significant is happening here this weekend,” 
writes one participant.
 

The Church in China, expected to diminish when Western missionaries 
were expelled, now reportedly has 135 million Christians. Such has been the growth of the presence of the Church in China that a recent 
Communist Party chairman, when asked what might be his legacy, said he believes 
Christianity to be true. “Christianity,” Sanneh declared, “is set to 
fill a vacuum that Marxism left.” It was not known if he was kidding or not, but with or without his help, China is already experiencing a Christian impact, even among the elite and the intellectuals. If Christianity becomes China’s 
dominant religion, it will profoundly affect its leadership role in 
a post-Western world.  
 

On the final night of the conference, 
five leaders of new prayer and mission initiatives ignited a fresh 
vision and new passion for prayer and outreach in the hearts of those present.  The five speakers representing new prayer and missions ministries including, 24/7 Prayer USA, Campus Church Network, Campus 
Renewal Ministries, Student Volunteer Movement-2, and Youth With A Mission. We were encouraged to be united in prayer and saturate the UW campus with coordinated outreach.   
 

“I felt like there was a clear impartation to me of faith 
regarding what's next with universities, and of desire for what God 
desires on the UW,” writes Wendy Andrews.  “I learned a lot…God has 
initiated and breathed on something of His dreams for the UW, and the 
connections we made with students were essential; I see Him bringing 
students who have like hearts and longing for prayer and breakthrough 
together.”

Consider Malachi 3:16 as you pray for the Church in Madison: “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord 
gave attention.” 



John Henry

Conference Director