Around the time of the
Second Great Awakening, leaders like
Joseph Smith introduced the concept of the restoration of living prophets and apostles to guide religious movements in the US.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular grew substantially over the next century, and its members recognized many prophets and apostles over that time. Much later, the modern movement quickly spread among evangelicals through the use of early
mass-marketing techniques by
megachurches and religious corporations. Early 20th-century movement leaders were
Paul Cain and
Bill Hamon. Hamon introduced the idea of a coming prophetic movement and was instrumental in establishing prophets of that movement, especially in the form of the Elijah company of prophets, and activating and training Christians in prophetic ministry.
John Eckhardt and
C. Peter Wagner were prominent figures in pioneering and propagating the movement. After the apostles began to propagate, many of them appeared throughout the US and other countries. The majority of ministers and members of the movement came from former Charismatic movement churches. The ministry took the form of Bible preaching and prophesying. Hundreds of prophets went to other countries and prophesied to national leaders. Hector Torres claims that the apostles manifested
signs and wonders, and that the saints were taught
divine healing and the working of
miracles. The local and global apostolic order was established based on the five-fold ministry concept.
Church planting was done and people began to work for "the unity of the Church, the restoration of all things, and the promotion of the Kingdom of God."
New Apostolic Reformation Hamon and Wagner worked together in propagating the movement. Hamon had the original vision for the restoration of apostles and Wagner acted as a theologian who began to write and designated the types of apostles and their functions. Their movement was called the
New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Wagner, former professor of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary of World Mission, founder of
Global Harvest Ministries, presiding apostle and founder of the International Coalition of Apostles, and co-founder of
World Prayer Center, played a pivotal role as the leading apostle of the movement from the 1980s to the 2000s. Wagner provided key differences between the NAR and traditional Protestantism in his article
The New Apostolic Reformation Is Not a Cult. He noted that those participating in the movement believe the Apostles' Creed and adhere to
orthodox Christian doctrine.
Seven Mountain Mandate According to believers, the five-fold ministry was initially restored and applied to religious centers, whereby ministers were seen to emerge to equip and raise up devout believers in God. The movement is now working on becoming more prevalent across various parts of society, under the
Seven Mountain Mandate. The seven parts which the name refers to, and which the movement wishes to claim for God are religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business. The movement's goal is to have more devoted Christians working effectively across society. On Patricia King's
Extreme Prophetic TV, prophet
Lance Wallnau states: "the Seven Mountains are almost a template for spiritual warfare because the church so frequently does not have a language for how it goes about taking territory." In Bill Hamon's 2010 book
Prophetic Scriptures Yet to Be Fulfilled, he describes the transformation of the seven mountains of culture, and how every nation will become either a sheep or a goat nation. In the end, the restoration of all things spoken of by the apostles and prophets will supposedly release Jesus to return and set up His domain over all the earth, as written in the
Book of Acts, chapter three. In essence, the movement is attempting to restore the church to the same power, energy, and fullness of faith as the
Early Church. As more teachers, prophets, and apostles are trained, the movement is planning on establishing apostolic centers in various cities, as training centers for equipping and motivating believers to be ready for ministry and the works of transformation across the seven mountains of society. These centers are not pastoral churches or denominational institutions, but are regarded by the movement as being part of a marketplace ministry that is led and governed by local ministers. The goal is to achieve change in cities and nations, verified by standard social scientific measuring equipment and independent professional sociologists, as stated by Wagner in his book,
The Church in the Workplace.
Kansas City Prophets Some of those who shaped the current AP movement were based in
Kansas City, Missouri, and became known as the Kansas City Prophets. They originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s at Kansas City Fellowship (KCF) whose influence eventually became international. It was overseen by KCF's Pastor
Mike Bickle. Included in the list of prophets were Bob Jones,
Paul Cain, Bill Hamon,
Larry Randolph, James Goll, Jill Austin, and
John Paul Jackson.
John Wimber provided some oversight from the
Vineyard Movement during the first few years. Cain had participated in the
Healing Revival initiated by
William Branham during the 1950s. The prophets except Bickle have left Kansas City but continue to be active in ministry throughout North America.
Some Said It Thundered was written and published in 1991, during what is considered to be the height of their movement. A later book,
A Life and Legacy of Pat Bickle and a History of the Kansas City Prophets, also contains notes on their history.
Apostolic Roundtable The Apostolic Roundtable was a society of 25 apostles convened by Wagner that included Karl A. Barden, Bob L. Beckett, W. Rice Brookes, Emanuele Cannistraci, Gregory Dickow, Michael P. Fletcher,
Chuck Pierce,
Ché Ahn,
Harold Caballeros, Naomi Dowdy, John Eckhardt, Bill Hamon, Jim Hodges,
John P. Kelly, Lawrence Kennedy,
Lawrence Khong,
David Kwang-Shin Kim, Larry H. Kreider, Alan Langstaff, Roberts Liardon, Dexter Low, Mel Mullen,
Alistair Petrie, and
Eddie Villanueva. == Beliefs and creeds ==