The DAWN vision / I
DAWN stands for "Discipling A Whole Nation" - a reminder of the Last Will of Jesus (Matt 28:19-20) To make disciples of all nations means to bring them into a personal relationship to Jesus and then gather them in groups - from small house cells to huge churches. And those churches become agents of making new disciples, starting new churches - and so on. So, planting new churches is a central part of fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus.
Starting new churches is a strategic task - not only of one group or denomination, but of the whole Church in a nation. This is where DAWN comes in. We do not plant churches ourselves; we try to inform, network and mobilize leaders to develop strategies to plant churches systematically and in great numbers - based on research, prayer, and cooperation.
As a strategic approach to national church planting, DAWN has been developed and tested in the Philippines in the 1970's, initiated by Jim Montgomery. Many nations have since adopted, developed, and modified this approach. However, the common characteristics remain: The Whole Church works together to fill their nation with more, better, and new churches - of all kinds, sizes, and styles.
The DAWN vision / II
In Europe, as well as increasingly in other continents, we have realized that the question is not only "how many churches" but as well "what kinds of churches do we need". The goal is not only a numerical but also a qualitative one. There is a need for a broad range of sizes and styles of churches, because our European cultures are so diverse. So, under the common task of strategically planting "new, more, and better churches", DAWN is a platform that brings together diverse streams of churches: traditional, cell, house, Mega, emerging, ethnic - you name it. The common missionary vision for a country has been proven to be a strong unifying factor in the past.
"DAWN2000 - 7 million churches to go" by Jim Montgomery
(.zip, 149kb) The basic book about the DAWN Strategy