I didn’t expect to be “wowed” when I entered the Priority 15 (P15) Conference this past spring. I was curious, however, and my curiosity led me to interview several participants. The gathering boasted more than 200 young professionals, many of whom were Perspectives alumni. What I discovered was a culture of community and purpose that was strangely similar to the culture my husband and I experienced when we visited the awakening at Asbury University a week earlier.

P15 is a mobilizing entity. Its name comes from Paul’s Romans 15 commitment to relay the Gospel to those who have never seen nor heard (Romans 15:21). It exists to motivate, encourage, and collaborate with like- minded individuals committed to the last of the unreached and unengaged peoples of the world.

The P15 community gathers in three ways: an annual conference, weekly prayer groups, and goer cohort groups that meet bi-monthly. The conference is a missional on-ramp for young professionals (in training or in the marketplace) wanting to explore living, serving, and multiplying disciples in strategic restricted-access areas.

The Formation

P15 is the dream-child of a small group of physicians and residency administrators who recognized a different mobilization strategy was required for the aspiring global workers they were mentoring. The typical “go into missions somewhere” approach “was not inspiring prayer or actual going” co-founder J explained.

Co-founder T said, “Several of us who had developed friendships and collaborative relationships began talking in 2013, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get our students together for a weekend to help them collaborate and encourage each other?!’” J expressed a hope for their mentees to consider forming teams to go to one of the prioritized hard to reach places.

They expected 20–30 medical students to attend the first gathering. “We didn’t advertise, but relied on word-of-mouth, and 120 missional trainees and faculty showed up from eight US cities,” T recalls, still incredulous. He continued, “We didn’t know much about the unreached people groups we adopted, but we kept researching, praying, and casting vision. People groups were adopted, missional trainees started language classes, and eventually became goers to closed countries.”

Consultant and keynote speaker, Nathan J’Diim, provided an outsider’s glimpse of his early days with P15 Organization. “I’m an unlikely guest at the P15 Conference,” he began. Grinning, he shared his first exchange with P15 administrator, J:

“The first time I was invited to speak, I wrote back, ‘I’m not your guy.’ I let him know that I am only interested in groups willing to focus on skills that lead to movement!”

J wrote back, “That is what we want P15 to be.”

J’Diim confessed, “This gathering has become a very attractive place for me.”

Community

Whether I spoke to attendees of the P15 conference formally to interview or informally in a prayer group or during a coffee break, the sense of community was evident. Four impressions that most struck me were a sense of horizontal relationships, shared purpose, belonging, and shared risk.

Sense of horizontal relationships

There was no dominant voice for the conference; leadership was shared. There were no flashy musicians. Both men and women spoke from the stage and in the breakout sessions. Young parents attended the sessions sitting in the back with their children playing around them. Multiple ages and ethnicities were present.

Sense of shared purpose

Shared belief in God’s worthiness to be worshiped by all the world’s people groups was evident among several conference attendees. One pregnant mother, who was preparing her family for an overseas move excitedly explained, “When I’m here, I know I’m with people who believe Jesus is WORTH it!!!”

Sense of belonging

S explained that he and his wife appreciate being with “people who talk our talk. We need people who think our passions are ‘not crazy.’” Indeed, on three occasions, I heard different individuals express that the conference was “a place where people don’t think I’m crazy!”

R, who is preparing to go to one of the 15 prioritized places, shared, “It’s always encouraging to be with like- minded people, because it can feel kind of isolating when you are pursuing this alone, but we are united in purpose.”

Sense of shared risk

Rick Donlon, a missional physician, led two break-out sessions titled, Suffering and Missions: Counted the Cost? I attended the second session along with at least 40 others. When the facilitator asked, “Why should good people expect suffering?” a young woman several rows behind me shouted, “Because we serve a suffering Savior!”

There was hushed reverence over the room. I was reminded of a young mother I had spoken with earlier in the day who said, “I look around and I see beauty in a room full of people willing to go and possibly not come back… people here don’t just talk the talk.”

Teasing out organizational culture

After the conference, I followed up with future goers, mobilizers, and prayer warriors to gain further understanding of the P15 culture.

The topic that came up most frequently was prayer. This sparked my interest: How was prayer commitment sustainable beyond the conference itself? Mission mobilizer Ryan Shaw explains attendees of globally focused gatherings typically return home only to be deflated. “Their vision for the nations is dulled because there is no ongoing mission fuel at the local-ministry level.”¹

P15 leaders avoid this problem by inviting attendees to be involved in a weekly prayer group. P and her husband have been in one for more than two years. “We have been involved in churches but…involvement in the unreached wasn’t even on their radar,” she shared. The P15 prayer groups keep potential goers’ visions from dulling.

On the P15 website, two types of prayer groups are described:

Priority15 Prayer Teams meet virtually once a week for 30 minutes to pray the Scriptures over the P15 unreached regions of the earth.