The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) or Neo-Apostolicism is a Christian supremacist theological belief and movement associated with the far right that combines elements of Pentecostalism, evangelicalism, and the Seven Mountain Mandate to advocate for spiritual warfare to bring about Christian dominion over all aspects of society and end or weaken the separation of church and state. NAR leaders often call themselves apostles and prophets. The movement is heavily associated with C. Peter Wagner, who coined the term and founded the movement's characteristic networks. Wagner himself described the NAR as "the most radical change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation."
Long a fringe movement of the American Christian right, it has been characterized as "one of the most important shifts in Christianity in modern times". With the 2008 publication of Wagner's Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change the World, the movement began a greater focus on gaining political influence—through spiritual warfare—in order to effect societal change. The NAR's prominence and power have increased since the 2016 election of Donald Trump as US president. Theology professor André Gagné, author of a 2024 book on the movement, has characterized it as "inherently political" and said it threatens to "subvert democracy". Religion scholar Julie Ingersoll has stated the movement is "often...now the public face of Christian Nationalism." Leading NAR figures were instrumental in promoting the 2020 election-fraud narrative and sustaining interest in Trump until the 2024 election. NAR Christians have gained a prominent position in the second Trump administration through the Faith Office, headed by Paula White-Cain.
The Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes NAR as "the greatest threat to American democracy that most people have never heard of". Some groups within the broader Apostolic-Prophetic movement have distanced themselves from the NAR due to various criticisms and controversies.
History and reach
American missiologist, theologian, and "church growth guru" C. Peter Wagner is often said to be the coiner of the term New Apostolic Reformation and is often described as the movement's founder; however, he saw himself as applying a name to an already existing phenomenon, not as the movement's founder.
The name New Apostolic Reformation and whether it constitutes a distinct movement is the subject of some controversy. Some scholars also use the terms Independent Network Charismatic (INC) or Apostolic-Prophetic Movement to refer to the NAR. Sociologists Brad Christerson and Richard Flory argue that the NAR is part of the INC, but there is enough difference that not all INC groups fall under the NAR. Religion scholar Matthew D. Taylor uses NAR to refer to only those specifically connected to Wagner's networks, calling those that are part of the broader movement Independent Charismatics.
Elizabeth A. McAlister notes that the names Spiritual Mapping movement, Transformation or Revival movement, and Third Wave Evangelical movement are also used. The term NAR has been described as "relatively well established in the academic community". Some groups within the broader Apostolic-Prophetic movement have distanced themselves from the NAR due to various criticism and controversies such as January 6 Capitol attack and election denialism.
Primarily "influenced and driven by North American evangelicals," the NAR is rooted in the Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity movements: namely, the first-wave Pentecostalism of the 1900s, the Latter Rain movement of the 1940s, the second-wave Charismatic Christianity of the 1960s through 1980s, and the Shepherding movement of the 1970s and 1980s. The NAR has been described as taking the restorationism, dominionism, and "end-times revival" focus of the Latter Rain movement—thought to lead to a new Christian influence on the world—and the authoritarian nature of the Shepherding movement, described as "a kind of pyramid of power and accountability whereby authority (usually male) would flow down from a leading national (or global) figure to local pastors, and even through a chain of pastoral command between congregants".
Described as a "born networker", Wagner was involved in a number of missions and church growth organizations and a charter member of the Evangelical Lausanne movement focused on evangelism. Starting in the early 1980s, he was a professor in Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, where his influence grew. A "key disciple" of Vineyard Church founder John Wimber, who focused on exercising spiritual gifts such as prophecy and miracles, Wagner initially emphasized spiritual gifts as well, holding "Signs, Wonders and Church Growth" courses at Fuller Seminary along with Wimber. Wagner described three stages in what he later called the New Apostolic Reformation: the early 1900s African Independent Church movement, the 1970s Chinese house church movement, and finally the growth of independent Charismatic churches in the 1970s and 1980s—including in Latin America and Africa, and combining elements of indigenous cosmologies. Wagner termed the neo-charismatic movement the "Third Wave".
As the movement developed and Wagner's views were changed through his connection with Wimber, Wagner's focus shifted to spiritual warfare and exorcism. The neo-charismatic movement—as opposed to traditional Pentecostal belief, which focused on individual demonic oppression—developed a theology of regions controlled by specific demons, termed territorial spirits. Wagner helped popularize the concept. Though spiritual warfare had not been of significant importance in evangelical theology, his Spiritual Warfare Network of the 1980s and 1990s profoundly and quickly impacted broader evangelical belief on the matter.
In 1991, Wagner founded Global Harvest Ministries (now Global Spheres), which founded several NAR apostolic networks.
In 1996, Wagner organized a convention with 500 evangelical leaders, the National Symposium on the Postdenominational Church, including the organization of the church and evangelism, in Pasadena. It addressed the changing organizational forms Wagner saw in churches, which he considered a radical paradigm shift. Other, more traditionally denominational Pentecostals such as Wagner's Foursquare friend Jack Hayford disagreed with the term postdenominational. Shortly before the symposium, the term New Apostolic Reformation was adopted to refer to the new movement instead. Wagner himself has traditionally been known as the coiner of the term, though symposium organizer Kay Hiramine states Wagner did not invent it. Over time, the term New Apostolic Reformation gained prominence over the previous Third Wave.
In 1996, Wagner published Confronting the Powers: How the New Testament Church Experienced the Power of Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare and Engaging the Enemy, in which he discussed spiritual warfare on multiple levels. Starting in the late 1990s and through the mid-2000s, the NAR began to absorb the spiritual mapping movement, which had started in 1989 at the Evangelical Second International Congress on World Evangelization and focused on on-site prayer campaigns to battle demons in specific areas. Wagner's movement quickly took on an increasingly apostolic–prophetic tone and his organizational acumen helped it expand through networks of apostles and prophets and their organizations, while their ideas, such as dominionism, also spread back into the movement. After his retirement in 2010 and death in 2016, these organizations have been led by apostles and prophets.
Regarding dominionism, in 2007 Wagner said:
Wagner's 2008 book Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change the World, with its language of spiritual violence, set the NAR on a trajectory away from simple reformation of the church's organizational structure toward gaining political influence through spiritual warfare in order to transform society. In 2008, the candidacy of US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin helped cement partisan engagement among the NAR, as she had for decades been part of Independent Charismatic and NAR circles and was part of an NAR spiritual warfare organization.
Wagner and other NAR leaders saw in Palin "someone who evidently shared their aggressive theology" and hoped she could help bring about their concept of societal transformation as expressed through Seven Mountain Mandate theology. Similarly, shortly before his death in 2016, Wagner endorsed Donald Trump's candidacy for US president. His endorsement has been called "one of the most consequential" evangelical endorsements of Trump that year.
As the fastest growing group "within or on the periphery of American Christianity" since the 1980s, the NAR has rapidly gained religious and political influence in the United States. In 2015, it was estimated that churches openly part of the NAR were attended by 3 million Americans. Some estimates in 2020 claimed an "[influence on] approximately thirty-three million adherents in the United States", though this number is disputed.
The movement is global, growing in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, constituting a significant part of church growth in the southern hemisphere. American missionaries introduced New Apostolic thought and spiritual warfare practices to Haitian pastors and seminarians during Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first presidency and again after the 2010 Haiti earthquake through transnational missionary networks. Tenets typical of the NAR have spread into the broader Pentecostal and Charismatic worlds. NAR beliefs have a global reach through Christian media, particularly GOD TV. Trinity Broadcasting Network, an international Christian television network, "regularly promotes the teachings of the NAR" in its programming, as does Daystar Television Network. The Elijah List, a prophecy-focused website founded in 1997, is influential in the NAR.
Beliefs
The New Apostolic Reformation is a theological movement rather than an organization, lacking formal membership; however, some affiliated organizations have membership systems and overlapping leadership. Religion scholar Geir Otto Holmås has stated that the "NAR is not a denomination or an organization with membership lists and an unambiguous doctrinal foundation, but a loose movement which primarily operates through informal or semi-formal channels", adding that the movement is spread in bits and pieces: religion scholar Matthew D. Taylor terms this "prophetic memes".
Holmås writes, "this explains the slightly odd fact that people who are associated with the NAR do not necessarily identify with the movement. Some of them will not even have heard the term 'New Apostolic Reformation'".
Holmås summarizes the NAR as follows: "The Kingdom of God is advanced on earth through the church gaining dominion" "Apostles, aided by prophets, constitute the church's strategic spiritual leadership" "The Kingdom of God will come through spiritual transformation of culture and society" "The end-times church will be the complete manifestation of Jesus on earth" "A strong focus on prophetic insight and supernatural manifestations" "New revelation and casual use of the Bible"
Those in the movement that inspired the title NAR have a wide range of beliefs. Those within the movement hold to their denominational interpretations of the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit within each believer. Unlike some parts of Protestant Christianity, these include the direct revelation of the Christ to each believer, prophecy, and the performance of miracles such as healing.