This past July, members of the Atlantic and Penn York Districts had a new learning opportunity at their local family camps. In both places, representatives of the Praying on Offense (PROOF) team presented a simple, practical strategy to encourage people to take spiritual ownership of spaces around them.
PROOF started as a book. Written by Dr. Jeff Clark, “Praying on Offense: A Simple Guide to Transformational Prayer” outlines a straightforward approach to praying.
“The idea is to ask God to help you to identify a space where you live, work and play,” said Penn York District Superintendent (DS) Matthew Pickering. For some, that place might be at work. For others, it might be at home, at school or in their neighborhood.
Next, DS Pickering said, “You’re identifying three people, asking God, ‘Who would be three people in that space that you want me to specifically pray for?’ And then praying two things: ‘What do you want me to know?’ And, ‘What do you want me to do?’ So it’s a one, three, two.”
One space, three people, two questions.
Both districts that hosted PROOF workshops this summer took inspiration from the same event a year and a half ago.
Tami Mutch-Ketch, the executive director of the Atlantic District, is a lay leader who is passionate about raising more lay leaders and seeing clergy and lay working in equal partnership.
She said, “In April of 2024, I traveled to Indiana to attend the Marketplace Discipleship Conference that Marketplace Multipliers hosted in collaboration with College Wesleyan Church. During the conference, Jeff Clark spoke and introduced PROOF. It was in that session the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, ‘This is exactly what I want you to do. This is the framework.’”
For Tami, that conference was a turning point. At its close, in a conversation with Dr. Steve DeNeff, she said, “‘It would be amazing if we could do something like this in the Atlantic District.’ And he said, ‘Well, why don’t we?’”
DS Pickering also attended the Marketplace Discipleship Conference. He said, “I met Jeff Clark there. He had a table set up with his ‘Praying on Offense’ book. And of course, Praying on Offense was a part of the presentation.”
In Penn York, Chambers Wesleyan Family Camp provided a convenient location for a workshop in early July, led by Roger Younce, a member of the PROOF team. Roger used part of his time to interview a young man from the district who is putting this prayer strategy into practice. This young man has claimed ownership of the machine shop where he works and is witnessing and praying within that space.
At the end of the event, Roger asked attendees to make a commitment in response to what they’d learned. DS Pickering said, “I anticipated that there would be a great response to that. What I did not anticipate was almost every single person in the room getting up and coming forward.” No one was left in the audience to pray for those at the front! Instead, they were able to pray and commission each other from the front.
Soon after the Penn York event, the Atlantic District hosted its own three-day Marketplace Discipleship Conference at Beulah Family Camp. The team of speakers included Dr. Clark, along with Dr. DeNeff and PROOF team members Trent Dailey and Ryan Ott.
Once again, the final commissioning service resulted in a full platform. “God moved in a very, very special way,” Tami said.
The conference’s impact started to appear before it had even ended. Tami said, “There was one individual who had claimed spiritual authority at the Beulah conference for the school in which he presently teaches. Although he had been praying for the schools in which he taught previous to this, the PROOF format gave him a structure that he did not have before.”
Feeling compelled to go home, the man left Beulah a day early. There, he received a visit from a former student who had been in a difficult life situation.
“And on his deck in the backyard, when this guy could have been at Beulah hearing more, he had the blessing of witnessing his former student make a commitment to follow Jesus. Although this individual had been praying for this young man for many years, he realized the PROOF structure revitalized something in him.”
Stories like this are just the beginning. Both districts are also using the new PROOF app, which has an exciting map feature.
“When people claim spiritual authority for their space, a locator pin is added to the area map,” Tami said. “If you look at the Atlantic District region on the app, you will view the tags of where people over the four Atlantic Canadian provinces and the state of Maine have taken spiritual authority. And it encourages everyone who’s using the app to continue to pray.”
As both districts seek to develop more disciples who make disciples, the PROOF movement is taking root. Thanks to the app, its growth is literally visible.
Tami mentioned many other initiatives that are taking shape, from future conferences to church resources to discipleship groups and more. “It’s initial stages, but things are coming. We’re following the Lord’s leading of what to do next,” she said.
In the Penn York District, DS Pickering said, “I’ve asked the district to pray with me that God would raise up a lay-led movement, a prayer movement.” He hopes they are able to continue collecting and sharing stories of how God works in the district.
DS Pickering said, “The prayer would be that we as a district would see more people coming to know Christ through ministry outside of the church than ministry inside of the church building.”
Click here to view the Atlantic District’s Disciple Where You Go 2025 conference held at Beulah Camp July 6-9, 2025.
Jerah Winn is a writer for The Wesleyan Church. She is passionate about sharing stories with others for the glory of God, and she currently resides in central Indiana.
