Calling A Million to Washington's Mall

THE ULTIMATE RESET
Nick, who gave his heart to the Lord at a young age, was a student at North Dakota State in 2001.  He started praying with fellow students for their campus, which was known as a party school.  In 2004, his English teacher assigned a class project where students were to compose a business proposal about some change they wanted to see occur on campus. He decided to do his presentation on how much the campus needed Jesus. The proposal, titled "Pulse," went over well.  He made copies of his 15-page proposal and gave them to his friends. "God laid on my heart this goal for Christ to be at the pulse of this generation," says Nick.  He continued to seek God and formed prayer groups and rallied supporters.  “We just wanted to reach our friends with the gospel,” says Nick.  Overnight, students started to message Nick, “We have been praying for our campus…can you come here?” they asked.  “That caught me off guard,” says Nick.  

Nick and his team gathered people on campuses and in prayer groups.  They raised money to see Nick's vision from God come to pass.  In fall 2005, the first Pulse event was launched with 1,200 students. Within five years more than 50,000 students were changed by that message, more than 10,000 responded to the Gospel making Pulse the largest student-led evangelistic movement in the history of the US. A few months later, they opened an office in Minneapolis to take the gospel from coast to coast.  After a few years, the word “reset” came about.  “So many people didn’t know God so we had to come up with a way to describe what it was like to be a Christian,” says Nick.  Kids today understand what it is to reset a computer or a video game.  By resetting it, or when the system is broken, you can reset it to start over.  “To clear a system of its past errors and get it working on its intended purpose, you have to reset it,” Nick says.

He tells this generation of kids that God designed us a certain way.  “We download wrong files.  We do the wrong things and go to the wrong places,” he says.  “It’s the ultimate second chance.”  The “reset” message started going across country and went viral.  “The students take it literally,” he says.  “There’s a trash bin; you empty the trash and reset the system and literally start over.”  Kids started bringing things like razor blades and pills to their gatherings.  “It became a movement,” says Nick.  “We felt a burden that God was moving and we prayed to find a way to get the nation’s attention.”  He says this generation of 35-and-under has never seen a united “Jesus anything.”  Nick thought, “What if we work towards a massive Jesus gathering,” and started talking about it across the country.  In 2013, he met Billy Graham.  “When I started talking about rallying at the National Mall, he was super excited.  His exact words were, “This is from the Lord.  You have to do this.”  In 2010, unbeknownst to Nick, Billy Graham wanted to call on major church leaders to rally a million people at the national mall, but Billy got sick and the idea was shelved.  So when he heard Nick talking, his face lit up.  What God had put in Billy’s heart, Nick was being raised up to do.

Nick, who has been called “the Billy Graham of the next generation,” challenges Christians to rally their friends and family together on July 16, 2016 in Washington, DC.  Called Together 2016, they are hoping for one million believers on the mall to gather in unified prayer and worship and as a call for catalytic change.  Currently, over 300,000 people have signed up.  The event is open to any and all and is free.  Guest speakers and musicians include: Mark Batterson, Jennie Allen, Josh McDowell, Luis Palau, Francis Chan, Christine Caine, Ravi Zacharias, LeCrae, Hillsong United, David Crowder, Louie Giglio, Passion, and Casting Crowns.  To register for Together 2016, visit www.Reset2016.com.