We are a group of mission-minded, spirit-filled leaders, who are committed to each other, and to the local church, while being focused on getting the great harvest in during these last days.

   Here is some background about how our network was started.

    The local church that gave the initial leadership to establishing Word of Grace was Rhema Fellowship, in Lowville, New York, which Penn Clark had helped pioneer in 1985. Rhema was a Charismatic Mennonite Fellowship who wanted to share what they were experiencing about the Holy Spirit with Mennonites and other hungry people from a variety of denominational backgrounds. After many years of working in the Mennonite context, it became evident that they were to leave the denomination. As Rhema began seeking the Lord about who to affiliate with, they began looking into what other groups were doing. When they contacted Hopewell Fellowship in Pennsylvania, which was also in the process of leaving the Mennonite church, they told them that they were forming their own network. They encouraged us to do the same and join them in with them in becoming a part of ARCnet, which is an Association of Radical Church Networks. It became clear to Rhema's leadership that this was a fulfillment of what the Lord had spoken to us about back in 1991, when He said we would establish a safe place for pastors to come together for fellowship.

   Back in the late 1980's, the Lord had put the vision in Penn's heart for this kind of relationship-based fellowship of church leaders, which was not commonly found in those days. This vision was confirmed in a vivid way through prophetic presbytery held at Rhema in 1991, but we waited for the Lord to establish in His way in His time. In the meantime, Penn began to relate informally to a number of other pastors who were more apostolic, in their thinking, in their calling, and in their desire to do missions. These men would eventually make up the founding core of Word of Grace Network.

     These men began going overseas together, sharing in each other's pulpits, and retreating together for a number of years. The other thing we had in common was that we had all been part of denominations or other groups that did not provide what we were looking for in our affiliation. We all wanted to be part of a like-minded group where we could be together and build together, for the benefit of the next generation of leaders.

   In the meantime, Penn had been asked to help form a network in Orissa, India for some tribal pastors that he had been teaching and training for a number of years. Word of Grace - India was formed in 1996, and whatever he learned during this experience was applied to starting the network in New York.

   Word of Grace Network was formally launched in 2001, with seven founding members who were pastoring churches around the State of New York.

    Currently, there are about twenty men and their wives who are actively a part of our network. While most of the men have churches in New York State, there are some who relate to us from other places on the eastern sea-board, and up into Canada.