Over the next 18 months, Norwegian author and futurist, Frank Kaleb Jansen, and American missions entrepreneur, Jay Gary, will spearhead the development of a TARGET EARTH training center in Colorado Springs.

"Our goal is to establish a center where leaders from all walks of life can come and interact about an agenda for the 21st Century," states Jansen. Gary agrees, "We aim to build a think-tank, which will aid in the renewal and renovation of civilization at the dawn of the Third Millennium."

Jansen (pronounced Yahn-sen), who edited the ground-breaking Target Earth atlas in 1989, sees the TARGET EARTH Center as an outgrowth: "The Target Earth atlas introduced a holistic perspective on missions. The TARGET EARTH Center will work through its practical implications. Our prayer is that this Center would be a school for 21st century prophets."

Both Jansen, 56, and Gary, 38, are no strangers to entrepreneurial projects. In the '60s, Jansen developed a chain of department stores in Norway. In the'80s, Gary developed the popular Perspectives Study Program, before serving as a congress planner with the Lausanne movement.

The Survival of our Children
Why would a TARGET EARTH Center be needed? Gary claims he and Jansen have more than 4 billion reasons. That is the projected number of children that will enter our world between now and 2020 AD.

"Most of us feel," says Gary, "we should leave our children a better world than we inherited. Yet, if conditions continue to run their rampant course-we may leave them nothing."

Jansen chimes in, "It's time to take back our children's future! The challenge-for our cities, for our churches, and for our families-is clear. We must look beyond the next election to the next century. For the sake of the children, we must: reach out to unreached peoples, restore threatened environmental systems, and heal communities sacked by violence."

In short, we must target earth with a holistic mission if we wish to protect our planet and save threatened peoples.

One key way the TARGET EARTH Center aims to help the children of tomorrow is by training leaders today to see the world as an integrated whole. In doing so, Jansen feels that we will not be fearful or overwhelmed by the future, but be able to grasp how God would have us change it. A big emphasis of the Center will be to develop experienced-based curriculum that can help churches relate to the emerging generation in the Third World.

A Home for Cutting-Edge Projects
Recently, Colorado Springs has become somewhat of a mecca for Christian organizations. More than 35 Christian organizations are now located there, including Focus on the Family and International Bible Society. Jansen says the combination of this cluster of Christian organizations, with a reasonable real estate markets has led him and Gary to Colorado Springs as the location for the TARGET EARTH Center.

In addition to developing curriculum and holding conferences for leaders, the TARGET EARTH Center will also function as the national service center for a handful of cutting-edge programs, including:

Adopt A People Plan:
A coordinated effort by 72 agencies to match up remaining unevangelized people with local churches which can provide material, human, and spiritual care. Since 1989, the Adopt A People Clearinghouse has found "spiritual parents" for more than 200 groups.

Celebration 2000 Campaign:
A grassroots effort to help make the year 2000 the greatest commemorative event in the history of civilization--in honor of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. Through seminars, books, and "Let's Talk 2000" Forums, this project aims to spur on plans within the Christian world to celebrate the coming Bimillennial in thought as well as action.

Toward 21st Century Shores
The past seven years have witnessed a proliferation of programs which have targeted the year 2000. While Jansen and Gary have both developed agencies which have raised AD 2000 sails, they believe the time has come for the Church to set its course for the shores of the 21st Century.

"The year 2000 is not just an end, but a dynamic beginning," states Gary. "There is a whole generation of 21st Century Christians whose lives are not bound to the 20th Century, who are ready to rise and build the Church of the future." He believes this generation is ready to receive grace from above for a fuller, greater commission, which can transform the earth.

Jansen sees the target earth motif as a key factor in the release of a new generation of Christians to enter this new land. "For too long we have divided our lives into little compartments. Christians are searching today for a holistic perspective on missions."

Gary believes this search starts when we target heaven. "This decade is witnessing the birth of the greatest prayer movement in history. We may well see heaven `target earth' with a mighty move of the Spirit that will bring about what we have all been praying for-a global awakening."

Jansen agrees with Gary about this "target heaven" mission. Turning to Isaiah 44:3-4, he reads a passage he claims for the children: "I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow..." To Jansen, this is the ultimate purpose of the TARGET EARTH Center.

Note: Work continued on developing this Center throughout 1993, but by 1994, Jansen could not maintain his visa status in the U.S., and had to forgo our option to buy a grass-ranch in Falcon, CO. While we continued to support each others, Kaleb and I pursued separate projects.