In 2021, a group of friends from Antioch D.C. and other churches across the Antioch Movement started to pray for Miami and took a weekend trip to seek God's direction and better understand His heart for the city. During their visit, they saw powerful displays of God's love and intervention, such as seeing a man's cancer go into remission and a woman leave her old way of life and turn to Jesus after prayer. Nearly everyone they met seemed hungry for more of God! The team left with a burden on their heart: Jesus loves Miami, and He was looking for people to contend for it with Him.
Moved by these experiences, the team continued to pray and took several mission trips from Antioch D.C. over the next year to spread the Gospel in Miami and make disciples. As they went, the vision grew, and they became convinced God was leading them to believe for a local church to be established that fervently prayed, made disciples, and sent people on mission from Miami to the nations of the earth.God also began to speak more promises to them over the church he wanted to establish.That it would be a spiritual family, a place where people’s “eyes will behold the King in His beauty” (Isaiah 33:16) and would be marked by prayer and the presence of God (Genesis 28); that it would be a community where people came out of bondage and pain to become oaks of righteousness (Isaiah 61), where God moved in power, and a region was reached with
the Gospel (Acts 19).
In the summer of 2023, the team moved to Miami and began spending extensive hours every week in prayer, initially in an Airbnb living room in a small neighborhood called Allapattah. During this time, they were specifically drawn to the Wynwood neighborhood, known for its vibrant arts scene but also notorious for its challenges with partying and brokenness. Convinced that God wanted them to establish a physical space for prayer and worship, they envisioned a place in Wynwood where Jesus' presence would be apparent and transformative, even amidst the darkness. And through miracle after miracle, God did it!
In September 2023, Antioch Miami was officially planted, starting with house church gatherings on Sundays, a prayer room in Wynwood, and the launch of a 5-month discipleship school. Since that time, dozens of Miami locals and folks from around the world have jumped in to help own and build the vision of the church, the lost and hurting have been saved, baptized, and set free, and multiple teams have been sent out from Miami to the nations of the earth. And things are just getting started!