On August 6, 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry hosts "The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis" at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Approximately 30,000 people attend the all-day prayer and fasting event, which Perry uses as the de facto launch of his presidential campaign — he formally announces his candidacy one week later on August 13.
The Response is organized with and endorsed by leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation, making it the first major political event in which NAR theology is explicitly integrated into a presidential campaign. Endorsers include C. Peter Wagner (who coined the term NAR), Cindy Jacobs (self-proclaimed "prophet" and founder of Generals International), Mike Bickle (founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City), John Hagee (megachurch pastor and founder of Christians United for Israel), and dozens of other NAR-affiliated pastors and self-described apostles and prophets.
The event's theological framework is "spiritual warfare" — the NAR belief that prayer can directly combat demonic forces controlling geographic territories, institutions, and nations. The seven-hour program includes prayers for the "seven mountains" of cultural influence, explicitly connecting NAR's dominionist theology to political action. Perry himself frames the nation's problems — economic crisis, political division, moral decline — as spiritual problems requiring spiritual solutions, using the language of 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray..."
Perry's campaign collapses within months (the "oops" debate moment), but The Response establishes the template: NAR leaders provide the theological framework and mobilization infrastructure; the political candidate provides the platform and legitimacy. This template recurs with increasing success — Trump's embrace of NAR prophet Lance Wallnau (2016), the "Jericho March" around the Capitol (December 2020), and the integration of NAR theology into official government policy through Speaker Johnson and the Bondi "Anti-Christian Bias" task force (2025).