Evangelical Christians converged on the nation’s capital for a prayer rally on one of the hottest days of the summer.
With the nation reeling from recent shootings and shocked by news of a
terrorist attack in France and an attempted coup in Turkey, speakers at
“Together 2016” cited the global events from the stage and spoke of the
challenges facing Americans.
“Jesus can heal our nation,” said former Southern Baptist Convention
President Ronnie Floyd to applause and cries of “Amen.” “Jesus can heal
relationships. America is like a broken bone that needs to be put back
into its correct place in order to experience healing.”
With their calls for prayer and unity, speakers generally focused on
spiritual rather than concrete solutions to the nation’s problems. The
event had been promoted by Pope Francis and noted by President Barack
Obama.
Nick Hall, 34, the leader of the Pulse ministry that organized the event focused on millennials, also addressed the crowd in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
“God, we don’t need to hear from some man or some woman,” he said in an
opening prayer. “God, we don’t need to hear from some band. We need to
hear from heaven today. That’s why we’ve come.”
Others taking the stage included some of the top names in
evangelicalism, preachers such as Josh McDowell and Samuel Rodriguez,
Christian artist Lecrae and the group Hillsong United.
Hall, speaking especially to the millennials, said “we want to get the
hashtag #JesusChangesEverything trending around the world today.” It
remained one of the top trending tweets on Twitter hours after the
event.
Many in the multiethnic crowd joined in as contemporary Christian
singer Michael W. Smith sang a song about compassion. As people sweated
and fanned themselves, wearing beach hats and hovering under umbrellas,
they offered bottles of water and welcomed others to the scant shady
spots in earshot of the stage’s speakers and songs.
Though cut short due to the heat, the event moved methodically through
discussions of how to “reset,” with sermons and prayers calling for
repentance, prayer and service. The generation of Facebook and Twitter
was urged to put down cellphones and meet people for coffee instead, and
to think about people less fortunate than themselves.
“We, the people of the cross, repent of 1.2 million children who will
be trafficked around the globe this year while we care more about
traffic reports,” prayed Christian author Ann Voskamp, “repent of the
3.1 (million) children under 5 who will die this year because of
starvation while we spend $60 billion dollars this year trying to lose
weight.”
Some members of the audience prayed for others who they thought needed a divine touch.
Jennifer Yeisley, 31, a nondenominational Christian from Rockville,
Md., got on her knees and prayed for Jackie Herbertson, 73, from
Brooksville, Fla., who sat in a wheelchair, her toes curled by
arthritis.
Though the crowd included many millennials near the stage, there were also families and senior citizens.
“My husband has been praying for a revival in this nation,” Herbertson
said of her spouse Bill, adding he had written to congressmen and
evangelist Billy Graham. “He wanted to see us all get together and pray.
So when we heard about this one … we wanted to come.”
Some of the prayers from the stage were tied to pleas for improved family and race relations.
“Let me die for my home, let me die for my community, let me die for a
white man, let me die for a black man, let me die for an Hispanic man,
let me die for an Asian man,” prayed gospel artist Kirk Franklin. “Let
me get out of the way so you can be God in my life.”
The event follows many other religion-related gatherings — both of
believers and nonbelievers — on what is known as the nation’s front
lawn. Together 2016 was planned in ways similar to Promise Keepers’ 1997
“sacred assembly” for evangelical Christian men — but this time
including women, too.
The program, which included an unusually high number of women speakers
for an evangelical gathering, featured Voskamp and poet Amena Brown in a
spoken-word segment that featured calls for forgiveness and
reconciliation related to racism and privilege.
“We will not be the people who turn a blind eye to injustice,” cried Voskamp.
“We will use our voices, our time, our resources to effect change,” replied Brown.
As the event drew to a close, many pledged to pray more and study the
Bible. Charlene Atkins, 49, who attends a mostly black Bible church in
Dallas, said she hopes to encourage greater work across racial lines in
her church community.
“One of the things that we talked about while out there was helping
people who are Christians understand what it means to be as one body in
Christ,” she said. “How do we look more like Christ and less like
ourselves? I think that would help a lot in the issues that our nation
is facing if the church would start to look more like the church.”
Courtesy: Religion News Service
Photo: A crowd gathered for "Together 2016," an evangelical
Chrisitan prayer rally near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.,
on July 16, 2016 as flags were at half-staff in honor of the victims of
the attack in Nice, France on July 14.
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