National Day of Prayer features interfaith prayers for revival
The Southern Baptist Convention’s invitation to prayer.
Tommy Welty, a pastor at Inland Hill Community Church in Fallbrook, Calif. has always had mixed feelings about the National Day of Prayer. While he always encourages his congregation to pray for their country and its leaders regularly, Welty finds some of the imagery connecting national identity and Christianity unsettling.
But this year for the first time, Welty’s church will participate, joining an interdenominational Zoom call to pray for specific needs and concerns surrounding the coronavirus. The crisis has given Welty a sense of unity among his fellow believers.
On this day for 68 years, tens of thousands of Americans, evangelicals in particular, have gathered in public places and churches to pray for their leaders and their communities. This year for the first time, many hosts have canceled the event or shifted online, which has encouraged other Christian denominations and even other faith groups to join or organize parallel events. Religions for Peace USA will host a national interfaith prayer service with Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Jain, Unitarian Universalist, Christian and Jewish leaders.
The National Day of Prayer was introduced by Congress in 1952. The National Day of Prayer Task Force describes the event as “a call for us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a people.”
Praying for a revival of faith in America
The Southern Baptist Convention, one of the largest network of churches in the U.S, has been placing a heavy emphasis on prayer this week, led by Ronnie Floyd, former NDP Task Force president and the current president of the SBC Executive Committee.
The first prayer meeting took on a revivalist tone, named “Praying on the Mountain: A Call to Prayer for Spiritual Awakening in America” by the SBC.
Fred Lunsford, a 95-year old revival preacher as well as a D-Day veteran, said in a simulcast on May 5 that he had served in ministry for over 70 years and called on others to join him in reaching others for Jesus Christ. He also shared that as he was approaching his 93rd year of life, he wondered what value or purpose he might find at his age, approaching the end of his life. In prayer to God, Lunsford said he learned that his ministry had one final leg ahead of it, in that he was to pray for a revival of faith in the coming months and years.
Lunsford’s testimony had previously drawn the attention of several Baptist preachers and teachers, including David Horton, president of Fruitland Baptist Bible College in Hendersonville, N.C. and David Mathis of Mud Creek Baptist Church. And so, Horton, Lunsford and Mathis gathered in their vehicle to pray over this calling. “I don’t know how to explain to you what happened that day,” Mathis told the Baptist Press. “I have never felt a manifestation of the Spirit of God like I did in that vehicle that day.”
More than 100 pastors attended the first revival gathering. But that wasn’t enough. After the 200 men gathered, Lunsford felt it necessary to call for something far larger; 10,000 men and women praying for revival in the U.S. And they got that number within two days.
The group has quickly grown with media attention and the help of Floyd promoting Lunsfeld’s vision for a prayer group to a broader public through the National Day of Prayer and the SBC.
By May 5, the call for prayer had reached 250,000 people across the globe. While COVID-19 limited the gathering’s ability to meet up in-person in North Carolina, Pastor Horton believes that such a development was beneficial for the group’s goals. Horton even goes as far as to say that “[God] has….used the impact of the coronavirus to bring us to a place of desperation where we’ve probably not been in a long time.”
Division over the approach
Earlier this week, the SBC drew some criticism for encouraging prayer over “seven centers of influence,” like the government, schools and media. Some Baptist bloggers claimed it promoted what they see as the heretical doctrine of the “Seven Mountains Mandate.” The Mandate, as taught by those in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), charismatic believers who emphasize taking dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the End Times and the return of Jesus. The notion has often been affiliated with dominionist thinking.
However, doing so is inaccurate. The concept of the seven centers, or mountains, draws from the work of Loren Cunningham (of YWAM) and Bill Bright (of Campus Crusaders). According to Cunningham’s testimony, the seven mountains came from a series of conversations between himself and Bright as they sought out the platforms that would best allow them to share the Gospel with any who might listen. They were later weaponized and turned into political tools by Lance Wallnau, a member of the NAR.
John Wilke, the Executive Committee’s media relations director, told Religion Unplugged that he was unfamiliar with the Mandate. He stated that this language drew from prior work of the NDP Strike Force, which Ronnie Floyd had helped organize from 2017 to 2019.
Prayer in the time of COVID-19
The SBC will gather pastors and church members on May 7 online for a time of united prayer. Floyd will appear, offering hope and leadership in helping to encourage those in the Southern Baptist Convention in these times of death and despair.
Floyd himself may no longer be the leader of the National Day of Prayer, but his conviction and commitment to the practice have not died out in any way. Floyd implores his fellow Baptists to “be vigilant to pray for America consistently and even daily as we face the COVID-19 global pandemic” and to bring their fears before the Lord in prayer.
Welty concurred with such a notion, saying “...that kind of prayer is always urgent but the circumstances have revealed that urgency in a fresh way.”
Christopher Hutton is a freelance journalist in Indiana who has covered religion and politics for Religion News Service and Patheos, as well as VICE. He is also a sociology grad student at Ball State University, studying the influence of Youtube on politics.