Participants are being asked to pray for at least three to five minutes, not that the government would change America’s dire situation, but that the church would change its focal point to reliance on God.
“The focus here is not the church just pointing fingers saying we hope the government gets it right,” said Tony Perkins, the Call 2 Fall campaign organizer. “But rather that we get it right. And we take responsibility for our communities, and we take responsibility for our nations.”
Perkins who is also the president of the Family Research Council, a Washington D.C. family-values lobbying organization, said that too often the church expects the government to solve America’s economic, political and moral problems but that the “prescription” for an ailing nation lies in 1 Chronicles 7:14, which admonishes Christians to humble themselves and pray.
On the Call 2 Fall Web site, Henry Blackaby, the founder of Blackaby Ministries International, said that Christians must read 1 Chronicles 7:13 to have the proper perspective and urgency for Sunday’s call to prayer and repentance. The Scripture first says, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people (NIV),” but then goes on to admonish the church to ask for prayer and forgiveness to “heal” their land, Blackaby said.
Perkins said that now is the time for Christians to radically seek God, unify and take responsibility for this nation’s spiritual condition.
“Americans, we’re kind of proud-and even the church, we’ve kind of expected God to come to us on our terms,” Perkins said. “I’ll just be honest: I think the problems facing our nation are not political and another election is not going to solve our problems. Our problems are spiritual.”
Perkins said the concept for the Call 2 Fall is simple. Though Christians need kneel and pray only for three to five minutes, he said, he is expecting the results to be monumental.
Perkins was inspired to launch the prayer initiative after reading that the Continental Congress called the colonies to pray and fast on July 20, 1775, a month after they had begun a war with England for their independence. Perkins is hoping that thousands of Christians will kneel to pray for our nation on Sunday as thousands did when our nation fought to become independent.
Harry R. Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., who is dedicating his entire church service to prayer and repentance, said that he believes this prayer effort could be a catalyst for the nation’s transformation.
“The American culture is in tremendous nadir—low point—in terms of our spirituality and in terms of a cultural commitment to principles consistent with God’s words,” Jackson told Charisma. “I believe that we are on the verge of a great awakening that needs to be ushered in through this kind of massive prayer initiative.”
