Leadership Summit Convenes to Discuss Upstream Strategies
Cleveland, Tenn.—National Christian leaders Joined the Awakening America Alliance at a strategic summit focused on establishing a National Prayer Accord and Preach2Engage strategies to be used for renewing God’s people and extending Christ’s witness in the nation. The Alliance—formed in 2007 from a broad coalition of Faith Community leaders—recognizes that one of its greatest strengths is establishing a strong core of friendships at this historical moment in our nation as we want impact not image. In the words of summit speaker Bob Bakke, Senior Teaching Pastor of Hillside Church in Bloomington, Minnesota: “Passion is the burden of friends, and history is transformed among friends.”Alliance
Executive Cabinet members facilitated the summit in highly interactive meetings with attendees fully engaging to address the downstream symptoms and signs of church irrelevance, fragmented relationships, cultural decay, and moral decline. Prominent leaders of successful initiatives in our cities, on our campuses, in the marketplace, and the church were strongly united regarding potential, upstream responses to instill hope through unified, prevailing prayer, pastor renewal, courageous preaching, and a prayer-care-share lifestyle among Christ-followers. The summit also held focused prayer moments to undergird the discussion on awakening strategy development.
Dr. David Ferguson, Co-chair of the Alliance, shared his assessment of the meetings: “My sense is that the Lord was pleased with our pursuits of a Christ Awakening in our land! With each leader making significant kingdom-impacting contributions, we can envision TOGETHER, a reclaimed identity as Jesus followers who live out a rhythm of unified PRAYER, a life of CARING, compassionate service and a courageous SHARING of His life and love with others.”
Kay Horner, National Coordinator of the grassroots prayer movement Cry Out America and Alliance Cabinet Member, stated: “One of the major goals of this summit was to unite leaders from a broad range of perspectives in the pursuit of a Christ awakening in our nation. As we become engaged in kingdom opportunities, embrace fresh strategies within the church, and experience a personal urgency to pray and act, we will see a difference. One thing is certain; our best hope toward witnessing a dramatic spiritual shift in the United States is for us to stand together in unity.”
In 2008, the Awakening America Alliance, with strong conviction that America was in a devastating spiritual decline, decided a united, public moment of prayer for awakening was needed across America and designated a day connected with a time that in many ways is infamy in American history, September 11, 2001—a day all Americans will remember with images etched in minds and hearts. The Alliance recognizes, however, that calling sacred assemblies on 9/11 across denominational lines, from every race and every political persuasion to take a stand for Christ on the public square is not enough. We must be involved in a united, day-to-day process of prayer, preaching to engage our culture, caring for the disenfranchised, and sharing the good news of hope.
Dion Elmore, Director of National Day of Prayer, contributed to the dialogue from his experience of traveling across 35 states with the NDP bus tour this past summer. “We went to people in communities across the nation, and discovered that people simply want to learn to pray. We went to engage people relationally and to engage God relationally. We utilized the ‘seven mountain’ paradigm. Maybe it is as simple as leading people through the seven centers of influence and teaching them to pray for our families, government, educational system, media, arts/entertainment, marketplace, and religious spheres with passion. Maybe it is as simple as putting a face to a prayer and learning how to pray passionately for one another.”
Emmaline Elliott, a next generation attendee and leader with the Convergence prayer movement on the Lee University campus, said, “This is going to look like a lay movement. Pastors are getting burned out. It is going to take lay leaders encouraging awakening and commissioning. We need lay leaders and college students who can be empowered and mobilized to take the lead in prayer within the church.”
Dave Butts, President of Harvest Prayer Ministries and Chairman of the National Prayer Committee, said, “I believe God is getting ready to do it again! As He used the rhythm of prayer called the National Prayer Accord in past awakenings, so He may again in our day. I’m encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response of the many Christian leaders who gathered to pray and strategize over the need for revival. We came away seeing the National Prayer Accord as a tool the Lord can use to prepare our hearts for His next Great Awakening.”
Doug Small, Coordinator of Prayer Ministries with the Church of God, President and Founder of Alive Ministries: Project Pray, speaks from more than 20 years leadership in the prayer movement: “The core issue revolves around love. In America, we have a fundamental loss of passion and recognition of how much God loves us and what He’s done for us. Our true motivation should be ‘If you love me . . .’ It is my own personal relationship with God that motivates me to love, care, and share with others. Consequently, we understand a National Prayer Accord is neither the harmony nor the melody; it is the ongoing cadence on which the harmony and the melody ride.”
The Alliance was excited to make available a new mobile resource, “Reboot Spiritual Life.” The message and meditations on this digital resource offer an opportunity to experience a fresh encounter with Christ and quiet your heart and mind to reconnect with Him. To learn more about how you can access this mobile resource or be involved with the Awakening America Alliance and the nationwide Cry Out America prayer movement, visit www.awakeningamerica.us.
