Houston churches seek unity during the City Reach Houston prayer rally
By Kaitlin Chapman | 11.04.09
HOUSTON – Neither denominational lines nor language nor ethnicity stood in the way as more than 300 Christians representing 120 congregations across the Houston area joined together at Discovery Green Park in downtown to pray for unity, forgiveness and compassion at the City Reach Houston Prayer Rally for Transformation on Nov. 1.
Rickie Bradshaw, a church consultant for the Union Baptist Association and an organizer of the event, said that the rally was about coming together to ask forgiveness for disunity among Christians and to seek the Lord’s blessing on the city.
“We want Houston not only to be known as the space city or the city of energy or the city with the finest medical center in the world, but we want it to be known as a place where the Lord is,” Bradshaw said. “That is what we really and ultimately want. We want healing and deliverance to take place in our city.”
To do this, Bradshaw said the church must come together as one, seek the Lord in prayer and then turn from its wicked ways so that the presence of God will be attracted to the city.
“It’s not that the Methodist or Baptists or Catholics haven’t been doing it,” said Bradshaw. “It’s the fact that we haven’t been doing it together. So today, we are saying to the Father above that all of His children are here together representing the Body of Christ of Houston. That is why we are here.”
John Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Baptist Church, said that a unified repentance from the body of Christ will bring about a lasting, eternal change in the city.
“Unless we repent, the church can’t be effective,” Ogletree said. “Unless we repent of some things and get some things straight, we can’t make a difference in people’s lives.”
Organizers of the event chose Discovery Green for the rally location because they felt it placed the Lord and prayer in the public square and allowed for prayerwalks to the compassion, business and criminal justice districts in downtown, Bradshaw said.
“As you can see here in this park, there are people from all over the city skateboarding or playing with boats in the lake or going through the waterfalls or eating in the restaurants or picnicking on the ground,” Bradshaw said. “We said let’s go into the marketplace and worship the Lord and invite the city to be blessed so we chose Discovery Green.”
The rally encouraged active participation as individuals formed three large groups to prayerwalk three districts in the downtown area, asking God to bless and lead the ministries, businesses and leaders in those areas along the way.
When the groups returned to the park, they split into clusters to gather around 45 posts representing the communities in Houston. Each cluster had a list of churches and pastors established in that community. Through this exercise, all 4,000 Houston churches and pastors were covered in prayer.
Leaders of various compassion ministries and churches led participants in praying through Ezekiel 37:1-10, asking God to revive the dry bones of the church and to raise up an army of compassion ministries to bless the city, Bradshaw said.
We pray that “there would be a loud tinkling sound when the body is coming back together as [God] raises up a vast army of compassion ministries to bless Houston and to eradicate poverty – not just to decrease it but to eradicate poverty and to eradicate homelessness,” Bradshaw said.
The event also drew a crowd of youth and young people ready to see their city changed by the love of God, said Keyla Santos, a member of Bethseda House of Grace in Sugarland who attended the rally with a large group of youth and 20-somethings.
We come “because of God’s love and God’s mercy,” Santos said. “We know the goodness. We know how God has worked Himself within the community and in our church, and we want everyone in Houston to be able receive the blessings we have received through this faith and know how good He is and how good His mercy is.”
The prayer rally was part of City Reach Houston, a series of evangelistic and outreach events that will take place in the Houston area from the prayer rally until the Texas Baptists Annual Meeting on Nov. 16-17 in downtown Houston.
City Reach Houston is based on Texas Hope 2010, an effort by Texas Baptists to pray for the lost, care for the hurting and hungry and to share the Hope of Christ so that every Texan has a chance to respond to the gospel by Easter 2010.
“I hope that this will be a spiritual appetizer to wet the appetite spiritually for what the churches from all across Texas will come and do,” Ogletree said. “I hope that God’s presence will be felt here, that God’s business will be taken care of, and most of all, that we will be more mission-minded and that people will come to Jesus Christ.”
For more information about City Reach or to find ways to be involved in the endeavors, visit www.cityreachhouston.org or to participate in Annual meeting, visit www.bgct.org/annualmeeting.