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By Carol Madison
Prayer First Communications Director
As Nick Hall knelt down on the stage and pounded on it, he startled me. He called on the college and university students to get on their knees, put a stake in the ground, and give their lives to prayer for revival and spiritual awakening on their campuses.
I was startled because I had crawled under the stage to pray for Nick while he preached to a few thousand students at the University of Minnesota UNITE prayer gathering. When he pounded several times on the stage, I had thoughts of it collapsing on top of me! But at the same time, I was blessed and overwhelmed to hear the students respond by crying out to God for that spiritual awakening to begin.
Bethel and Prayer First Involvement
Prayer First and Bethel University were key partners in the UNITE event on the National Day of Prayer. It was a unique prayer gathering led by students, supported by older generations, and embraced by all denominations.
In some ways the vision actually originated with conversations between the Prayer First team and Ralph Gustafson of Bethel University over dinner one night at the Converge Biennial in Denver in 2010. There was a desire expressed to host some kind of prayer gathering or conference on the Bethel campus as a way to connect the prayer movement more closely with students.
The vision began to grow with those of similar hearts. The Prayer First and Bethel representation joined with leadership from Global Day of Prayer MN, Pulse Ministries, and Praise FM radio in the Twin Cities to launch a planning team. Soon other Christian colleges and campus ministries at the U of M joined in calling students and adults to prayer. As a result, some 2,500 people joined in prayer and worship on May 5 at the U of M Mariucci Hockey Arena.
Bethel University brought several busloads of students, initiated by Donna Johnson of the Pray First campus ministry. The Converge Prayer First team members were strategically involved in the planning of the event, and also took responsibility for on-site intercession for the students. Bob Bakke (Hillside Church of Bloomington, MN and GDOP MN), Nick Hall (Pulse Ministries), and Fern Nichols (Moms In Touch Intl.) joined forces to lead the prayer gathering in a generational representation.
From Generation to Generation
Fern Nichols mobilized 10,000 Moms In Touch groups to pray for the event. She summed up the hearts of moms around the country when she said, “I love you. Thousands of moms love you. We are counting on you, this next generation, for Jesus’ sake and for the Kingdom of God!”
Nick Hall responded (to the roar of the students’ approval): “God’s Word says one generation will commend God’s works to another. Tonight is not about asking the adults to pass some baton to us. It isn’t about saying we don’t need you anymore. This is about us as young people standing and saying, ‘Older generations, we need your help, your prayers, encouragement, wisdom, and guidance in our lives.’ We link our hearts together and pray for a multigenerational partnership in the gospel!”
Encouraging Responses
It was a powerful evening of prayer and worship. Some measurable results include:
- More than 300 students indicated commitments to Christ.
- Some 1,400 students signed response cards, indicating desire for future involvement in the prayer movement.
- Throughout the nation, more than 1,500 people participated through streaming on the Internet
- More than 100 student leaders participated in a follow-up meeting to begin planning for initiatives on their campuses in the fall.
As Dr. Bakke summarized the evening, “God was powerfully at work in our midst! But even more was accomplished according to the heart and dreams of Christ for spiritual awakening throughout the earth.”
Please be especially in prayer for a work of revival and spiritual awakening at Bethel University this fall. There was significant movement in the past year (a 40-day prayer tent, etc.), but keep seeking the Lord for an even greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this campus – and on other campuses across our nation!
…For a wonderful time of prayer and worship at West Hills Church in Omaha, NE this evening.
It was the annual city wide prayer gathering on the National Day of Prayer.
May the Lord send revival to Omaha!!
It is the annual National Day of Prayer.
Let us pray for sweeping revival in our nation!
2011 National Prayer
by Joni Eareckson Tada, Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer
Almighty God, you are our Mighty Fortress, our refuge and the God in whom we place our trust. As our nation faces great distress and uncertainty, we ask your Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon your people — convict us of sin and inflame within us a passion to pray for our land and its people. Grant the leaders of our country an awareness of their desperate need of wisdom and salvation in You until sin becomes a reproach to all and righteousness exalts this nation.
Protect and defend us against our enemies and may the cause of Christ always prevail in our schools, courts, homes, and churches. Lord God, send a spirit of revival and may it begin in our own hearts.
Remember America, we pray. Remember the foundations on which this country was built. Remember the prayers of our nation’s fathers and mothers, and do not forget us in our time of need.
In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
…Of the National Day of Prayer
The Leadership Summit is just around the corner and I can’t tell you how excited I am to see you again! I feel like Paul longing to see Timothy, “I thank God, whom I serve…as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy” (II Timothy 1:3-4). Every year, you serve on the front lines for the kingdom, through struggles and victories. I share and experience much of the same and that is why I look forward to spending time with you every October. All of us here at the National Day of Prayer Task Force want to encourage you, pray with you, and equip you that you may be able to continue standing firm in an ever-changing culture where the gap is being widened between truth and social-moral relativism.
I am always honored to spend those days with you as I know that I stand in the presence of God’s chosen leaders. Oliver North, our 2004 Honorary Chairman, explained to me that he loved his job because he got to spend every day in the company of heroes. I echo this sentiment as we prepare to unite our nation in prayer. Last year we laughed and cried together – we even met on the lawn to pray before sunrise. I rejoiced to be with you because God chose you before the foundations of the earth to do His work for such a time as this – none of us take that lightly. You are our honored guest and I encourage you to be here October 29-31 for this special gathering.
In past years, this event was called the Prayer Summit. However, the Lord directed us to give it a new name… the Annual NDP Leadership Summit. Although the name has changed, prayer and fellowship are still the core elements. Our goal is for a new standard; balancing praise and worshipwith encouragement, training, and concerts of prayer. We want to come alongside you in a greater way, embracing you as the leader you are called to be (you may have read the new name for the October summit and thought this wasn’t an invitation for you). This special event was designed specifically with you in mind – you are a spiritual leader!
While spiritual leadership involves many of the same principles as general leadership, it has certain distinctive qualities that must be understood and practiced in order to be successful. Our 2006 Honorary Chairman, Henry Blackaby, has some interesting thoughts on this subject:
1. The task of a spiritual leader is to influence followers away from their own agendas and towards God’s purposes. The greatest obstacle to effective spiritual leadership is people pursing their own agendas rather than seeking God’s will.
2. Spiritual leaders depend on the Holy Spirit, for only the Spirit can produce spiritual change. Yet, the Spirit often uses people to bring about spiritual growth in others.
3. Spiritual leaders are accountable to God in an acute sense. Just as a teacher has not taught until students have learned, leaders haven’t led until their followers have moved to God’s will. Leaders don’t make excuses.
4. Spiritual leaders can influence all people, not just God’s people. Although spiritual leaders will generally move God’s people to achieve God’s purposes, God can use them to exert significant godly influence upon unbelievers.
Lastly, don’t forget that a leader is especially responsible to follow God’s agenda. Before casting grand visions and goals, seek God’s will, then marshal the people to pursue God’s plan. There will be more on this topic throughout the Summit and we pray you will join us for what is sure to be a life-changing experience.
Hundreds of Christ-followers met on the evening of the National Day of Prayer at Covenant Presbyterian Church for a concert of prayer and worship. There were Christians from many, many churches praying and worshiping together. Praise the Lord!
May God send revival to the city of Omaha and our nation!
Watch it live…
Click and PRAY for our nation!
The National Day of Prayer is next week on May 6. I am on the planning committee for the Omaha Metro National Day of Prayer. Each year, we gather at one of the larger churches in Omaha for a city wide prayer gathering. It will be at Covenant Presbyterian Church this year.
Tonight in the midweek Bible study and prayer at Harvey Oaks Baptist Church, in preparation for next week, we talked about the subject of revival and then we prayed for it to come.
May it come Lord!
Why Is Shirley Dobson Smiling?
A federal lawsuit can’t shake her faith in religious liberty
The receptionist for Focus on the Family had just come back from lunch when she heard the disturbance at the glass doors in front of her. She looked up into the very intense face of a man demanding to talk immediately with Dr. James Dobson, head of the ministry.
Graciously, the receptionist began explaining that Dr. Dobson was with his wife, Shirley, in Washington, D.C., that afternoon for National Day of Prayer observances …but she quickly became distracted.
The man, she realized, was holding a gun. And tied around his waist were what appeared to be some kind of explosives.
The Dobsons had just returned to their hotel room when the phone rang with word that the receptionist and three others were being held hostage at the ministry in Colorado Springs. The couple immediately paused to pray for the Focus staff and the gunman, and began asking others around them to pray, too.
Soon, word came that the gunman had surrendered, without hurting anyone – though he did fire his weapon, tearing a hole high on the wall behind the receptionist’s desk.
When Mrs. Dobson enters the front doors at Focus, she walks right by that gash. It remains unrepaired – a reminder of God’s powerful intervention one long, frightening afternoon nearly 14 years ago.
These days, though, it’s also a quiet reminder of something else. For these days, it is the National Day of Prayer itself that’s endangered. And it’s Shirley Dobson who is under the gun.
* * * * *
On October 3, 2008, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin challenging the 1952 law that created the National Day of Prayer (NDOP). The lawsuit claimed the law to be a violation of the so-called Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
In addition, the lawsuit accused then-President George W. Bush (later amended to President Obama); his press secretary, Dana Perino; Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle; and NDOP Task Force Chairman Shirley Dobson forof violating the Constitution through their various proclamations of the event.
“I don’t think a person is ever prepared to become the defendant in a lawsuit,” says Mrs. Dobson, who learned of the suit through an e-mail. It’s her first time ever to be personally named in a legal action. “But I wasn’t necessarily surprised. In recent years we’ve seen increasingly aggressive attacks leveled against those who dare to express their faith in the public arena. There are some individuals who think any declaration of personal belief in God – ‘In God We Trust’ on our currency, ‘Under God’ in our Pledge of Allegiance, or the Ten Commandments – should be banished from public settings.”
She says she is “deeply concerned” by the efforts of groups like FFRF and the ACLU to “stifle these public expressions of faith,” and “dismantle the heritage of Judeo-Christian belief upon which our country was founded.
“Corporate intercession has been a cherished tradition among the American people, starting with our Founding Fathers,” she says. “Now, during these troubling times, it is especially critical that we come together to seek the Lord’s wisdom and guidance for the challenges before us.”
“Prayer unites hearts and voices,” she says, “It allows people of all denominations, demographics, and backgrounds to come together before God’s throne. This is a day when we can set aside our differences and agree on this: Our nation needs prayer.”
* * * * *
That conviction has been at the heart of the National Day of Prayer event since its inception – a beginning that coincides closely with the birth of the nation itself. The Continental Congress issued the first call for the colonists to pray in 1775, as frustration with England moved to a boiling point. George Washington called for prayer during his tenure in the White House, and Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a “Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer” during the depths of the Civil War.
On D-Day, the critical invasion of Normandy during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Americans to pray for the Allied forces, and actually led the nation in a six-minute prayer on the radio. Less than a decade later, in 1952, the official National Day of Prayer was established by a joint resolution of the United States Congress and signed into law by President Truman.
In 1988, President Reagan signed amended legislation which established that the National Day of Prayer would be held on the first Thursday of every May. Since then, every president has issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to commemorate the day, and millions now honor the occasion with special prayer services, community events, and private observances.
The FFRF lawsuit is the first to challenge these annual proclamations, and ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, who headed up Mrs. Dobson’s defense (in coordination with those representing the other defendants and the government), called the suit against Mrs. Dobson “unprecedented.”
“Groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation make no secret of the fact that they think religion is a bad thing, and they want to get rid of it,” he says. “They don’t just want to make prayer a private thing. They believe religion is bad for society as a whole, and they want to eliminate it from the public square. This is just one more attempt to do so.”
Theriot says he believes Mrs. Dobson was singled out not only for her leadership of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, but for what she represents, as the wife of one of the nation’s pre-eminent religious leaders (and one of the founders of ADF).
“She clearly is very fervent and genuine in her love for Christ and for America,” he says, “and in her belief that prayer is essential for America to continue its leading role in the world. She’s very aware that when you take a stand for anything that publicly promotes religious faith, you may well become a target.”
* * * * *
“Since I was a small girl,” Mrs. Dobson says, “I have always had a heart for prayer. I grew up in a dysfunctional family, with a father who had a drinking problem.” Her mother took Mrs. Dobson and her brother to a local church, where young Shirley, just six, heard from her Sunday school teacher about a God “Who knew me by name, heard all my prayers, and saw all my tears.”
She gave her heart to Christ, and it was then, she says, “that I started kneeling by my bed at night, praying for my father, that he would go God’s way. Whenever my heart was breaking, I would cry out to my Heavenly Father, confident that He loved and cared about me and my situation.”
Events such as the hostage incident at Focus only served to reinforce that confidence.
“As He’s done over and over through the years,” she says, “the Lord used that situation to impress on me that He hears our cries and responds according to His loving, sovereign purposes. We can’t anticipate what the future will hold, but we serve a great God.”
One of the things that Mrs. Dobson herself didn’t anticipate was a request in 1990 from Vonette Bright (co-founder, with her husband, Bill, of Campus Crusade for Christ) that she consider taking over the reins of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Her first answer was “no.” Being Mrs. James Dobson and, at the time, a board member of Focus on the Family, were – all by themselves – “a very full cup.”
Mrs. Bright’s response was appropriate enough: she urged Mrs. Dobson to pray about it.
“The more I prayed, the more I felt that the Lord had His thumb in my back,” Mrs. Dobson says. She looked to her husband for confirmation, confident that he, of all people, would appreciate her predicament.
“He was in his office when I approached him,” she remembers, “and I’ll never forget his response. He leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘Shirley, what more important ministry could you be involved in than leading the nation in prayer?’ I gulped and said I would continue to pray about it.”
* * * * *
Ultimately, the tag-teaming between the Lord, her husband, and Mrs. Bright proved persuasive. “When Vonette asked me a second time,” Mrs. Dobson says, “I realized the only answer I could give and be obedient was ‘yes.’
“I expected to serve as the chairman for two or three years. Now, 19 years later, I am in awe of how God has grown and blessed this ministry.
“Each May, thousands of events are held,” she says. “They take place in churches, parks, stadiums, and prisons, on the steps of state capitol buildings, on military bases around the world … even on buses, trains, and private planes. The creativity never ceases to amaze us.” During the eight years of the Bush administration, the Dobsons were invited to special prayer services at the White House. For the past two years, the observance held at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., has been aired over the Internet on GodTV, “and this has allowed us to add millions of new participants here and in countries around the globe.”
An event that involves millions of people inevitably requires a massive amount of planning and cooperation. “Because we are often working with well-known musicians, as well as highly visible religious and government leaders who have busy schedules, selecting individuals for the program and making things work smoothly takes much effort and prayer,” Mrs. Dobson says.
But she takes her greatest encouragement, she says, from ordinary citizens who plan and participate in local and state events across the country.
“Knowing there are so many believers who come before God regularly for the sake of our nation is a great source of strength and inspiration to me,” she says. “It’s easy to become distressed by the circumstances facing us as a country, but I’m hopeful when I see there is a strong and faithful remnant of God’s people who remain devoted to Him and His Word. The overwhelming response of our countrymen to the Task Force’s call to prayer has been humbling, yet incredibly encouraging.”
* * * * *
Currently, the lawsuit is in what attorneys call the “discovery” stage, with each side assembling all the information it can before trial. Theriot will ask the federal district court for Wisconsin to render a summary judgment – that is, to decide the case prior to trial. A decision on that motion should come early this year.
Given that so many other presidents clearly supported National Day of Prayer observances, Theriot says, and the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has already come down in support of government-paid chaplains “as an acknowledgement of our historical roots,” he is hopeful that the right of private citizens to pray for their country will also be protected.
Nevertheless, he adds, the implications of this suit – and the growing number of similar legal assaults on Christian expression in the public square – are ominous.
“The court could tell presidents to declare that there can be no more National Day of Prayer,” Theriot says, which could pave the way for eliminating similar federal observances, including Thanksgiving. What’s more, such a legal precedent could impact any government allusion to God, from federal currency to the national anthem.
“My team and I are so grateful to ADF for stepping up to provide us with such skilled legal defense,” says Mrs. Dobson. “We are also grateful to the many donors who make this ministry possible. It has been a Godsend for me and the NDP.
ADF has an impressive track record – they’ve won many significant victories both in the courtroom and through grassroots movements. I have profound appreciation for what they are doing to defend religious liberty throughout the United States … and the need for their work cannot be underestimated.”
Neither can the prayers of Shirley Dobson. Rest assured, that little girl who knelt beside her bed to pour out her heart to God is still praying. And those big legal guns don’t scare her one little bit.
bryanaloha
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