MANSFIELD, Ohio — During a press conference Thursday morning, the Richland Community Prayer Network, an organization consisting of lead pastors from at least 66 congregations in Richland County, issued a proclamation recommending that this Sunday, July 26, be “set apart for corporate prayer, public repentance and private fasting to the Almighty God,” as stated in the proclamation.
Three of the 66 pastors who signed the proclamation–Nate Meiers, senior pastor of Berean Baptist Church; Harrison Gapter, pastor of Mt. Zion Lutheran Church; and Russell Stanford, pastor of All Believers in Christ Church–led the press conference, which was held at Ed Pickens’ Cafe on Main.
“Our general message today is that we would like, as a community, to invite the community to seek God for His blessing on us,” said Meiers. “We recognize that all of us have strayed from what He calls us to do and calls us to be as a people, and we seek His blessing, knowing that His promises in the scriptures are that if we humble ourselves before Him, He will lift us up.”
Meiers said that with what has been reported locally about different issues affecting the community, such as sex trafficking and drug problems, “We just thought this summer would be a good time for us to focus on this idea that we need God to help us.”
He continued, “It is difficult to get out of some of the troubles we’ve gotten ourselves into, and we’re hoping, by His grace, as we come together, as He sees us in unity, that He could help rescue us from some of these problems.”
The proclamation says there is evidence of “contemporary turnarounds where societies are tangibly redeemed when Biblical principles are practiced…”
As an example, Meiers discussed what happened when the residents of a Canadian town, Pond Inlet, “decided to turn to the Lord.”
When that happened, Meiers said, “There was a great movement of repentance in that community so that even the Royal Canadian Mounted Police helped them as they disposed of a lot of illicit material. They valued that material at about $100,000.”
Meiers said the proclamation was written “in the context of a long history of proclamations that our country has done.
“The Second Continental Congress, every year, had a day of prayer and seeking the Lord from 1775-1783. Abraham Lincoln called for a day of prayer. In 1952 it became a national day. Locally, in 1992, some local pastors came together and asked for a day of prayer and seeking the Lord. And most recently, in 2009, when the GM plant locally closed, the local pastors came together and asked for a time of seeking the Lord.
“Scriptures tell us that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance–that because God loves us, it is a safe and good thing for us to turn to Him in repentance and to seek His blessing. He desires us to live in righteousness, to live in truth, to live in blessing, and so we are seeking that blessing together.
“In the Book of James it says, ‘When we humble ourselves before God, recognizing His sovereign leadership over us, that He then exalts us,’ and that’s really what we are seeking to do today.”
“We just thought this summer would be a good time for us to focus on this idea that we need God to help us.”
Nate Meiers
