GOD BELONGS IN MY CITY - SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS THIS SATURDAY

OFFICIAL PRAYER POINTS FOR THE TWO MILE WALK (see below)

TIMELINE: GATHER AT 10 AM (REGISTRATION FOR FUTURE EVENTS)
PRAYER WALK LEAVES COMER COX PARK, 18th and Capitol Avenue for two miles to 2nd and Capitol - the Illinois State Capitol East Steps.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE PRAYER LEADERS:
Dave Smith- Director, Illinois Family Institute
Roy Newman- Pastor, Fresh Visions Com. Church
Eric Hansen- Pastor,  iWorship Center
Roger Ross- Pastor, First United Methodist
Fr House- Catholic Diocese
Billie Landers- New Generations Ministries, Auburn

HERE ARE THE PRAYER POINTS FOR THE TWO MILE WALK TO THE 11:15 am PRAYER & WORSHIP SERVICE AT THE STATE CAPITOL STEPS (BASED ON PSALM 51 -New American Standard Bible):

Prayer Focus 1: PRAYERS OF REPENTANCE (Personal repentance – Psalm 51 Verse 2 “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin…verse 4 “Against You and You only I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight”…Verse 9 “Hide Your Face from my sins and blot out my iniquities.)
Corporate Repentance: for the sins of the Body of Christ against God and our fellow man. Since of division, despair, destructive speech and conduct and the racism.

Prayer Focus 2: PRAYERS OF REDEMPTION:  After this prayers of Repentance, sees forgiveness “Psalm 51 Verse:7 “ Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be as white as snow…..Verse 10 “ Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me”. Corporate Redemption – Pray for our city/town/state leaders to come to repentance and follow the will of God that it may be well with us.

Prayer Focus 3: PRAYERS OF RESTORATION:  Restoration of relationships – personal and between those in the church. 
Restoration of relationships across the community and unity in the Body of Christ, around the Person and saving power of Jesus Christ", regardless of race or class. 
Restoration of the relationship upon which all of the above is based – our relationship with the One True God of Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ…..Verse 12 “Restore to me the Joy of Your Salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit…..verse 15 “O Lord, open my lips that my mouth may declare Your Praise!”

Additional Scripture verses to meditate upon:

1.  Humble ourselves before God.
2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land."

2.  Love God and love each other.
Luke 10:27 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you strength and with all your mind, and 'Love your neighbor as yourself'."

3.  Courageous in difficult times.
John 16:33 "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

4. Pray for our leaders.
1 Timothy 2:1,2 "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT LAST YEAR'S INAUGURAL GBIMC PRAYER WALK. 

GOD BELONGS IN SPRINGFIELD IL PRAYER WALK 2013....A Roaring Success!

The Boanerges Chapter, CMA, get ready to lead the GBIMC Prayer Walk

When we were first approached by a young Christian mom with a vision in early April with the possibility of bringing the national prayer movement - God Belongs in My City (GBIMC), we were rightly inspired and gung-ho about the opportunity to participate in a growing national/worldwide movement which had its roots in a New York City subway! GBIMC sprung from the hearts of a youth group who happened to see a poster in the NYC subway system from

American Atheists which said “A Million New Yorkers Are Good without God. Are You?" They went back and reported this to their senior church leadership and were so moved that an idea was birthed. This was in October 2009. One month later, youth from all five NYC boroughs began what is now the God Belongs in My City prayer walk through Manhattan. It has since spread like wildfire to Canada, Switzerland, Africa, Puerto Rico and last year over 30 cities in America alone! 

This past Saturday August 24, GBIMC came to the capitol city of

Sarah, Sam, Vicki Lutchman

Illinois - Springfield and had a solid impact on the Spiritual life of this wheeling-dealing political and business oriented city of 115,000! It was not easy getting this through a closed and tightly religious system where every major church and denomination holds on firmly to its territory...all except one - Calvary Temple Christian Center. Senior Pastor there Mark Johnson caught the vision and empowered his outreach pastor Stacy Barnett and contacted me and together with Ezella Mills who brought the idea in from New York, we set forth on a course which really made this take off. 

Jessica McGee and Gigi

This was solidified after the National Day of Prayer in May, which I hosted for the eighth year in a row and we were joined by former Channel 20 Morning TV host Jessica McGee who now works as the Marketing Director for the wonderful Staab Family. She represented them magnificently and our final planning meetings were attended by PJ Staab himself, without whom we would not have had the major business involvement necessary to underwrite the upfront costs and police permits and street closure permits necessary to make this happen in the natural. PJ is a super joy to work with. He is well loved by the regions military veterans for his involvement in a huge memorial outside the city of New Berlin as well as his sense of humor.

Calvary Temple Pastor Mark Johnson

Through all of this, we were covered in some major prayer, as there was one obstacle after another or one spiritual attack after another. We had tireless and faithful leadership from Stacy Barnett and her church support - not just from the pastoral offices and administration, but from the core of Calvary Temple. They believed in this. We have many people to thank and they will be mentioned in no particular order at the end of this post.

The Day of the Prayer Walk, which we called GOD BELONGS IN SPRINGFIELD and had hundreds and hundreds of t-shirts made up at cost by Edgar Williams of Ambitious Designs. We met at the Comer Cox Park at the corner of 18th Street and Capitol for the 1 1/2 mile walk down Capitol Avenue to the State Capitol Steps. The love and camaderie and Christian fellowship across deep racial lines was a beautiful thing to behold. Even though almost every church officially turned down this movement to re-establish Jesus as the LORD of this City, many of their members turned out anyway!

One thing I will not forget is our tireless leader Stacy working so hard to get 1500 bottles

PJ Staab

Senator Sam McCann

of water iced down and ready for the anticipated crowd at the end of the walk; the volunteers there; the worship band already praying on the ground of the End of Walk service. My fond memories is the excitement of all different Christians in the same event T shirt all ready to work for Jesus. Stacy and I edited some ten or so prayer points which I read out all over the part to different groups of people with my bullhorn. The awesome sight of the Christian Motorcyclists Association led by brother Nick Courtney and the three Crosses behind them as almost 1000 people of all ages and backgrounds took off in a brisk walk down Capitol, was a sight to behold.

The subsequent hour long service on the Capitol Steps by the Lincoln Statue was so 

powerfully moving that worship, constant worship was breaking out all over the place!! Pastor Jerry Doss of Abundant Faith Christian Center, assisted by his magnificent choir set

BMIC President Bernie Lutchman

the mood for Prayer and the Word as they led off they service. I was next with the spirit-led Praise-Repent-Yield call to the Assembly. We went through 7 minutes of that and they pressed in!!! We were followed by the Bishop of Springfield - Thomas Paprocki on Religious Liberty after he was introduced by PJ and then some powerful praying by our State Senator Sam McCann. The powerful and timely message by Pastor Mark Johnson topped off an amazing and life altering (for this city) day.  The clarion call Pastor Mark proclaimed was to stand together, united, under the Banner of Jesus, or fall. This is the underlying theme of GBIMC - not unity at any cost where we toss aside the Basics of the Christian Faith, but unity in the Essentials to get right with God, through Repentance and then lead others to Jesus. This is the only way we can make any kind of difference and thus, show the world that God really DOES belong in our city!

Thank you to Springfield First Baptist led by Pastor Mike Henderson, for being the only other church, apart from Calvary Temple and Abundant Faith, to step up and support us from early. Over 30% of their church walked with us. Thank you to Todd Green and the Green Family Stores for underwriting the costs from the City of Springfield. Thank you to PJP Autos, The Staab Family and so many more who gave selflessly to this cause. Finally thank you - and in no small measure, to our wonderful MC - Calvary Temple Outreach Pastor Stacy Barnett! We are already planning next year's event and learned several things we can improve from this our first endeavor. Our primary purpose, my friends - to Lift up the Name of Jesus and proclaim Him as King over Springfield! Mission? ACCOMPLISHED!