About 300 men and women, representing more than one dozen area churches, gathered at Bethesda Christian Fellowship on East Washington Avenue last evening for a Solemn Assembly. The gathering was called by Tom Flaherty, pastor of Mad City Church, who had introductory remarks at the beginning of the program (shown above).
A worship band led by Bethesda pastor Brian Peterson played but most of the three and a half hour meeting was spent in prayer, with about 50 people lining up to pray at the microphone in the front of the sanctuary. The prayers focused on four topics, which divided up the Solemn Assembly: Seeking God’s face and worshipping Him, Repentance for our sins individually and as a nation, Asking God for mercy for our future, and Seeking revival for our region.
Even though the focus of the evening was the election, just two days away, pastor Flaherty said it was not a political rally. "Neither one of these guys, Barak Obama or John McCain, are going to solve America’s problems," he said. "We need a move of God." He asked that if anyone mentioned one of the presidential candidates in their prayers, that they also mention the other.
Each of the four prayer prayer periods was opened and closed by a pastor from an area church. Pastor Steve Stauffacher, of the Capital Christian Center, said that "in the 26 years that I have been in this city I have not seen pastors getting together like they are today. Something is happening, folks, and you are a part of it. There’s a fresh anointing falling on this region. God is raising up men and women like you who are hungry for God.
The sanctuary of Bethesda church was filled to capacity by those who came for the Solemn Assembly.
"We are gathered for a very serious reason," pastor Flaherty told the inter-denominational and inter-racial gathering. "America is already under judgement. We are crying out, asking God to have mercy on this country." John Ruck, pastor of Lake City Church, said he was pleased to see the unity in the Christian community represented by the gathering. "Lord we want more of you in the Madison area," he prayed.
At the end of the evening, pastor Richard Sisson of Gateway Church predicted more, wider scale events of this nature because a hunger for God is growing in the Madison area.