Marion County residents participate in National Day of Prayer

An abiding belief in the power of prayer and a call for unity were the overarching themes mentioned by local pastors who attended the National Day of Prayer event on Thursday outside the county courthouse in Marion.

"One of the greatest things that we understand is that there are so many issues we are facing, and the one uniting factor is that we serve a God who answers prayer," said Rev. Rohan Anderson of The Gathering Place in Marion. "No greater thing exists than for us to come together and pray in faith, and I think that's the important part. It's really about coming together in faith and knowing that, guess what, we all know that our problems are bigger than we are, but we serve a God who is bigger than our problems.

"So that unites us together and breaks down every divide that exists. That's been my experience, anyway, and from what I believe that the scripture teaches us."

Anderson said he was encouraged to see several local elected officials — Marion Mayor Scott Schertzer and Marion County Commissioner Ken Stiverson among them — attend the prayer event.

"One thing that unites us is that we're told in scripture to pray for our leaders," Anderson said. "So seeing them come out is really encouraging to us and also to them. We want them to know that we're praying for them and to really feel our prayers for them. They have a tough responsibility, but we as a church have a responsibility to pray for them as well."

Rev. Tom Hypes from The Shepherd's Fellowship in Marion said community events like the National Day of Prayer are important to developing unity.

"Christ himself on that last night prayed for us to have unity like Jesus has with God, which is insane," Hypes said. "So to be able to work on that and not just have events that happen every once in a while, but to show in the community that we're striving to have unity and the power of Christ in our lives, in the church, and also in the nation and the world."

Rev. Dan Owings of Hope Family Church in downtown Marion said holding the prayer service should be a natural thing for Christians to do.

"It's important because we think God is real. We think he really cares about this country. We think he really cares about this city," Owings said. "I don't think apart from him we're going to do anything. And I think it's really important for us to do our best to get churches together for the sake of unity, but mostly because we think that God is worthy of our praise."

A national day of prayer was first established in 1952 when President Harry S. Truman signed Public Law 82-324 that called upon the President of the United States "to set aside an appropriate day each year, other than Sunday, as a National Day of Prayer."

A specific day for the national prayer was established in 1988 when President Ronald Reagan signed Public Law 100-307, which designated the first Thursday in May as the National Day of Prayer.

For information about National Day of Prayer activities, go to the website www.nationaldayofprayer.org.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion County residents participate in National Day of Prayer