Major prayer service scheduled for May 15 at Busch Stadium

Major prayer service scheduled for May 15 at Busch Stadium

By Allen Palmeri
Staff Writer

April 19, 2005

JEFFERSON CITY – In an April 19 email to Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) staff, MBC Executive Board members and directors of missions, MBC Executive Director David Clippard signaled his approval of the May 15 Global Day of Prayer at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

“Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have 20,000 people in one place praying for an awakening?” Clippard wrote.

Harold Hendrick, a key organizer of the event and a member of First Baptist Church, Ferguson, said evangelical Christians who are pledged to adhere to the Lausanne Covenant under the banner of Mission Metro St. Louis are invited to come to the stadium at 4 p.m. on Pentecost Sunday solely for the purpose of prayer. Hendrick said organizers “have no heart to be a part of some ecumenical ‘glob,’” meaning that they do have a heart to pray as Jesus taught in John 17:20-23.

Missouri Southern Baptist leaders in and around St. Louis are beginning to sense that God is up to something. A recent revival at South County Baptist Church was an indicator of a Holy Spirit wind beginning to blow, said Ed Moncada, director of international student ministries for the MBC. The oxygen in that wind is a dominion-driven zeal to evangelize every people group on the planet by 2010, a goal being promoted by the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.

“We are truly in unique days in this city,” Moncada said. “Pray for a great harvest of souls.”

Hendrick has that same heart. He is pleading with his fellow Southern Baptists to visit www.globaldayofprayer.com so that they can be informed about the spiritual awakening emanating from Africa and Latin America these days with a message of redemption and forgiveness. The water in this wave will bless Busch Stadium on May 15, he said.

“Our desire is to be thankful for all who come to pray with us without feeling any pressure to fill the stadium,” Hendrick said. “This event will be good, and with this being a five-year effort, each year followed by 90 days of participants being urged to bless their community, the one next year, if the Lord tarries, will likely be better.”