Whether you give a hoot

about the Hooters "Restaurant" coming to

Fayetteville speaks volumes about our community.

Last Tuesday night cars

started showing up at the fountain off the square in

Fayetteville. One by one people of all ages got out of

their cars and walked toward the fountain.

Woody Johnson from New Hope

Baptist Church spoke for just a few minutes about why we

were there and shared that we were assembled for the

purpose of praying for our community and for all involved

in the Hooters situation. Then Woody asked for Grey

Harwell to open in prayer. We were then asked to get into

prayer groups to pray.

There was something very

spiritually powerful to be standing hand in hand with

other believers with our heads bowed humbly petitioning

God's throne on behalf of our community and our families.

There were people of different denominations, and creeds

and backgrounds, but we all had one thing in common. We

all believed in the power of prayer and that if God's

people got together and prayed, things changed.

Another thing I observed

was that there was not a word spoken in anger against

anyone. There were even prayers for the leadership of the

Hooters establishment to have their eyes open to the

truth of God.

I felt honored to be a part

of it all. The next time the call goes out for believers

to get together to pray, be there.

It has always been

interesting to me to watch the media and often the

liberal left who for years have said "Christians

should stay out of politics." They say the church is

not the place for the issues of the day, and that pastors

who are involved in these issues should remain silent,

and on and on and on. There is one reason and one reason

only that they say these things and that is because they

want to control and influence the action themselves.

If you look at history,

many of the greatest movements in our nation started in

the churches of America. To begin with, the American

Revolution had its roots in the churches. The Civil

Rights movement began in the church. The democratic

movements in Eastern Europe which cracked the evil empire

of the Soviet Union started in the church.

After the fall of the

Berlin wall, the East German leaders attributed the

church and the democratic movements as the two unifying

factors that brought down the hated Berlin Wall.

The churches and places of

worship are not just a place where we go to "feel

good" on Saturdays or Sundays. They are places of

prayer and places where we fight the spiritual warfare of

our complicated lives; places where we go and place our

burdens of life at the foot of the cross and go away

free; places where we share one another's burdens; places

where we hear of the saving power of the blood of Christ

who cleanses us of all unrighteousness.

That's power from above.

Believers everywhere, don't give up the battle. Our

community needs you. Watch and pray!

The Rev. Dr. Knox Herndon

is the pastor of His House Community Church (SBC) and a

substitute school teacher in the Fayette County School

System, and a former Army chaplain. The church is

currently meeting in the American Legion Log Cabin across

from the fountain on the Square in Fayetteville, but not

for long. It will be moving to a new location near Senoia

in August. Prayer line 770-719-2365; e-mail [email protected] .