Citywide Unity Prayer group, Mayor’s Faith Initiative to hold prayer meeting Jan. 14
When Michael Hatch became a Christian in 1988, the divisions between denominations struck him. Why, he thought, were the various Christian denominations working in isolation, when that was so far from God’s will?
Twenty years later, in 2008, that same sense compelled Hatch, a pastor at Balm of Gilead Global Ministries, to create the Citywide Unity Prayer group. What began as a rotating weekly prayer session among five churches has since expanded to include 116 churches and some weeks, as many as 250 worshippers.
The notion that faith-based organizations are stronger together than apart also led to the creation of the Mayor’s Faith Initiative in 2012. The group connects community members from faith-based organizations, nonprofits and government agencies to address citywide social and economic issues. The idea was that many faith-based organizations already put significant time and effort toward helping their communities. By joining forces, more services could reach more people.
“We were essentially turnkey boots on the ground,” said Troy O’Glesbee, an outreach pastor with the Mayor’s Faith Initiative and congregant at The Crossing Church.
“Each one rescued from addiction, every family who stays together, every person who finishes his or her education or keeps a home, each youth who stays in school and out of trouble — these are the successes we are achieving and will continue to strive for and treasure,” Mayor Carolyn Goodman said of the Mayor’s Faith Initiative.
Since 2013, the two organizations have crossed paths twice a year when they co-sponsor the Citywide Unity Prayer Celebration. While the event includes a prayer, it also presents an array of services and resources from both faith-based and secular organizations. The next celebration will take place at 10 a.m. Jan. 14 at the Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St., and Rabbi Shmuel Oppenheim will be the keynote speaker.
“One of the benefits of it is now, Unity Prayer is working with the Mayor’s Faith Initiative, the Mayor’s Faith Initiative is working with Metro, Metro is working with the churches, Mayor’s Faith Initiative is working with the churches, so we’re seeing a lot of things change in the city because of the fact that Unity Prayer has kind of been the stimulus to cause some collaborations,” said Hatch, who is also now involved with the Mayor’s Faith Initiative.
In the weeks and months following next Saturday’s event, both organizations will use their respective strategies to take on topical issues facing the city. The Citywide Unity Prayer group addresses issues facing the church, city and nation at its hourlong session every week, as decided by that week’s host church.
Hatch also hopes to find solutions to the city’s homicide rate — which was the highest in 2016 it has been since at least 1990 — by first addressing poverty. “We’re trying to attack those issues that we know cause the bigger issues, try to deal with the substratum issues that are the foundation of the problem,” Hatch says.
The Mayor’s Faith Initiative tackles human trafficking, addiction in its various forms, education, jobs, strengthening the family and homelessness.
The biggest event the Mayor’s Faith Initiative is preparing for right now is the 2017 Southern Nevada Homelessness Census with Help Hope Home on Jan. 24 and 25. Getting as accurate a count as possible is important because it helps determine the amount of federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The group participates in two or three events like this per month.
“I always say that we’re an ant hill,” O’Glesbee said. “One ant can’t do much, but an entire ant hill. … In 72 hours, an entire ant colony can devour an entire carcass to the bone.”
Read more from Sarah Corsa at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at scorsa@reviewjournal.com and follow @sarahcorsa on Twitter.