Show of Unity: Southern Baptist President Leads Thousands of Students in Prayer for Spiritual Awakening at One Thing Gathering

Leilani Haywood : Jan 4, 2016
Charisma News

"If we're honest with each other, we know that thousands of us that are filling this convention center and thousands of us that are watching this online, we're not in total agreement about life, ministry or the Bible... Yet my being here is a clear indication that people must come together and pray."

(Kansas City, MO)—Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd asked over 15,000 attendees at the International House of Prayer Onething 2015 Young Adult Conference in Kansas City to kneel in prayer and ask God for an awakening. Floyd led the prayer after exhorting attendees that the nation urgently needed a spiritual awakening. His appearance at the conference stirred controversy among conservative online Baptist publications such as Pulpit and Pen and The Reformed Report. (Olivia Rose Photography/via Charisma)

"My being here isn't an endorsement of your theology or your endorsing my orthodoxy," Floyd told attendees. "If we're honest with each other, we know that thousands of us that are filling this convention center and thousands of us that are watching this online, we're not in total agreement about life, ministry or the Bible... Yet my being here is a clear indication that people must come together and pray."

Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer, said he invited Floyd to speak after hearing him urge Baptist leaders to pray and fast. "His (Floyd's) book is about prayer and fasting," Bickle said at the opening main session. "I thought that we needed to hear him."

During the four-day conference, Bickle had a private meeting with 25 bishops and leaders from the Russian-speaking world. One of the leaders, Bishop Boris Borickeriskiy, the director of the Russian Evangelical Churches, a network of 4,000 churches, and senior pastor of a church in Moscow, became a Christian at 18 years old under the Communist regime. "I was born in the Soviet era in a Christian family," Borickeriskiy said. "During that time we didn't have opportunity to preach the Gospel. Because we would not accept the communist idea, we were persecuted.

"Beginning of the '90s, God made a miracle because many Christians from around the world were praying for us because...

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