Take the City Griffin
This past weekend, we took a team of leaders to help support Jonathan Cronin as he lead Take the City’s first outreach in Griffin, GA. That morning, It was humbling to arrive at the Griffin Salvation Army to several guys huddled around a charcoal grill wrapping hotdogs for the day. We could already feel the sense of unity and grace amongst all the leaders and volunteers.
As the worship service started people from all over the community were spilling into the old pews of Salvation Army’s chapel. The congregation erupted with praise singing the chorus “Your love never fails” from the popular worship song “One thing remains.” There was revival and breakthrough in the atmosphere. It was as if a fresh wind came in the room blowing on the flames of our hearts, and we all knew that something powerful was going to happen that day.
Andrew Chalmers, director of Take the City, was able to share an encouraging word with the congregation. It seemed as if the people carried such an anticipation for the day, they could not wait for the outreach.
Afterwards, the congregation was split into teams and assigned to leaders. Each of us, were assigned to a different group.
Prodigal Daughter
Within the first five minutes of our outreach, we ran into a family of five. After passing out hot dogs to each of them and introducing ourselves, we didn’t wait a moment. We began to share the gospel and share our hearts with them.
As my team took turns praying and making declarations over the family, the Lord gave me a word of knowledge for the women next to me. While we were praying, I turned to the women and asked her “do you have pain in your lower back?” She said, “yes!” I asked her If she wants the pain to go away, and she said “yes!” As I prayed, I invited Holy Spirit to come, and I command her back to be healed. After praying I asked her what she felt, and she said “I felt heat!” So I asked her to test her back out. She did and the pain was gone. Afterwards, I asked Stacy to share what had happened. As she shared, she began to cry and said “I felt peace!” Later on, we found out that morning Stacy was struggling to get out of bed. But after praying with her, she was encouraged to start living her life for Jesus again!
A Word from Jonathan Cronin
“It has been amazing to see the incredible work that God is doing in Griffin through Take the City. I hear this from pastors all the time, how churches are separated. A local pastor here in Griffin, named Pastor Keith Ford, said “There is a spirit of religion and separation that is hindering the churches today.”
Yet the most incredible thing about take the city is that it unifies the churches. There is a supernatural power released through unity that transforms cities. We had our first Take the City event this past Saturday and we saw 20 lives saved from just one of the teams that were sent out. We also saw several others saved and healed on another team. We experienced a move of God through about ten different churches coming together, putting all differences aside and going after the kingdom as ‘one body!’
Now, we see why Jesus’ main prayer for the believers was that they would be unified. I believe Take the City will continue to grow here in Griffin to unify churches, businesses and organizations to go out as one and to see our city completely revitalized!”
