Lou Engle’s Passion: Let Another Jesus Movement Begin on 07-07-07
The organizer of TheCall believes the massive prayer gathering could turn the nation toward revival.
Lou Engle is a praying machine. If you’ve ever seen him on a stage you’ve probably noticed that he rocks back and forth convulsively as if his continual intercession is involuntary. His voice is usually gruff and gravelly—either because he preached too loud, prayed too long or lost too much sleep the night before.
Engle has lost a lot of sleep, fasted many meals and prayed countless hours since he answered a divine call to mobilize prayer for revival in the United States. The author of Digging the Wells of Revival, he helped gather more than 450,000 people—mostly youth—to pray on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., two months before the 2000 presidential election.
But Engle’s biggest moment occurs tomorrow, when he will welcome tens of thousands of youth to TheCall, a national prayer event to be held at Titans Stadium in Nashville, Tenn.
A popular speaker among charismatic youth, Engle believes that the timing of TheCall is significant because it falls exactly 40 years after the infamous Summer of Love, when hundreds of thousands of American young people visited San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District to launch the hippie movement. That summer was marked by the release of The Beatles’ hit, “All You Need Is Love,” which became the theme song of a counterculture movement that emphasized drug use, sexual freedom and world peace.
Ironically, 1967 is also when historians say the Jesus Movement erupted in Southern California and spread to America’s college campuses.
Engle believes that if American youth will gather to repent for our national sins, God will send another revival that could overshadow the Jesus Movement.
Calling the hippie rebellion of the 1960s “a great divorce from God,” Engle says heaven is waiting for Christians to return to the Lord in covenant faithfulness. “Let a great Jesus movement come forth in America, and out of Nashville may music come forth that will reap the harvest and carry revival more powerfully than the Beatles carried the rebellion,” Engle says on his Web site.
According to Engle, the initial vision for TheCall was based on a prophetic message delivered 14 years ago by charismatic prophet Bob Jones—who predicted in 1993 that 100,000 people—mostly youth—would meet in Nashville to pray and usher in a new movement of the Holy Spirit.
Says Engle: “We are calling you on 07-07-07--the number of covenant renewal, marriage and the fullness of time--for a day of national repentance, fasting and prayer for our 40-year generational rebellion. We are calling elders, pastors, mothers, fathers, college students, children, every race, every denomination and every age to come and divorce Baal, and remarry the Lord.”
Engle is expecting up to 100,000 people to cram into Titans Stadium. Many will come by bus and will sleep at local hotels or campgrounds.
TheCall is being sponsored by a wide array of national ministries and will be broadcast on The God Channel and numerous Web sites. The event will begin with a solemn “Repentance Walk,” taking marchers to Titans Stadium from the Parthenon in downtown Nashville—a replica of the Greek edifice that houses a huge statue of the goddess Athena.
Although marchers will not carry flags, banners or signs, Engle says the walk from the Parthenon will be a bold statement declaring that America’s young people are rejecting the sexual revolution that has spawned legalized abortion, rampant pornography, AIDS and family disintegration.
“Now is time to reverse the curse and denounce the bondage of the sexual revolution,” Engle says. “As we humble ourselves with mass repentance we will stand in the gap for our nation and shift its course from perversion to purity. The roar of the righteous will be heard again in our land.”
The all-day event will last until 10 p.m. and will focus entirely on prayer and worship. Unlike most Christian concerts or conferences, TheCall will not offer space for vendors to sell wares (except water and food). Participants are encouraged to fast unless they have health conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.
Although many well-known ministers will be addressing the gathering, literature for TheCall does not list speakers, and Engle stresses that the event is not about celebrities. He says: “We don't publicize who will be on stage during the day but instead trust that people will come because they want to encounter God and represent the church in our nation before Him in prayer.”
J. Lee Grady
Editor, Charisma