By Jonathan Howe
In an address at the National Day of Prayer Leadership Summit this week, National Day of Prayer President Ronnie Floyd announced the theme for the May 2, 2019 event: Love One Another.
“The vast majority of America understands America is broken. And they understand that God is the only one who can fix it. We have an opportunity to create a theme that will engage all Americans,” said Floyd.
“The theme must be biblical, relevant, clear, simple, and understandable. ‘Love One Another’ accomplishes those five things.”
“There’s no other observance in the American calendar like the National Day of Prayer,” Floyd said. “On this one day, we have the opportunity to come together as one nation in prayer.”
The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, the law was unanimously amended by both the House and Senate to designate the first Thursday of May as a day of national prayer. President Ronald Reagan signed it into law on Thursday, May 5, 1988,
Every president since 1952 has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation.
Plans for the 2019 national observance are forthcoming. The 2018 National Day of Prayer prompted more than 100,000 social media posts on Twitter and Instagram combined, while the national observance has been viewed more than 1 million times on Facebook.
Pray Like This, a resource on prayer by Steve Gaines with Ronnie Floyd, J.D. Greear, and other leaders was released by Lifeway in 2018 to support prayer ministry in the local church.
Floyd was named the president of the National Day of Prayer in August 2017 and serves as a pastor of Cross Church, a multisite Southern Baptist church in Northwest Arkansas.
For more information and to get your church involved in the 2019 National Day of Prayer, visit NationalDayOfPrayer.org.
JONATHAN HOWE (@Jonathan_Howe) is Director of Strategic Initiatives at Lifeway Christian Resources.
