I want to draw your attention to a program called the Joshua Walk. I really hope you have heard of this program. If not, please let me explain.

This is a huge ministry that can and will change this community in a mighty way. As you are probably aware, we have a lot of walls that need to come down in this area.

The walls of drug and alcohol addictions are running crazy. We desperately need jobs to return to the Tri-State, the oppression is terrible and so many more!

There is a large group of people who want to see our county and our community change and really the only way it can change is by allowing God the opportunity to change it. And I promise it will take all of us working together to get this done.

There are many churches that are coming together and dropping the denominational walls to form what is called the Joshua Walk. I know that we have some disagreements on what we believe, but we have so much more we can agree on.

We have a tag line for the walk that says, “Our needs are greater than our differences.” This is such a wonderful statement. It speaks so well to this community. We agree on so much more and that is what we need to come together with.

When you study Joshua and the battle of Jericho and 2 Chronicles 7:14, this becomes pretty clear to what God is asking us to do. It is God’s people who have the responsibility of asking God to heal our land. But, in essence, we want to surround the entire town of Ironton in prayer and we will be doing it the way Joshua marched around Jericho. We will surround the town once a day for six days in prayer and then on the seventh day we will pray seven times around it. Now, before you say there is no way of doing that, let me explain.

Each church will have a small section, no more than a quarter of a mile, from point A to point B, that we will be responsible to cover in prayer, and we all won’t be going around the whole town.

The more churches and groups that we have to participate, the shorter the distance we will have to cover, and if your church can produce more than one group, that would be wonderful as well. Each group will consist of 10 to 20 people.

We will be having a kick-off worship service on Sunday, June 5, at 7 p.m. at the Ironton High School Auditorium, and we are asking that each church be there and worship with us. This will be a very cool and awesome worship service, with many different churches being involved.

The Walk will be from June 12 through 18 and will begin at 7 p.m. each evening. Registration will begin at 5 p.m. each evening at Central Christian Church in Ironton, right across the street from Ironton High School.

The event will not cost anything other than a little bit of time, as we are asking a commitment of about a half of an hour each night from June 12 through 17 and about an hour and a half on Saturday, and if your people want a T-shirt, there will be a minimal charge for those. As you can see, this is going to take all of us working together. This is a time that we truly need each other.

This is not about an individual church program, but something that will change our whole community and the whole Tri-State area. It is time that we as Christians take a stand for God in our community and we need Christians to join us, and we pray that you will be one of those soldiers. The excitement is growing daily!

We are very excited about the potential that this step of faith holds for our community, our town and our churches. Here is what I am asking you to do. Please pray about this event first of all; secondly, we will be having our last organizational meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Central Christian Church.

We would love to have you or a representative of your church to be there to find out more information. And thirdly, we would love to have you and your entire church be a part of this ministry. Paul reminds us when he said to the church at Philippi, “We can do all things through Him who gives us strength.”

And I know without a doubt that this will strengthen our churches, our county seat, our community, and even to some degree our nation. Because we think people from other communities will come to us to see what has happened!

If you need more information, please call Central Christian Church at 740-532-2930 or you can go to www.joshuawalk.com. There is a lot of information on there to help you out. Can we count you in to help us?

Brent Baker is the minister of Central Christian Church in Ironton.