Just days after Carter County residents rallied in prayer on the National Day of Prayer, another group of prayer warriors gathered at the Carter County Courthouse to take part in the Salvation Bell ceremony.
The Salvation Bell is led by Randy Davis, the executive director/treasurer of the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Davis is on a mission to visit all 95 counties in Tennessee and lead a prayer rally at the county courthouse in each county seat.
“We have these rallies at the courthouses because they are the embodiment of the people of the area,” Davis said.
Each prayer rally is to be called to order with a ringing of the Salvation Bell. The bell used in the ceremonies is on loan from the First Baptist Church of Sevierville. The bell is transported around Tennessee in a pickup truck bearing the logo of the Salvation Bell program.
“Throughout history, church bells have been used to communicate urgent messages,” Davis said. “We hope and pray it will communicate to churches the urgent message to share Christ more now than ever before. This is not about demonstrating a call to continue to seek God’s face. This is about a plan to get us from where we are to where God wants us to be. I am praying that god will give us a revival in the land.”
During the rally, Davis and several local residents and pastors prayed for a spiritual awakening in Tennessee, for the leaders of the county and the country and for the pastors, churches and their families.
“The alarming decline in the number of Tennesseans being won to the Lord has been a tremendous burden shared by many people across our state,” Davis observed. “We have an emergency in Tennessee and we need to ring the Salvation Bell.”
He continued that while the state’s population had doubled, the number of new members and new Christians had not increased. He said there were around 3.65 million in Tennessee who did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
“That should break the heart of every Christian in Tennessee,” Davis said. “That should send us back to the streets to share the message of hope. Let us begin that here, at home, to spread that message.”
The rally ended with those in attendance singing “God Bless America.”