11) The Back Page: One Church’s Approach to Unreached Peoples —

Fern Creek Christian Church is a congregation of about 800 people in southeastern Louisville, Kentucky. On Wednesday evening at 6:30pm, they pulled together nearly 100 people to study Nicholaus Zinzendorf and the Moravians, as they launched a prayer vigil on May 12, 1727. The congregation was astounded at the way the prayers went on for hours, then days, then weeks, then months, then YEARS. Exactly 74 years later, with Moravians still praying 24/7, a group of believers gathered in a hayfield near Paris, Kentucky. Men like Barton W. Stone preached a very simple gospel, directly from the Bible. Thousands joined them in the next few days. In fact, authorities were so nervous about the crowds, they actually called in the military to try to maintain order. The military, who were trained to make accurate assessments of crowds (for example, when the crowds were enemies), estimated a total of 30,000 people took part. It was an amazing development, to say the least. Fern Creek studied these events which have later been identified as the genesis of the Christian Churches, the Disciples of Christ, and the Churches of Christ. So Fern Creek decided to pray too. As of today, August 19, they’ve been praying for 88 hours. For their part, Fern Creek is praying for something very specific: the 6900 unreached people groups found in the world today. As they pray, they’ve been covering a giant “Wall” of unreached peoples, constructed in a form not unlike the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC. The wall panels stretch for over 130 feet. The names of those nearly-7000 unreached peoples are etched on the Wall. And both day and night, for the past 88 hours, members of the church have been praying by name for each unreached people group, about one per minute. It’s been an exciting week — and it’s highly likely that the church will never forget it. Learn more by checking out the website at..