Creating more interaction between churches and the community is one goal of Carpentersville’s newly relaunched clergy committee, and it’s already set that in motion.
In honor of National Day of Prayer, the committee will host an observance at 6 p.m. Thursday at Carpentersville Village Hall, 1200 LW Besinger Drive.
Faithwalk Harvest Center pastor Dexter Ball said that when the committee was established in 2009, members staged several National Day of Prayer services as well as other prayer services throughout the village.
“Now that the clergy committee has been reformed, one of our priorities was to host the National Day of Prayer Service again,” he said.
The day is an annual observance on the first Thursday of May when people of all faiths are invited to pray for the nation.
Carpentersville’s service will be bilingual.
Ball said events like this help to bridge religious, social, economic and racial gaps.
“It gives an opportunity for all to come out and be a part of something good,” he said. “We desire to present the real face of our community, that is, people from different walks of life, from different communities and different churches fellowshipping together and glorifying God.”
Other Carpentersville pastors involved in coordinating the event include Phil Zilinski of Fox Valley Baptist Church, Adam Parchert of H2O Church, Tom Totton of Testament of Love Church, Julio Roman of Faith-View Church, and Ed Leiskau of The Carpenter’s House Community Church.
“We feel like the church is one of the backbones of our community,” Ball said. “We have six churches from various areas converging into one location for the sake of our land. It is our responsibility to be houses of prayer. Jesus taught that his house shall be called a house of prayer. Prayer is essential if we want to continue to see positive changes and blessings in our villages.”
Ball added that there are no personal agendas.
“Just simply clergy who love God, each other and our community and are willing to sacrifice time and effort to do what God is calling us to do,” he said.
Erin Sauder is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
