Calling Families to Prayer at the White House - Church Prayer Leaders Network

A unique prayer experience features a tent pitched at the White House Ellipse for 40 days prior to the national elections. Considered an unprecedented opportunity, the Washington House of Prayer in D.C. (associated with Youth With a Mission) has obtained a permit from the National Park Service to set up a tent for 40 continuous days “across the fence from the President’s backyard.”

Called “David’s Tent DC,” it is available for 24/7 day and night prayer and worship from September 26 to November 6. Organizers recognize that “our fathers stood in the gap” in 1997 with the Promise Keepers’ gathering of perhaps a million men in 1997, and again with hundreds of thousands of students (and children of those men) answering “The Call” in 2000 and 2008. This call to prayer is now targeted toward entire families.

In addition, the hope is that worship teams from all 50 states will be represented during the 40 days to “do nothing but enthrone Jesus.” Founder Jason Hershey casts the vision as one of worship rather than “crisis-praying.”

Hershey explains, “As King Jehoshaphat went up against an army much larger than his, in much crisis, he instructed the worshipers to go out in front singing, ‘Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever’ (2 Chron. 20:21). As they sang, the Lord set ambushes and Jehoshaphat came out a winner that day. David’s Tent DC is fueled by the same prayer Jehoshaphat prayed: ‘We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you’ (2 Chron. 20:12). In the face of great destruction, Jehoshaphat sent out singers—what kind of strategy is that? A victorious one!”

Hershey describes this as a chance to establish worship on part of the White House grounds (and even under the surveillance of the Secret Service) to “get the Presence by the palace” in the Capitol city.

For more information about attending or sending a worship team, go to davidstentdc.org.