Getting woke
As he prayed for the city of Rockdale, during his morning devotional, Pastor Royal Johnson was struck with a question – Could the city of Rockdale fill Tiger Stadium to capacity for prayer?
“I wondered if we could fill a stadium for God to hear our prayer,” said Johnson, the Rising Star Baptist Church pastor. “I haven’t asked anyone’s permission or anything like that. I’m just asking the question and would like to see what comes of it.”
He, like many in Rockdale, has seen the suffering of the residents in the community and county.
“Since Alcoa, the town has been in a coma,” he said. “We just gotta wake up. We have all the right components, transportation, infrastructure, and, as soon as we get our red water fixed, we have the potential to be the next great boom-town like Bastrop. We’re just not there yet. We need God’s word and guidance.”
Johnson wanted to share his idea with Rockdale residents, which is why he brought it to the Reporter.
“It’s an idea that dropped in on its own,” he said. “It’s just an idea. I thought of Good Friday. Good Friday would be a good time to do something like this. It would be like filling the stadium for a football game.”
He wants the city and county to rise to the next level. It’s part of his spiritual mission.
“The theme for the year at Rising Star Baptist Church is ‘Next Level Ministry,’” he said. “It does us no good as a church if our city is not next level or our county. This is a year of change at Rising Star and I believe it can be year of change for Rockdale.
“We have some old habits and old thinking. We’re still divided culturally, religiously and racially and we need to get together,” he said. “We’ve got to start doing things together. We have to start doing things differently. We’ve got lots of good groups doing things separately. Now, we need to get together as a group.”
“We have been challenged over and over again,” he said. “This is something we have to get right in God’s eyes. I want this to be a good, Friday.”
For more information, contact Johnson at 512-576-4483.
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