Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The separations are still there. Just look under the "churches" listing in the Roanoke-area Yellow Pages: more than 350 congregations under some 65 subheadings.
But the differences that divide were put aside for a few hours Saturday morning as close to 700 Christians celebrated their common beliefs during the city's first March for Jesus.
"When I first came to Roanoke, they told me I'd be lucky to get 100 or 200 people," said march organizer Skip Whitcomb as he surveyed the crowd that had gathered behind the Poff Building to prepare for the march. "We're just blessed to have these people."
Holding aloft signs reading "Jesus is Lord" and "Jesus loves me," marchers representing churches from around the region slowly made their way toward Elmwood Park. Their portable radios played songs broadcast for the march by AM station WWWR.
"Jesus taught us how to live in harmony," they sang as they headed down Franklin Road.
The March for Jesus is a visible symbol of that harmony, Whitcomb said. Begun in 1987 in London, the march reached the United States in 1991 and is now a global event that has found supporters even in nations with strong anti-Christian traditions.
This year, the march was held at 11 a.m. in every time zone across the globe, for 24 straight hours of praise, Whitcomb said.
The time was ripe for the march to take root in Roanoke, said Whitcomb, who previously started a March for Jesus in Milwaukee.
"People just get comfortable in where they are," he said. It's not a new phenomenon, he said, but one that began in Old Testament days when the Israelites periodically became self-satisfied and stopped focusing their attention on God. The march will help local Christians snap out of their complacency and refocus their lives on Jesus, he said.
Marchers agreed.
"This whole thing is unifying the body of Christ," said Pat Anderson, pastor of Whole Life Worship Center of Roanoke.
"This march is just celebrating Jesus," said Marie Flowers of Valley Word Ministries. "It's not for protest or anything."
The march gives Christians the chance to concentrate on similarities rather than differences, Whitcomb said, and to see that believers can complement each other with their vastly different gifts.
"Some are hands, some are feet, some are eyes, some are ears," he said. "But the blood of Jesus keeps it together as one family. We do things differently, but we're all members of the same family."
by CNB