American Christians across the nation will band together the day after Independence Day to repent and pray for God to heal the country.

The newly launched initiative Call2Fall, organized by the conservative Christian group Family Research Council, will focus on the spiritual and moral problems growing in the nation.

"America is a nation in moral crisis,” says FRC President Tony Perkins. “Four out of every ten children are born out of wedlock, and every day roughly 3,000 unborn children are aborted in our county. From homosexual 'marriage' to proposed curbs on religious speech, there are serious matters for the church to address, humbly and with great earnestness, before God.”

Held a day after Americans celebrate their “independence,” Call2Fall will be a day when Christians declare their “dependence” on God, Perkins explains. The name of the initiative means call to fall on our knees.

Supporters of the July 5 prayer initiative echoed FRC’s concerns during a media teleconference on Tuesday. They called on churches to mobilize members in prayer and repentance and for pastors to lead by example.

“We are seeing the crumbling of our nation economically, spiritually, and perhaps even militarily,” said the Rev. Larry Stockstill, senior pastor of Bethany World Prayer Center in Louisiana.

“I feel that our only hope as a nation – there really isn’t a new political agenda we can pull out of the hat or any other form of medicine for America – is prayer and fasting,” he said.

Dr. Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention – the nation’s largest Protestant denomination – said he believes Southern Baptists will be receptive to the initiative.

Last fall, the SBC had organized its own prayer initiative for the presidential election that was joined by over 4,200 churches.

“We believe great movements of God always start with God’s people humbling themselves and getting right with God,” said Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “And we believe this is absolutely essential for our nation.”

With July 5 being a Sunday, churches are being called to have their entire congregation pray for at least three to five minutes for the spiritual health of their church and for America. Some churches, according to FRC, are holding a prayer event the entire day.

“I believe that we are going to see America changed,” concluded Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., founder of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Maryland.

Call2Fall organizers hope to have eight million Christians participate in the prayer event and declare their dependence on God.

On the Web:

www.call2fall.com