• Features

One Voice worship meetings July 9-10

• By Laurie Sidle
• July 3, 2021
• 616

Four Wayne County women are spearheading an effort to bring Christian believers together to worship Jesus with "One Voice."

The gathering at the Wayne County Fairgrounds July 9 and 10 will involve singing, praying and reading scripture. It will start in the grandstands on Friday at 6 p.m. and on Saturday at 10 a.m. and finish at dusk both days.

“We’re hungry for more of God,” said one of the organizers, Tanya Franks of Wooster. “We want to see unity among believers and a passion for loving the Lord.”

Franks and her fellow planners, Lisa Gress and Pat Visocky, both of Shreve, and Angie Baer of Marshallville, attend different churches but pray each week outside the grandstands for One Voice. The event is not church sponsored, and none of the bands slated to play or people taking part in the service will be identified by their respective churches.

“The simplicity of this is the most appealing,” Baer said. “We just want to gather in the name of Jesus and worship him.”

That means leaving behind political views and denominational ties. “I think people are tired of the narrative of the day and all the negativity,” Baer said. “They’re looking for hope.”

The women hope for revival and spontaneous worship.

“We just want to encounter the goodness of God,” Franks said. “We’re praying God would move in the way he wants to move.”

The group chose Wayne County Fairgrounds as the site for One Voice because it is a central location and doesn’t involve a church building.

“If we have 50 people, that’s great,” Gress said. “If we have 500 people, we will really be happy. We just want people to come.”

There is no cost to attend One Voice.

Hopefully, Baer said, this type of event can continue after this inaugural One Voice.

“Let’s come together to worship, pray and declare scripture over Wayne County,” Franks said. “We sense revival is happening, and we can’t be silent.”