NRB | NRB Members Participate in Inauguration Week Activities

Several NRB members were in Washington, D.C., last week to participate in various inaugural and related activities taking place in the nation’s capital.

Most notably, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association President Franklin Graham participated in the swearing-in ceremony, which was attended by NRB President & CEO Dr. Jerry A. Johnson and NRB Vice President of Government Relations Aaron Mercer.

Before reading 1 Timothy 2:1-6 and 1 Timothy 1:17, Graham took a moment to share a few words.

“Mr. President, in the Bible, rain is a sign of God’s blessing,” Graham said. “And it started to rain, Mr. President, when you came to the platform. And it’s my prayer that God will bless you, your family, your administration, and may He bless America.”

Just hours before President Trump was sworn in, he and select guests gathered at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington for a private ceremony at which Dr. Robert Jeffress, Pastor of First Baptist Dallas, delivered a message titled “When God Chooses a Leader.”

Drawing from the book of Nehemiah, Jeffress encouraged President Trump by recalling how Nehemiah refused to allow his critics to distract him, how he refused to allow setbacks to stop him, and how he sought God’s help to empower him.

“Mr. President-elect, I don’t believe we have ever had a president with as many natural gifts as you,” Jeffress said.

“But the challenges facing our nation are so great that it will take more than natural ability to meet them,” he later added. “We need God’s supernatural power.”

Among those who attended the private service was Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, who was given the opportunity to read his favorite passage of Scripture to the nation’s 45th president – Matthew 6:5-13.

“Mr. Trump was sitting right in front of me, and he was smiling ear to ear the whole time,” Falwell said, according to Liberty University’s news service. “He loved it.”

The next day, Saturday, January 21, a National Prayer Service was held at the National Cathedral. Among those invited by the Inaugural Committee were NRB members Ronnie Floyd, David Jeremiah, and Greg Laurie.

“This service alone demonstrates that the United States remains a country ‘under God’ and a country that prioritizes prayer,” said Laurie, Senior Pastor Harvest Christian Fellowship in California, in a released statement.

“May this be a day when we turn with our whole hearts to Him at a moment when America needs God’s protection and healing as ever before,” he concluded.