Praying Out Loud For Peace

He said that he was the youngest pastor in the Bay Area. He is 21-years old. On Saturday evening, June 18, 2016, Pastor Leon Scoggins called for an emergency youth prayer rally to be held in front of the Oakland City Hall. His call for believers to pray for divine intervention came following the murder of 17-year Reginna Jeffries who was murdered at a reception following a funeral where she had just performed a praise dance.

On the Faith In The Bay website, Pastor Scoggins wrote, “If we as the Church can’t go to the city that we do ministry in and take our streets back for Jesus we need to go out of business! So I’m pleading and calling EVERYONE to meet me and some friends this Saturday at 7:30pm sharp as we pray for change, justice, and peace as a generation.”

When I arrived at the scene, Pastor Scoggins was there and he was not alone. Most of the people who come to pray were young people, many well under 30 years old. It was a fiery gathering. Tears dripped down the cheeks of those who had lost loved ones to gunfire in Oakland.

Different young people took the microphone pleading with God to touch the hearts of everyone from the shooters to apathetic city leaders. In these streets stained with blood where so many have lost loved ones, hope is in short supply. Some of the people present seemed to be praying for more of it in their personal lives.

At one point the young pastor hollered through his bull horn, “It broke God’s heart what happened to your loved one.”

A man who stood on the fringes of the crowd hollered sarcastically, “Prove it.”

The young pastor Scoggins saved his most blunt challenge for his fellow clergy. He apologized for the Church’s inertia. He said, “I’m sorry that we haven’t been as active in this as we could. We’re sorry that there aren’t more pastors out here tonight.”

No there weren’t many leaders but there were a lot of followers…young followers.

I had never even heard of Pastor Leon Scoggins before that evening. Now, I hope and I pray that he continues his public crusade against urban violence. He’s not a traditional preacher. He wore a round white clerical collar with fashionably ripped up skinny jeans. Perhaps, he may become the young face of our enduring struggle.

At the conclusion of the prayer gathering, which couldn’t have lasted more than an hour, Scoggins walked over to the late Reggina Jeffries' mother, laid hands and prayed. Other hands thrust in their direction as a symbol of agreement.

As I prepared to leave, a man I’d never seen before roped his arm around my shoulders. He appeared to be about 50 years old. Tears cascaded down his cheek. More than likely he had lost someone dear due to gunfire in these streets (I was thinking a child or a sibling). Heart ache had blasted his insides open anew and afresh at this event. Did he lose his love one this year or 15 years ago? Who knew? I could only see the hurt and it was dark and deep.

City Hall was just blocks away from where you Reggina took her last breath. I walked to the shrine. How young Reggina looked, even younger than her 17 years! The fact is that someone thought so little of her humanity that they could pull out a gun, fire blindly into a crowd and then just run away leaving one dead and two wounded. Did the killer even knew her?

We are in a struggle and we can’t give up. If you are faith leader or just a concerned citizen, I hope that what happened to Reggina Jeffries shakes you to your very core. You see, we now have to be in the funeral stopping business. In the Church we have a saying, “You make one step and God will make two.”