Reverend Rod MacIlvaine
Grace Community Church
Bartlesville, OK
Sponsor: Rep. Jim Bridenstine, (R-OK)
Date of Prayer: 10/09/2013
One Minute Speech Given in Recognition of the Guest Chaplain:
The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Bridenstine) is recognized for 1 minute.
There was no objection.
Mr. BRIDENSTINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of our guest chaplain, Dr. Rod MacIlvaine . Rod MacIlvaine is the founding senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, a community just north of Tulsa.
He also serves as a fellow with the Veritas Center for Faith, Freedom, and Justice at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, and he is an adjunct professor in the doctor of ministry department at Dallas Theological Seminary.
His ministry at Grace Community Church concentrates not only on worshipping the risen Christ, but also on equipping people to serve the city, especially helping people recover from substance abuse and painful pasts.
For the past 10 years, he has also worked through a missions organization he cofounded called ‘‘Grace Missions International.''
He and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 34 years, and they have four children: Sarah, Kristin, Caleb, and Jared, and six grandchildren, including one adopted from Uganda.
I want to thank Dr. MacIlvaine for serving as our guest chaplain today.
Opening Prayer Given by the Guest Chaplain:
Father, I thank You for the heroic leadership that this House of Representatives has exemplified in the past week during this present crisis. I thank You for their late nights. I thank You for their efforts to seek compromise. And I thank You for the creative solutions they have proposed.
Yet, Lord, at present, there is no solution. So today, Father, we confess our desperate need for You. We joyfully concur that You are the source of wisdom, and all strength resides with You. You are the author of unity even when parties are in conflict. So we ask that You would grant supernatural breakthrough.
Where there is no way forward, we pray that You would forge a way. When negotiations break down, please grant fresh ideas for debate.
We ask this, Lord, for Your glory and for the good of the American people.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
To learn more about Members who have sponsored a Guest Chaplain, please visit the Congressional Biographical Directory