“10 Days to Pentecost” Event Brings Unity to Kentucky Community

In November of last year, Tom Lane, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church, says he was awakened from his sleep with an overwhelming sense of the Lord outlining an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in and around his Kentucky community, the likes of which the area had never experienced. Lane has been pastoring the Danville, Kentucky,  church for 36 years and had never seen a significant show of unity among area churches.

The next day, Lane began sharing what he was sensing from the Lord with other community pastors representing several different denominations.

He began meeting regularly with a group of 20 pastors to plan a Spirit-empowered event that would culminate on Pentecost Sunday. He was overjoyed at their support and the way they eagerly jumped in to help plan the event. The idea was to host a Spirit-centered service for the community in 10 different churches each of the 10 nights leading up to Pentecost Sunday.

“God began fostering a spirit of unity among us and we began meeting regularly to pray and believe together for an unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” says Lane, an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God since 1989.

In preparation for the event, “10 Days to Pentecost,” Lane says that many of the churches had weekly prayer meetings on behalf of the gatherings to ask for a mighty move of God. The pastors of each of the churches also hosted “All Church Prayer Meetings” once a month for three months to “cry out to God for a true outpouring in our region that would be a catalyst for one of the greatest moves of God our area has ever seen.”

Each of the three “All Church Prayer Meetings” had over 100 people in attendance and, according to Lane, were just as anointed as the services. The official event kicked off May 30, each night featuring a different pastor and a different location, as well as the host church’s in-house worship team.

On the second night, more than 600 people attended the service, which lasted for four hours. The entire evening was also streamed online and received 27,000 views.

“Every venue filled up before the service even started and some nights we had people sitting in the hallway just to be part of the service,” reports Lane. “It was a tremendous show of unity. We saw dozens of salvations and rededications, 150 or more Holy Spirit baptisms, and quite a few dramatic demonic deliverances. But the biggest miracle was the 20 pastors working together in complete harmony,” says Lane.

The morning of Pentecost Sunday, the churches each held their own services. Each pastor preached on the Holy Spirit and altar calls were held for healing and Holy Spirit anointing. Cornerstone saw 10 filled with the Holy Spirit, two of whom had been seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit for a year.

One of those individuals was Tiffany Tate, a 20-year member of Cornerstone. She states that she had been wrestling with whether she had truly received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit because she had not been walking in the gift. But, on Pentecost Sunday, God “responded in a mighty way!”

Tate says that when Lane invited people forward to seek the Holy Spirit, she debated about how to respond. After a “brief internal debate,” she made her way to the altar, something she did not do regularly due to serving in certain ministries of the church during service time. After undoubtedly receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, Tate says, “I immediately realized the timing was not a coincidence, and God arranged it so that I was able to attend the entire service – all the way through the altar call.”

Kentucky Ministry Network Superintendent Joseph Girdler says, “The event that [Tom] envisioned and recently completed was an amazing turnout of attendance, and unity among multiple denominations. [It was] overwhelming to see, especially during such a season of national and political unrest, both in the nation, and on occasion among denominational lines. It was very encouraging to see what God developed and did through this series of meetings.”

Lane says that “10 Days to Pentecost” was the greatest thing he has ever been part of. As a result of the tremendous move of the Holy Spirit, the pastors have continued to bring their congregations together one Sunday evening a month, rotating between all of the different community churches, for continued unity in seeking the presence of the Lord.