{"id":16307,"date":"2015-03-31T15:21:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T15:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baylorproud.wpengine.com\/?p=16307"},"modified":"2015-04-01T21:33:27","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T21:33:27","slug":"the-gathering-draws-35000-to-mclane-stadium-for-historic-night-of-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2015\/03\/the-gathering-draws-35000-to-mclane-stadium-for-historic-night-of-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Gathering’ draws 35,000 to McLane Stadium for historic night of worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Shortly after Baylor football broke in its new home on the Brazos River last fall,\u00a0Drayton McLane Jr., BBA ’58, approached Waco pastor (and former Regent) Ramiro Pe\u00f1a, BA ’88, with another idea for filling the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrayton had a vision of using McLane Stadium for more than football,\u201d said\u00a0Pe\u00f1a. \u201cHe asked me, \u2018Would you help fill this stadium for a worship service?\u2019”<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday, McLane’s dream came true. An estimated\u00a035,000 people filled McLane Stadium for the largest worship service in Waco history.<\/a> “The Gathering,” as it was called, attracted people of all ages, races, and denominations, many of whom came from outside Waco and even outside Texas for the event.<\/p>\n

[MULTIMEDIA: Photos<\/a>\u00a0|| Watch the entire event<\/a> || Hear testimonies from Bryce Petty<\/a> and Joanna Gaines<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Worship was led by Grammy Award-winner Israel Houghton and a\u00a0choir of 900 voices from across the Waco community. Former Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty and “Fixer Upper” host Joanna Gaines each shared their testimonies via short videos, followed by a sermon from Dr. Tony Evans,\u00a0a Dallas-area pastor and nationally syndicated radio voice.<\/p>\n

[MEDIA COVERAGE:\u00a0The Baptist Standard<\/a><\/em>\u00a0|| Waco Tribune-Herald<\/a><\/em> || The Baylor Lariat<\/a><\/em>\u00a0|| KWTX<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 100 Waco-area churches\u00a0partnered to organize the event — from Baptists to Catholics, from a 100-member Vietnamese church in Hewitt to the 10,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas where Evans is senior pastor. Canned food donations were collected to benefit local food pantries. The entire event was televised locally on\u00a0NewsChannel 25 and streamed online at KWTX.com, drawing viewers from 16 countries and more than 700 cities nationwide.<\/p>\n

“We have one mission, and that’s to know God,” said Wayne Williams, an associate pastor at First Methodist\u00a0Waco. “This is a way to celebrate that and invite others to know him.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is awesome to see the body of Christ coming together,\u201d added Pe\u00f1a. \u201cTonight, there is one church in Waco, Texas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sic\u00a0\u2019em, everyone\u00a0who made The Gathering<\/a> a reality!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after Baylor football broke in its new home on the Brazos River last fall,\u00a0Drayton McLane Jr., BBA ’58, approached Waco pastor (and former Regent) Ramiro Pe\u00f1a, BA ’88, with another idea for filling the facility. \u201cDrayton had a vision of using McLane Stadium for more than football,\u201d said\u00a0Pe\u00f1a. \u201cHe asked me, \u2018Would you help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}