By Alex Murashko

A candlelight vigil led by pastors and leaders from the community of Winder, Georgia, is being called a powerful move of God.

The transformative event held at the city’s historic county courthouse, on Wednesday evening, just one week after a school shooting at Apalachee High where two students and two teachers were killed, was attended by a few hundred people, including attendees of local churches.

In reference to what happened at the high school when the alleged 14-year-old student shooter also injured nine others, Turning Point USA Faith representative, Malachi O’Brien, who was at the event to give a message of encouragement, said, “This is not the final chapter of what God's writing over this town.”

O’Brien said that the group of pastors at the vigil were at the gathering to “break off curses” that may be entrenched in the community and current generation.

“We worshiped and prayed and prophesied over the city. It was a very powerful moment in time,” he said. “We wanted to let people know that Jesus is the answer, and His love wins.”

O’Brien added that the vigil truly showed the power of unity possible when Christ followers gather together. “The only way those evil principalities and powers come down is when churches unite. You can have deliverance over a city when you have unity in the churches. That's what we saw happen Wednesday night.”

TPUSA Faith Senior Director Lucas Miles, who along with a community representative, was a part of calling on local pastors to gather and lead the event in prayer and worship told Think Eternity that it is critical in times of tragedy of the magnitude of what happened in Winder to come together.  

“A mission of ours is to unite the American church around what we would call ‘primary doctrine’,” Lucas said. “That is that for those who call upon the name of Jesus, who believe in the scriptures as the word of God, and who hold to the basic standards of Christianity, we must, especially during times like this, set aside our secondary differences and unite together for the sake of of our communities, for the sake of the of the church, and for the sake of the nation.”

While TPUSA is unashamed to engage in the political arena, Lucas made it clear that the non-profit organization never wants to politicize a tragedy. 

“When you see something like this school shooting happen, it is a reminder of the current state of our nation, including struggles such as broken homes, growing symptoms of depression, and increased anxiety,” he said. “Americans are going through a traumatic period right now, given our current cultural landscape, and that is going to leak out into moments of chaos as a result of sin.

“What we are seeing here is a nation that needs the Lord, and this is why sharing the Gospel and coming alongside the Church is so important. We obviously have a lot of hurting people out there. They’re looking for answers, and that answer is Jesus.”

Alex Murashko is a journalist and writing team leader for Think Eternity, a site for powerful faith content to help you live the fulfilled life in Jesus. Murashko is also founder of Media on Mission.

Connect on X (formerly Twitter): @AlexMurashko.