 |  Multiplying your ministry through others.
Fall 1996
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Pastoring a House Divided
An interview with James David Ford, chaplain of the United States House of Representatives
October 1, 1996
The political situation was tense when the Continental Congress met for the
first time on September 5, 1774. It was moved that the Congress should be
opened with prayer. Following debate, the motion carried, and two days later,
Jacob Duche, an Episcopal clergyman in Philadelphia, read Psalm 85 and prayed.
John Adams wrote later that to see George Washington and others kneeling
and praying for Boston, whose port had been closed by British troops, "was
enough to melt a heart of stone."
Today, the tradition of prayer at the opening of Congress is carried on by
James David Ford. Ford became chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives
in 1979 and has been re-elected every two years since. He also counsels and
calls on members of Congress.
Preparing him for that role, Ford served as pastor of a country church in
Minnesota and as chaplain, for eighteen years, at the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point. He was the youngest person and the first Lutheran to hold
that post.
Leadership editors Kevin Miller and Marshall Shelley met Ford in his
Washington office, once occupied by Henry Clay, to talk about being faithful
in the midst of power and conflict.
What do you hope your invocations for the House will do?
Ford: I have a problem with trying to measure these things. My mother
died at age 60, and I had prayed she'd be healed. I lost a brother at age
5.
I don't pray to God because of the results. I pray to God because I know
God. God created me. I pray with Christ who redeemed me. That's what's important.
In the spring of 1976 I sailed the Atlantic Ocean with a couple of friends.
In a thirty-one-foot vessel, we sailed from Plymouth, England, to New York-5,992
miles. During the trip, we hit a real hurricane-some ...
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