The gathering had all the hallmarks of a weekly church worship service — attendees sung praise and worship songs, a minister gave a brief sermon, personal testimonies were shared and participants prayed together.

Except, the service on Monday was held in the statehouse not a church house.

It was the inaugural My God Votes Capitol Worship Service at the state Capitol.

Rep. Danny Williams, R-Seminole, told a crowd of about 35 people that the services will be held at 6 p.m. each Monday during the legislative session as Oklahomans kick off their own version of the My God Votes services that were started at the Texas state Capitol to encourage Christians to become engaged in government and politics.

Williams said he is part of the Oklahoma effort because legislators hear more from people who are against legislation that reflects “God-fearing values” than those in agreement with it. Because of this, he said he welcomed the idea of the My God Votes Capitol worship gatherings.

“It’s exciting to see,” he said.

Several other Oklahoma lawmakers attended worship service

Monday, he shared his excitement with those gathered in Room 450, where the services will be held. He said he and other like-minded elected officials had felt like they were in a “spiritual desert.”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of yourself as an answer to prayer, but tonight you are an answer to prayer,” Williams told the crowd.

Along with Williams, other elected leaders at the service included Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Sallisaw; Rep. Max Wolfley, R-Oklahoma City; Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane; and state Treasurer Todd Russ.

The Rev. Tom Arnould, of Good News Church in Yukon, gave a short spiritual message during the service, which lasted about an hour and a half.

“We’re called to be salt and we’re called to be light,” he said. “A little bit of light goes a long way.”

Russ said it was important that “biblical principles” remain a priority.

“We’ve got to remember those are the priorities, not just what we want or what is politically correct — what God wants,” he said.

Attendees were enthusiastic and some of them had been given a tour of the Capitol beforehand. Organizers said such tours would be offered before each weekly service.

Amy London, of Oklahoma City, said she thought the idea of a regular worship service at the Capitol was a great idea, so she showed up.

“I believe that we have to petition and call up on the Lord to reign and rule over our government, and coming together collectively as the body of Christ to do this, he’ll honor that and bless that for the state,” she said.

Jan Murray, of Midwest City, said she regularly attended another prayer gathering and was interested in the My God Votes services.

“I’m a prayer intercessor — I pray, that’s what I do — so when this meeting opened up, I said we’ll see what happens,” Murray said. “I wasn’t sure what would happen at the Capitol to have a prayer meeting, but I was awfully glad to be able to come and this has been such a good experience.”

Williams noted that it was fitting that the new worship service was launched on the first day of the 2024 legislative session. He said he was pleased with the inaugural event and Arnould’s brief sermon from the Book of Joshua.

“It was a great message about Joshua going in and the Lord said, ‘I’m gonna give you every place you tread just like I promised your predecessor, Moses,'” Williams said. “We’re claiming that, that we’re going to be able to do everything God wants us to do here as a result of that.”

‘God has a side’

The Rev. James Buntrock, of Houston, said bringing Christians together for prayer and interaction with their elected leaders in the seat of state government is what My God Votes Capitol worship is all about.

As executive director of My God Votes and an associate pastor at Glorious Way Church in Houston, he said My God Votes started out as a slogan more than an organization ― essentially a way to get people to see that God has a “side” on every issue that concerns mankind and when they vote God’s side, he is voting through them.

He said the first My God Votes Capitol worship service was held with about 15 people at the Texas state Capitol in Austin, and the services were held each week of the 2023 session of the Texas Legislature. Buntrock said crowds grew as more people learned about the services, and the last gathering drew 180 people.

Buntrock said he chose to help Oklahoma and Louisiana when residents of those states asked for help in launching the weekly worship gatherings at their state Capitols. The Texas minister said he received more requests for such aid, but expanding to two more states was more feasible than trying to take on more.

“We’ve had cultural decay over a lot of years, and I attribute that really to the pulpits being less and less involved in what goes on in our civic society and in our government and our politics,” he said.

“And I’m looking at this in the traditional political sense: God is not a Democrat. He’s not a Republican. He has a side, and we gotta get on it.”

Buntrock said the worship services are designed to encourage pastors and their congregations to feel comfortable going to their state Capitol to interact and build relationships with their elected leaders.

He said as a result of the Texas state Capitol gatherings, he saw Christian leaders and their congregations from throughout Texas at the Capitol, praying for the state and elected leaders, listening intently to the issues and interacting with officials. Buntrock said the services helped show elected leaders that they were “not alone.”

Buntrock said many of the Texas pastors who participated in the gatherings had not thought about engaging in politics.

“So, many of these pastors began to wake up to, ‘hey, this is a neglected area, this is something that I need to help keep my congregation informed on, and they can come and be a support and encouragement to their legislators to create those relationships,'” he said.

Buntrock pushes back against the idea that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics, and he said the notion of separation of church and state is misunderstood and doesn’t mean people of faith shouldn’t be involved in politics.

“We’ve taken the Bible out of school, Ten Commandments out of schools, anything referencing religion … we’ve got separation of church and state, as the courts called it,” he said. “We’ve got this moving away from God. … so we’ve got this condition that we see today when pastors feel like they can say whatever they need to say inside the walls in their church, but we can’t go to the government because there’s a separation.”

But the minister said “Jesus said, to go into all the world — the Great Commission didn’t exclude government and political realms.”

The Texan said My God Votes isn’t in competition with other faith-based organizations, and it is not trying to build an Oklahoma base for its own purposes.

“This is your state, these are your legislators, your pastors,” he said. “This is your culture, this is your home and we’re doing this for the benefit of Oklahoma. We’re going to come in, we’re going to connect the dots and get out of the way and just let that grow there.”