Impact of The Pittsburgh Blessing
When the idea of creating a virtual choir to sing a blessing over our city came to me on Friday – March 28th, I never would have imagined it would have the impact it did. I figured it would be amazing enough if we could get a dozen churches to participate in something like this on such short notice, during Easter week, and in the midst of a pandemic! Low and behold, nearly thirty diverse churches came together in less than two weeks to produce what became known as The Pittsburgh Blessing.
Much has been said about how the project came to be. However, what you may not be aware of is the worldwide impact it has had since it’s public release on Good Friday, April 10th. The video began receiving local attention when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article about its purpose, which also included embedding the full-length video on its website. That article alone drew more than 112,806 page views. Once that happened, we felt the need to publicly release the video on social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. In less than 24 hours, I was contacted by CBS News New York and Fox News, which both highlighted the video on their national broadcasts on Easter Sunday. Pittsburgh’s own Mayor Bill Peduto even tweeted out the video. For a few hours on that Easter Sunday, “the Pittsburgh Blessing” even surpassed “the Pittsburgh Dad” as the first autofill suggestion in the YouTube search window. As of this writing, the video has been viewed nearly 250K times and there are nearly 600 comments.
As encouraging as the media coverage has been, the real reward has been the testimonies received literally from all over the world. A man named Justin reached out and said, “this couldn't have come at a better time. Some chains on my life were definitely broken as a result of this video. Thank you for your ministry to the body of Christ.” I received a text message from a good friend whose sister is not a believer. She lives in Wisconsin, saw the video, and was moved to tears. Yesterday, a man who ministers to Muslim’s living in Dagestan, Russia emailed me saying he was fasting and praying for his city when he discovered the video. The words of that song were exactly what he has been praying over the people where he lives. There have been emails from churches in Australia, Europe, and Canada that have asked if they could play the video in their upcoming services. God has and is using this in ways I never would have imagined.
I’m thankful for the pastors, worship leaders, and churches who were willing to look outside their own plans for Easter and participate in something beyond themselves. Psalm 133:1 is a familiar but powerful verse, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.” When you combine that with the power of the Holy Spirit, God can and will do amazing things.
Keep looking up,
Pastor Alan Hannah
Pastor Alan is the lead pastor of Allegheny Center Alliance Church. To find out more about ACAC, go here.
