Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, had a thriving megachurch with thousands of members. From the outside, everything looked healthy. But in 2001, Franklin felt a growing restlessness — a sense that the church was running on organizational momentum rather than spiritual power.
The Annual Fast
Franklin announced that the church would begin each year with a twenty-one-day corporate fast. Not everyone had to fast the same way — some would do water only, some would follow a Daniel Fast (fruits, vegetables, and water), others would give up specific things. But the entire church would be fasting together, starting on the first day of January.
The response surprised him. Hundreds of members committed immediately. During that first January fast, Franklin preached a sermon series on fasting and saw attendance increase rather than decrease — the opposite of what his staff had predicted.
The Breakthroughs
During and after the first corporate fast, Franklin and his congregation reported a wave of answered prayers that went far beyond what they had experienced during normal church operations. Marriages that were on the edge of divorce were restored. Members struggling with addiction experienced freedom. Financial provision appeared for people who had been in crisis for months.
But the most dramatic result was the shift in the atmosphere of the church itself. Worship services became more intense. Prayer meetings were overflowing. New people began visiting in unusual numbers. Franklin said the fast "reset the spiritual thermostat" of the entire congregation.
A National Movement
Franklin wrote a book called "Fasting" that became a New York Times bestseller. Free Chapel's annual January fast became a model adopted by thousands of churches across the United States and internationally. What started as one pastor's obedience became a movement that introduced millions of Christians to the practice of corporate fasting.
What This Means for You
Franklin's story is accessible because it did not require a crisis. He was not desperate — he was discontent with "good enough." The annual fast became a rhythm, not a one-time event. If you are part of a church that feels like it is coasting, proposing a structured corporate fast — with options for different levels of participation — could be the simplest and most powerful thing you do all year. Franklin proved that fasting does not require extraordinary faith. It requires ordinary obedience, repeated consistently.