80,000 fill Texas Stadium in Call to Contend for the Christian. As we draw closer to the end and witness the rise of strong delusions and growing hostility toward the Faith the significance of the 80,000 who gathered for ACCESS shows the power of God to change lives.

We come to God just as we are, and as the perfecter and finisher of our faith, God, by His free and costly grace, doesn’t leave us that way. (Hebrews 12:2). Christians are called to action. See Matthew 28:19.

That is why 80,000 people filling the AT&T Stadium in Texas in response to an Atlanta church’s call to prayer and repentance is no small matter. The 2819 Church event, called ACCESS, is an upsized annual gathering built on smaller power-hour-of-prayer ACCESS programs the church hosts every month. ACCESS, the church states, exists to bring Christians together to pray, look to the cross, contend for the faith and prepare for Christ’s return.

2819 founder and lead Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell told Fox News that people responded because it’s a critical time in American history. He said the pendulum of faith “can either swing towards what is complete spiritual decadence or towards revival.” He continued, “I do believe the generation we’re living in right now is searching for truth; I think there is a hunger for spirituality, and I think that what we’re seeing right now is God stirring up faith in this generation.

“My team and I are doing the best to shepherd what we think is a move of God.” When answering a question about what he means by Contend, the title of his first book, Mitchell said, “Jesus Christ is arguably the most influential person in the history of the world.” He said that Jesus’s teachings and the teachings of the Word of God, wherever they flourish, have an opportunity to produce human flourishing in every stage of life. That book title takes its commanding tone from Jude 1:3-4, where Jude appeals to Christians to contend for the faith: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Mitchell told Fox, “I believe that message fell on deaf ears in the East, where the faith was born, and suffered the consequence of their indifference. I have simply repackaged that message for our generation and am saying that we need to contend for biblical truth.”

This applies, he added, “to every sphere of influence in the culture, but also in the heart, and if we don’t do that, it will be our children and grandchildren that will suffer the consequence of our indifference.”

The Warning Written in the Ruins of Christian Turkey

What convinced Mitchell was Turkey’s early Christian sites, which he said broke his heart. There was no semblance of Christianity in what was once a Christian stronghold. If that can happen there, it can happen in the United States. That experience placed a burden on his heart for the West and prompted the book, about which he wrote, “Mosques stood where houses of Christian worship had once been.”

“What remained of the early Church had been absorbed into the noise of everyday life. Tourist guides led groups through what was once holy ground, treating it like any other historical site. The only Gospel proclamation that lingered was the memory of it.” “With each stop, an indelible imprint was made in my heart. My eyes were opening to a revelation I had overlooked for years — I was touring the ruins of significant biblical sites in a predominantly Islamic nation where Christianity once flourished as the dominant belief system.” Looking out over Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, Mitchell said that he instantly burst into tears. His grief was both physical and spiritual.

As Mitchell states, “I was watching the end result of the gradual erosion of Christian influence, the creation of a vacuum, and the filling of that vacuum by another religion—a social pattern that has spread westward into Africa, into Europe, and is now encroaching on the West.” “This may mean little to many of us who still enjoy our religious comforts (for now), but we should be awakened by the sufferings of our brothers and sisters being persecuted for the Faith in regions of the world formerly dominated by Christianity.”

Mitchell notes in his book, “Jude’s charge is just as urgent today — if not more so — as we draw closer to the end and witness the rise of strong delusions and growing hostility toward the Faith.” Hence the significance of the 80,000 who gathered for ACCESS. That includes 2819 Church’s call to repentance, the feverish urgency for prayer, and the command, which comes straight from Jude, the brother of James, to contend for the faith.

Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell of 2819 Church sits down for an exclusive conversation on The Big Tigger Morning Show on V-103 The People’s Station to discuss his debut book, Contend: Standing Boldly for Biblical Truth While Winning the War Within.
In this powerful interview, Pastor Mitchell opens up about the message behind Contend, the importance of standing firm in faith, the internal battles believers face, and why biblical truth matters now more than ever.
With Contend set for release on October 13, 2026, this conversation gives viewers a deeper look at the purpose, conviction, and personal journey behind the book.