The Awakening: How Unity and Revival are Rewriting Lives in Des Moines

When Bert Knapp talks about the neighborhood around Drake Park in Des Moines, he describes it simply: “the middle of the hood.” He also describes it as home. Just four houses down from where he lives, crowds gathered this fall for The Awakening, a multi-church outreach event marked by worship, testimonies, baptisms, and the unmistakable presence of God. What unfolded there was more than an event; it was a picture of the church at its best—unified, humble, and alive.

But to understand The Awakening, you first have to understand Bert.

Bert’s story is one of radical transformation. He spent eighteen years in prison (ten of them consecutive) after a childhood marked by unthinkable trauma and a young adulthood consumed by violence, crime, gangs, and drugs. “I grew up in a world void of Jesus,” he says. “Fear was king.” He witnessed stabbings, shootings, and overdoses. As a child, he was abused; as a teenager, he became a gang member; as a young man, he landed in prison for attempted murder and arson.

But God pursued him.

When Jesus finally broke through the darkness of his life, everything changed. Today, he leads Thugging to Loving, a ministry dedicated to reaching the very people he once ran with—pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, the unhoused, and those entrenched in street life. “If you’ve ever committed crimes and now walk with Jesus,” he says, “you’re going from thugging to loving. That’s the lane God has allowed me to walk down.” 

Bert, his wife Rachel, and their Thugging to Loving ministry team now spend their days going where most churches never go. Their heart is simple: go outside the walls, preach the gospel through relationships, and bring people into the family of God.

Since spring, Bert and Rachel have shown up every other week for what they call park pull-ups. They don’t preach sermons or hold microphones. They just set up speakers with Christian music, put out a sign offering prayer, hand out Bibles, grill food, and build relationships with the neighborhood. They do it for months leading up to The Awakening, so that when the big day comes, people know they’re not there for the spotlight. They’re there for the people. That consistency—those small, faithful deposits—helped prepare the ground for something bigger.

The idea for The Awakening began in 2022 after a drive-by shooting outside East High School left one teenager dead and two others gravely wounded. The shooters, who were just teenagers themselves, were later sentenced to life in prison.

Bert was stirred by the tragedy, and God began giving him a picture: churches and ministries of all kinds coming together, laying down their denominational differences, and uniting in a public display of the gospel. He saw believers waking up to their calling—not to play church, but to be the Church.

That dream became The Awakening.

The first gathering took place at Evelyn K. Davis Park. About 1,000 people came, twenty-five were baptized, and seven local ministries participated.

This year, the event returned—this time to Drake Park, right in Bert’s neighborhood. Approximately 1,400 people attended, more than thirty people were baptized, and eighteen churches and organizations participated, representing a wide range of backgrounds—Pentecostal, Baptist, Lutheran, and more.

The leadership structure was intentionally upside down. Well-known pastors came, but their names weren’t featured, and they didn’t take the microphone. Instead, they picked up trash. They prayed for people, baptized strangers, and served in complete humility.

The stage was filled instead with testimonies and Christian rap artists—people sharing their stories and preaching the gospel through lyrics and spoken word. At the end, Bert gave an altar call, but not before something remarkable happened.

After months of prayer and fasting, God told Bert to have the entire crowd pray over the pastors. One of the artists unexpectedly called the pastors up and did exactly that, before Bert even said a word. It was confirmation that God was orchestrating every part.

Throughout the park, people were healed, delivered, and baptized. One young woman, just eighteen years old and battling addiction, homelessness, and exploitation, attended after meeting Bert at another event. She was baptized, connected to a transitional home, linked with a pastor, and given a job. “Her whole life changed,” Bert said. “Just like that.”

For Bert, the greatest miracle wasn’t the crowd size or the baptisms. It was the unity.

“I would like to thank God for my pastors at Kingdom City Church, who believe in the call of God on my life and came alongside me, as well as the other churches, ministries, and organizations that came and locked arms with us.” Bert said that seeing all these pastors with linked arms around the park was like a physical picture of Psalm 133:
 

At the core of Bert’s story is one truth: Jesus awakens what’s dead.
 He awakens cities.
 He awakens churches.
 He awakens people who think they’re too far gone.

Bert says, “When you’ve had a real awakening—when you’ve encountered God for yourself—it’s impossible to go back. You’d have to intentionally deny Him.” 

The fruit of The Awakening continues: new believers are being discipled, plugged into churches, and supported by a network of pastors now connected in unity. Park pull-ups will continue again in the spring. The firetruck-turned-mobile-baptistry is ready for the next outreach. And Bert believes what God is doing in Des Moines is just beginning. “We’re just one piece of a big puzzle,” he says. “But God is awakening His people.”

*AI tools were used for interview transcription and summarization; all content has been verified by editors.