[KHTS] – Santa Clarita Valley residents are invited to the 10th annual Mayors Prayer Breakfast on May 1 at the Hyatt Regency Valencia.

“It’s a day for us to get together and pray for the community, pray for our first responders and pray for the people that run this place,” said Joe Messina, who organizes the event as chairman of the Dunamis Group.

The event is held in recognition of the National Day of Prayer, an annual day of observance held on the first Thursday of May.

This year’s keynote speaker is Brad Stine, who considers himself a Christian comedian.

Stine has been doing comedy for more than 16 years, according to an interview on his website. In the interview, Stine describes his approach to comedy as a sort of ministry he was called to:

“A couple of years ago, God kind of called me to working in churches,” Stine says on his website. “I didn’t really understand that, and I wasn’t really crazy about working for Christians, because I didn’t know if they would really get what I was doing.”

He also talked about the healing aspects of comedy, and the goal of his work.

A review of Stine in New Yorker magazine described him by saying, “(his) style is frantic, aggressive and caustic, with echoes of Robin Williams, Sam Kinison, and George Carlin, who is his comedy hero,” according to Stine’s website.

He has five original DVDs featuring his comedy, and has written two books, “Live From Middle America; Rants from a Red-State Comedian,” published by Hudson Street Press, and “Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot.”

The event is scheduled to start at 7 a.m., and admission is expected to cost $28.50. A website to purchase tickers for those interested in attending is coming soon.

Historically, the event has drawn controversy for a number of reasons, from last year’s selection of Brad Dacus as keynote, to a concern registered in the past over the use of an apostrophe in Mayors Prayer Breakfast, which was taken by some to mean it was city-sanctioned.

“It’s not partisan, it’s just about praying for our country,” said Messina, who’s also the chair of the 38th Assembly District Delegation of the L.A. County Republican Party County Central Committee and host of “The Real Side,” a political talk radio show. “It’s about prayer and your relationship to God through prayer.”

Messina reiterated the event is not city-sanctioned, supported or funded, it’s paid for by The Dunamis Group, a local Christian business group.

“When (Stine) does his comedy, it’s all Christian-based, prayer-based,” he said. “I know God has got a sense of humor. I look in the mirror every morning.”