Lord, I lift up our church growth to You. Add to our number daily through new converts. Birth spiritual children through us. Let our actions win people over without words. Use us as Your agents to rescue people from darkness and bring them into Your Son’s kingdom. We long to be worthy ambassadors in this ministry You have entrusted to us: that of proclaiming Your message of reconciliation to a lost world. (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 4:15; 1 Pet. 3:1-2; Col. 1:13; 2 Cor. 5:20)
Taking Prayer Out of the Seats and into the Streets
By Phil Miglioratti
“It is time to get the people out of their seats and into the streets.” That thought scrolled across my mind as a clear and compelling message from the Lord in the late spring of 2005. As interim pastor of the Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago, I was responsible for the Wednesday evening prayer gathering and had been seeking the Lord’s direction for our summer months of praying together. His words to me that day would impact the congregation and my approach to prayer more than I realized at the time.
Something is happening in Mooresville,
Indiana, a beautiful medium-sized suburb a few
miles outside of Indianapolis.
Several years ago pastor Jim Taylor of Grace Missionary
Church, while on a
sabbatical—was touched by what he was learning about community transformation.
Upon coming home, he became a catalyst to bring pastors and churches in
Mooresville together to pray for their community.
Prayer stations are a great way to lead church members "out of their seats
into the streets" of the community. Though simple, often a card table and
sign will do, several strategic questions must be prayed and thought through
before stepping into a community prayer station adventure.
Many will not understand what benefit there is to praying in the streets over in the pews. Here are some resources that can aide you to explain the biblical basis, train them in a variety of methods, and provide participants with prayers to pray.
September 2007
