By Pat Allen

During an annual retreat for the 30-member "prayer council" that governs
Hillcrest Church's prayer ministry, one of our women, Jane, had a dream about the next phase of prayer ministry the Lord wanted us to initiate. Little did we know its impact or the need that would develop for it. But, God knew and He brought it to our attention!

Jane said she got the scripture Isa. 54:2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes."

In the dream, she heard a voice say that we, as a church and as a prayer ministry, had enlarged our tent, and had even lengthened our cords. But, we had not strengthened our stakes. It had to be done soon, so that "when the winds of adversity came, we could continue to stand and not be blown over."

Jane saw a two-man tent. It had poles at each end with the tent stretched over those, and the cords tied to stakes. She could see the stakes were barely in the ground. Having gone camping for years with her husband and four boys, she knew that if a good stiff wind came, it would blow the tent over. So the picture in her dream matched what the Lord was saying to her, "pound the tent stakes into the ground and secure the tent."

She shared this dream at our meeting but none of us knew its meaning. So, we dutifully put it "on the shelf" to wait and see if an interpretation came.

Adversity? Us? We had a thriving church. Our pastor had started Hillcrest 19 years ago, acquired 13 acres of prime real estate, survived a church "split" during the early years, and met every challenge and thrived, all the while building God's kingdom. We had just finished building a new 1,800 seat sanctuary, ministry offices and a new 5,000 sq. ft. prayer center. We were going and growing and could not imagine winds of adversity.

Months passed when Jane came to me and said she had really been having this dream heavy on her heart and knew we needed to act on it, but what? So, we prayed daily for a while and finally Jane received the meaning of the dream.

Each tent stake represented a department of the church and each department needed its own "prayer team." Since this was a 5,000 member church, we had lots of departments and a pastor for each, about 17 in all.

After seeking the Lord and asking for the teams to emerge, captains came forward to lead the Tent Stake Teams (TST), followed by volunteers that comprised 3-10 people per team.

The teams' assignment was to meet on a regular basis, at least once a month, and often times weekly, to pray over specific requests and needs for their department of the church. Members were also encouraged to pray daily over these needs until answers were gained. Email strings for emergency requests to be sent out were also developed for the TST's.

The captains communicated with the pastors and received new requests as well as updates on previous needs, prior to each team meeting. We asked for personal as well as ministry related issues needing prayer.

Some pastors provided snapshots for each Tent Stake Team member to have to help encourage them to pray for their wives and children daily. We asked the pastors and TST's to get together once a year for a meal or pie and coffee to develop the relationship and allow the TST's to know their pastor better.

Things were going well with the church and with the Tent Stake Teams. We felt we had pretty well done all we knew to fulfill the intent of Jane's dream. Then the winds of adversity blew.

A year after starting the TST's, one Sunday, after our pastor preached, he abruptly announced his retirement, effective immediately. There were questions surrounding his leaving that added fuel to the fires of gossip, intrigue, and confusion.

The following three years were a time of "storms" for our church as we walked through other resignations of staff, their replacements, down-sizing and ultimately a new senior pastor. We lost many from our congregation due to the turmoil and misunderstandings.

But, God was faithful and He heard our cries for help. Our TST prayer teams stood firm around each department and each pastor. Not only did they continue to pray and function as God led, none of them left the church during this time. When so many other congregation members were not sure of their direction, these teams held fast and performed their ministry duties and stayed the course.

Now entering our fourth year since the original dream, I can say that we are on a steady, healthy side of this transition, and everyone at the church recognizes God's faithfulness to provide ahead of time what was needed and the how of it, even before we knew to ask.

This strategy of having a "prayer team" for each department soaked all the ministry areas in steady, consistent prayer. It gave our pastors the support and encouragement that can only come from prayer. And it secured the house as we followed God's plan for "surviving the storm."

--Pat Allen is the director of prayer at Hillcrest Church in Dallas, TX. She is also the national facilitator of prayer for the Mission America Coalition.