A lot of people are taken with social networks these days. Facebook is a huge success because it allows people to reconnect with high school and college friends and keep up with friends and family like never before. Not surprisingly, ministries and organizations have jumped into this social network technology and phenomenon for prayer purposes. There are thousands of prayer opportunities within Facebook.
A few ministries have tried to tap into this social networking craze by establishing their own prayer social networks outside of Facebook. Three worth checking out are: prayerplanet.net, praynetwork.org, and getamericapraying.com. Prayer Planet and Get America Praying are designed primarily to set up prayer groups and send prayers and requests back and forth. Pray! Network is much closer to Facebook in its functionality.
Prayerplanet.net primarily focuses on setting up a group of people who will pray for each other. As a user, you have a home page, where you can post a photo of yourself. You can then add people to your prayer list—and they can add you. When you type in a prayer or request, it goes to those on your list. When they pray, a notice comes to you. You can also send a prayer post to only one person on your list.
Because this site has a singular focus, it is very user friendly. It has a simple setup that allows you to receive your friends’ prayer posts in different formats: Instant Messenger, email, or SMS. Another nice feature: no advertising or other information blocks on your page.
Getamericapraying.com is sponsored by Intercessors for America. Its primary use is to network and link praying people and prayer groups within regions and communities. You are encouraged to start a prayer group in your area. There are plenty of public prayer groups all over the country to join. You can also form a private intercessory prayer group that allows you to send out requests only to the people you’ve invited to join your prayer team.
Another unique feature is the national prayer map, where you can see a red symbol for individual intercessors, yellow for prayer mobilizers, blue for prayer groups, and orange for community prayer watches (only first names of individuals are listed). You can also sign up on IFA’s Prayer Wall, and pick a specific time and day when you promise to pray for America. When you sign up, you will see how many are praying at any given time of the day or night. IFA’s desire is to coordinate 24-7 prayer for the United States. In addition, you can sign up for some prayer initiatives (such as First Friday).
Get America Praying has member profile pages where you can put a photo and information about yourself and those in your groups. Your personal pages are kept free from ads, but you will see ad links for IFA materials and resources.
Praynetwork.org is the social network that functions most like Facebook. You can make up a profile page and invite people to be your friend. Of the three networks listed here, Pray! has the most options to make your page your own. You can upload photos and video clips, write blogs, and post messages for all or only some to see. Its privacy settings also allow you to control what you see.
Pray! Network launched in 2010, is now approaching 3,500 members. You can see blog/article links and join groups such as prayer leaders or CryOut America. The site’s interactive features include instant chat messaging.
The Role of Networking
Besides the obvious benefits of having social networks devoted to prayer, groups that are on Facebook seem to grow the quickest. For example, Pray Every Day, a Facebook group launched in March 2011 by Dean Ridings (author of the Pray! Prayer Journal), today has more than 17,000 members. Find it at facebook.com/prayerjo
