Thank You Katrina; A Prayer

Ruth Hernandez of the Louisiana Baptist Convention office in Alexandria passes this along:

Rewriting the History of August 29th: A Prayer

Thank you for letting me understand homelessness, living without power, without television, without cool air in the heat;
Thank you for letting me understand hunger, the leisure of dry clean clothes and the relief of a place to sleep.

Thank you for letting me understand the deep and overwhelming sadness when forces, beyond our personal control, take the loved, the familiar, the usual.

Thank you for my needfulness and for my newfound empathy for those homeless before the storm and homeless now and for those hungry anywhere, for those in need everywhere.

Thank you for the opportunity you provided to help my neighbor, to be my brother's keeper, to serve food, to patch roofs, to clean yards, and to start mending that which was broken.

Thank you for the chance to change ourselves,
for a reprieve from the normal, commercial day,
for teaching us to make do, to get by, to improvise,
for drowning our conceit, complacency, callousness, for silencing the noise,
for stopping the clock,
and for the chance to act our best when the worst occurred.

Thank you for the people who reached in, pulled out the living, cradled the dead, comforted the broken and torn apart, wept for the splintered and uprooted. Thank you for the people who didn't wait to come right away, who opened their homes, who emptied their shelves, their closets, who cleaned, fed, healed, held us, who told us our spirit was amazing, and who keep on coming.

Thank you for the people who measure their faith by their actions, and measure their actions by its consistency with their faith.

Thank you for all the people we have met, who are new friends, new Loved ones, new brothers and sisters, new neighbors.

Thank you, KATRINA.
Not for the wind,
not for the water,
but for the appreciation of the things no storm can shatter,
no water can wash away,
no wind can move.

Written by Tom Teel and Reilly Morse
Tom Teel and Reilly Morse are local attorneys in Gulfport, MS.

Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.

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Associational Prayer Event: The Awakening

===>Click headline for a description of one association's approahc to united praise and prayer . . .



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Students Today Impacted by 200 Year Old Prayer Meeting

Remembering the Haystack Prayer Meeting

By Alvin L. Reid WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)
I have always had a love for studying (and even more being a part of) movements of God, from my childhood when our small church erupted in the Jesus Movement to teaching courses on the subject today. Santayana said those that do not learn from history are doomed to relive it. I think those who do learn from history can best deal with culture today.

In August I began my 12th year teaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. That same month, 200 years ago, an event happened that still affects the students I teach today. That is what happens when God moves. Let me give just a snapshot of what God did two centuries ago concerning the event historians call the Haystack Prayer Meeting.

On the 12th year following the founding of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., a 23 year old named Samuel Mills enrolled as a freshman. The son of a pastor, Samuel�s home church had been touched by a wave of revival that instilled in him a passion to take the Gospel to the nations. Samuel Mills soon proved to be a poor student in the classroom but a great student of the work of God.

While at Williams College Mills began to meet with a group of students -- Harvey Loomis, Byram Green, Francis L. Robbins, and James Richards -- twice weekly for prayer. On a warm August Saturday in 1806, a rainstorm drove the group to seek shelter at a large stack of hay. Sheltered from the wind and rain at the side of the great haystack, the men continued in prayer. While there Mills proposed a mission to India. There and then he uttered his famous words concerning his proposal, �We can do it if we will.� Although Loomis felt the focus should be on domestic missions, the rest agreed to seek to share the Gospel in Asia.

Subsequent historians have referred to the meeting as the Haystack Prayer Meeting. In 1808 the group organized to study and pray for missions, calling themselves the "Brethren." After seminary graduation, Mills and others of the "Brethren" asked the General Association of Massachusetts to send them to India as missionaries. This association formed the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions on June 28, 1810. It was the first official foreign missions organization in the United States.

Some of the most famous missionaries of the 19th century, including Rev. and Mrs. Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice, would be among the first commissioned and sent overseas by the new American Board. Judson has been called the father of Baptist foreign missions for his work in Burma. He left for Asia in his early 20s with his wife of only seven days. It would be over six years before Judson would baptize the first new Christian in Burma. But soon after his death in 1850 the Burmese government noted over 210,000 Burmese Christians! Rev. and Mrs. Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall, and Rev. and Mrs. Samuel Newell also traveled on the maiden mission. Mills stayed behind in part because of his ability to promote the cause of world missions in America.

The Haystack Prayer Meeting sparked the missions enterprises to which we still remain in debt. They were just a bunch of college students, meeting for a time of prayer. Mills was such a poor student he was not allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies. (Interestingly, the valedictorian, also named Samuel, missed his speech because he was drunk.) God took a mediocre student with a radical passion for the nations, and we are debtors to him.

This year, the Census Bureau reports there are more teenagers than at any point in U.S. history. Colleges are about to swell like never before in numbers, and the most rapid growth is in private schools, including evangelical colleges. Do we believe God could take a handful of students and change the world? I do. And that is one reason I teach.

The next time you see a raindrop fall, take a moment and thank God for the Haystack Prayer Meeting, and for young leaders who would risk all, not for fame or influence, but for the Gospel. May God give us a generation like that!

Alvin Reid holds the Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

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Frank Page calls for prayer for 'Holy Ghost revival' in SBC

Frank Page calls for prayer for 'Holy Ghost revival' in SBC

By Michael Foust
Baptist Press

SBC President Frank Page told Executive Committee members Sept. 18 that Southern Baptist must ask themselves if they are still "relevant" to the world. He said he will use his time as president to ask the denomination to pray for revival. Photo by Morris Abernathy

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Speaking at his first Executive Committee meeting as Southern Baptist Convention president, Frank Page said Sept. 18 he would spend his time in that role calling on Southern Baptists to pray for revival within the denomination.

"Many of our churches are going through difficult days, and we exist ... in a Southern Baptist Convention that is thought by some to have lost its relevancy," said Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C. "In the minds of many ... we have become an archaic, burdensome bureaucracy that no longer has relevancy for today or for the day to come."

Page was elected president at the SBC annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., in June, besting two other candidates on the first ballot.

Preaching from Ezekiel 37:1-6 -- the story of the valley of dry bones -- Page said some people believe "we're approaching a valley of dry bones" as a denomination. To listen to such talk "frightens" him, he said, although he said he remains "cautiously optimistic" about the future. Pointing to Ezekiel 37:5-6, where God pledged to bring breath, flesh and life to the bones, Page said Southern Baptists must pray for revival to sweep across the convention.

"[Revival] is a sovereign act of a Sovereign God," he said. "But we must beg of our Lord, 'Lord, let these bones grow again.'... I believe Jesus Christ is mighty to save, and I believe the Holy Spirit of God wants to do a work in our convention. And that is why for the next two years -- if God should grant that to me -- I am calling for our convention to ask, 'Lord ... send your reviving Holy Spirit upon this convention.' ... [M]y call is a call to God to bless us somehow in our un-deservedness with a Holy Ghost revival."

Southern Baptists, Page said, must pray that the revival will:

-- "transform churches."

"Seventy ... percent of all churches across this convention are plateaued or declining," he said. "I call on God's Holy Spirit to transform our churches. He's done it in ours (FBC Taylors, S.C.). And I believe He wants to do it across this convention."

-- "bring us to a point of true repentance."

"We have become an arrogant people, and we must understand our un-deservedness, and that without Him we can do nothing," he said. "Holy Spirit, bring us to a point of absolute repentance and confession and revival."

-- "energize evangelistic efforts to win this world to Jesus."

"As Dr. Roy Fish ... said to us at a meeting in Ridgecrest not too many weeks ago, for 30 years we have tried to raise baptism numbers among an un-revived people in un-revived churches," Page said. "God bless [former SBC President] Bobby Welch for telling us over and over and over ... that we need to win people to Jesus. Praise God for that. But God, through Your Holy Spirit, bring about the power through which that will be accomplished among revived people in revived churches."

-- "unify us in a cooperative mission task."

"There are factions out there that frighten me -- all kinds of groups are pitting themselves, one against the other," Page said. "... It's good to have good debate. It's good to disagree on some things, but Lord, pull us together."

Southern Baptists, he said, must pray that God will bring them together for a "cooperative mission task." That task, he noted, historically has been funded through the Cooperative Program.

"[T]he Cooperative Program matters," he said. "That's why Greensboro happened; that's why I was elected, because the Cooperative Program does matter, and it is that which can pull us together [because] it is the main funding mechanism to do a great ministry and mission work across this world."

Page told the story of an elderly woman who wanted to get her grandchildren something for Christmas. She didn't have the energy to go shopping, so instead she wrote checks for each of them. She then wrote on their Christmas cards: "Merry Christmas. I love you. P.S., buy your own gift." Weeks after mailing the cards, though, she cleaned up her desk and was horrified to discover that the checks themselves never were mailed. Without the checks, her "buy your own gift" note had taken on an unintended, negative meaning. The story is mythical, Page said, but it can teach the denomination a lesson.

"I am afraid that as Southern Baptists we have sent out that card," he said. �We have said to the world, 'Merry Christmas. I love you. Buy your own gift. Find your own way. Find this answer to this vacuum that's inside of you. You're going to have to find it because we're not telling you.��

Page added that in calling for the SBC to be "relevant," he is not calling for Southern Baptists to embrace "clever gimmicks" or "new philosophies." Instead, he is calling for them to pray fervently for revival.

"We should not give up on the Great Commission," he said. "We should not give up on the Holy Spirit's ability to do that He wants to do, and I believe we do better together better than we can do separately. I challenge you, I ask you, I beg of you to join with me in a task that indeed is telling the world how they can buy their own presents.

"I believe in a God who is able to transcend us and to use all of us as weak and undeserving as we might be. I believe that the bones can live again."

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President's Call for Unity Calls for Prayer

SBC president, in chapel sermon, calls for denominational unity

By Benjamin Hawkins, Baptist Press FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page called for unity within the convention during a chapel sermon at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Sept 14.

�Certainly, we know [Satan] has taken away our unity,� Page said. �He has removed from our convention, I am afraid, a unity that is at the very heart of what we need to be. There are factions across our convention now ... that are so distinct, so despairing, that there is literally no fellowship within some of the groups. That burdens my heart deeply.�

Too many Southern Baptists �underestimate the enemy� as Satan gains victories in people�s lives, in families, within churches and within the convention, Page said. The �moral climate� of the United States and the disarray within Southern Baptist churches are examples of attacks from Satan, he said. Too many Southern Baptist churches in the United States are on a plateau or �declining� in growth, Page said.

�No matter how good looking the garb of Satan can be, he always intends to steal, kill and destroy,� said Page, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C.

�[Satan] has taken [our] effectiveness; he has taken power; he has taken sweet attractiveness from us and our churches so that no longer do lost people yearn to be a part of what God is doing in the churches, but they are repulsed by it,� he said.

In the face of this spiritual battle, Page called on Southern Baptists to be unified in Christ and to trust the Holy Spirit to guide them as they sort through their differences.

�It�s time that we come together, realizing that we are Jesus' people, and that we believe in the Word of God,� Page said. �And while we may not always agree with various interpretations, we stand as one people in Jesus Christ in commitment to His word.�

During the latter half of the 20th century, the convention fought and won a battle to affirm Scripture as the inerrant word of God, Page noted. While Baptists should continue to be vigilant in this battle, they must also turn their attention toward many issues that the denomination now is facing.

�If we do not start asking the question about ... relevancy, then we are going to lose it all,� Page said. �And it is all going to be a moot point, for our churches will die.�

Page questioned the relevancy of the SBC within the pluralistic and changing environment of the 21st century. Southern Baptists must seek new ways to reach out in the culture while remaining �biblically sound� in doctrine and action, he said.

�The early church had very little influence but great power; the church today has great influence but no power. And we�re losing our relevancy,� Page said. �The early church was met with persecution; the modern day church is met with a yawn.�

The Southern Baptist Convention elected Page, a native of Robbins, N.C., as president of the convention during this past summer's annual meeting. He received his master of divinity and his doctor of philosophy from Southwestern Seminary.

Archived Flash Media and MP3 recordings of Page�s sermon can be viewed, listened or downloaded through the seminary�s website, www.swbts.edu.

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Pray through the Four Stages of a Pastor's Ministry

The 4 Stages of a Pastor's Ministry

These four stages can provide helpful understanding and guidance throughout your life as a pastor. Be sure to download the free chart which includes calling issues, sources of help, educational challenges, major concerns, personal issues, and dangers for each stage.

===>Click headline to use the article as a template for prayer ... to pray backward and give thanks, to look inward and ask for wisdom, to look forward to discern His preferred future for your ministry . . .

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International Mission Board Resoruces for Global Praying

Cast Vision for Outward Focused Praying - -

Updated! World Map

Great for classrooms, missions centers or any place where you want to show people where missionaries work and where your church is involved in missions.

Think really big!

Think a whole wall that says your church is on mission. Start with this photo mural CD, add photos to personalize for your church and take to a local printer to create missions wallpaper.

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IBSA @ Prayer ~ Bolier Room Prayer

Boiler Room Prayer Story

{Note: This story was shared at Super Saturday's Prayer Workshop from a member of 1st Baptist Winthrop Harbor, Pastor Michael Brown...}

I have been for the past few years been concentrating my prayer on my family. One day during my quiet time with the Lord, He let me know that He had heard my prayers for my family, that He knew about my concerns and that He would answer my prayers, but that He wanted me to not concentrate my prayers so much on my family and that I should pray more for others now.

I started praying more for others and less for my family and my son ran away to the carnival! I thought about Pinocchio when he ran away from to the circus he started to turn into a donkey. I said to God that He had a funny (strange) way of answering prayers.

But I believed that somehow through this God would answer my prayers for my son. Then the carnival fired my son. Now, he is with another carnival.

In our church we have prayer at 7:00 AM on Saturdays and 5:00AM on Mondays.

One day at home God told me I should start a Boiler Room Prayer Ministry. In old England around the turn of the century (1900) there was a mega-church. The Pastor (I think it was Charles Spurgeon) was giving a reporter a tour of the church. He said, “Now let me show you the boiler room.” The reporter was thinking, “The boiler room? What could be so special down there?” When the pastor opened the door there were all these people, wall-to-wall praying 24/7 for the church.

Well, I wasn’t ready for 24/7, but I did start a boiler room prayer ministry. We have teams who pray for our worship service during the service. We started with only enough people to cover 2 worship services a month. Now we have enough to cover all 4 Sundays with volunteers accepted on the 5^th Sunday. We can’t stop there, though. We have 2 more worship services plus Sunday school to cover. One man every time he goes down to pray he says he is so excited he runs up the stairs at the end of the service eager to see how God has answered. Sometimes we don’t know the service has ended. Everyone has gone home by the time we finish.

One day a visitor from another church was there for a class. He saw the flyer posted with the Boiler Room Prayer schedule and rules. He went back to his church and started a Boiler Room Prayer group in his church.

It is a sacrifice though. I couldn’t ask anyone to give up more than one service a month, but sometimes your turn to pray lands on a special Sunday. A couple of my prayer warriors’ turn came on Youth Sunday when their sons were preaching. They were downstairs praying. One man’s invalid wife made it to church as a surprise on his turn and he did not get to sit with her.

As a thank you for their dedication I invited the prayer warriors and their families over for a barbeque. One warrior had family in from out of town. I told him to bring them. They came late and brought 9 extra people! There was plenty of food and fun and games in the backyard. It was a witness to his unsaved family members.

By starting this ministry I became one of the prayer leaders in this church. One day in church they announced about a seminar. I did not know what it was about and did not pay much attention, as I was busy singing in the choir. Later that day, Virgie, the Pastor’s wife called and asked if I wanted to go to the seminar about prayer. I decided to go.

At the seminar when it came time to introduce myself I was praying, “Lord, what am I doing here? What do I say? Do I really belong here?” When I introduced myself and told about the Boiler Room Ministry everyone was excited and it became the class example.

Maybe God was using me to plant seeds for ministry.

I learned the seriousness of this ministry that I had taken on. This was bigger than I thought and so very, very important.

I had to keep up with the leadership or the ministry might wither and die. It would not run itself, and so much depended on it. It was the unseen foundation that held up the church! I learned that the foundation was built by common labors in hard hats with big lunchboxes, not by businessmen in suits. (Some other thoughts that God revealed to me are: Nehemiah was a builder. Faith is the substance of things not seen. Private body parts are treated with special care and are covered up. 1 Corinthians 12:22-25 The boiler room is in the basement. What is done in secret will be proclaimed from the rooftops.)

I knew that I had to hold up my warriors in prayer against Satan’s attacks, for their strength and well-being. And how could I pray for them if I was faltering? I was overwhelmed and amazed. One young man at work, a Christian co-worker, said I was “one of the FORCEFUL advancers of God’s kingdom!” from Matthew 11:12. I told him with much fear and trembling and that Moses needed help keeping his hands held up.

One of the teachers from the seminar asked me to write down my Boiler Room story for their website.

MAY GOD GET ALL THE GLORY!

Teresa Meek

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IBSA @ Prayer ~ State Mission Offering Church Needs Prayer

Dear Pastors:

Pastor Yugo Kobari is requesting prayer for a key lay leader and supporter who needs wisdom concerning how to restructure his business. This will impact the future of his church--one of the most effective churches in the area reaching the Japanese community in Chicago and Japan and featured in the State Missions Offering DVD you received.

Advancing God's Kingdom,
Robert D. Goette, CMBA Church Planting Contract Worker

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Helping Your Church Pray On Purpose

Helping your church pray on purpose
by Tom Holladay

11 Ways to be Purpose Driven

For more ideas designed to help you build your church around God’s eternal purposes, check out the 11 Ways to be Purpose Driven seminar session.

I think it’s good to pray for Sister Sarah’s bunion in a prayer meeting. I think we need to pray for the hurts in our lives. That’s a pastoral care need that should be met in a prayer meeting. But it bothers me that we often spend more time praying for the pains we face as Christians than for the purposes of God to overtake this world. Not only are we missing out as leaders, but I think our people are missing out on praying powerful prayers of God to change the world. We need to teach them to do that – to pray on purpose===>Click headline to access complete article . .

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Prayer ~> CARE ~> Share: Paint The Town Links Churches & Schools

'Paint the Town' links churches, NYC schools
By Norm Miller


NEW YORK CITY (BP)--Usually associated with the color red, the phrase paint the town holds connotations of celebratory revelry. Since 2004, Southern Baptist volunteers have celebrated the love of Christ and reveled in the joy of ministry as part of New Hope New Yorkís Paint the Town initiative.

The North American Mission Board sponsored New Hope New York as part of its Strategic Focus Cities emphasis, and Paint the Town evolved from that.

"Paint the Town was not something New Hope New York dreamed up; it came about because that was the expressed need," said Eric Hoenigmann, executive director of Paint the Town.

As Hoenigmann cooked hot dogs at a Paint the Town block party in Queens Aug. 15, he told Baptist Press that New Hope New York leaders attempted to contact the presidents of all five of New York City's boroughs with the desire to impact their communities in a positive way, offering whatever general services/ministries each borough might need.

The timing of that request "ìwas something God laid out; He put that in place," said Hoenigmann, who added that the Bronx borough president - the only one to respond to New Hope New Yorkís offer -- had already been contacted by a middle school principal whose facilities were in dire need of fresh paint.

Thus, Paint the Town was born, and the Bronx middle school -- five stories high, the size of a city block, and about a hundred years old -- was its pilot project, drawing more than 500 volunteers from 17 different states.

At a block party celebrating the completion of the project, the borough president declared it New Hope New York day in the Bronx. Soon after that came the request to repeat the project elsewhere in New York the following summer.

In 2005, volunteers planned to paint six schools, but completed 10 because ìthe volunteers who came did such great work and painted so quickly, they started running out of walls to paint," Hoenigmann said.

"Their ministry impacted about 8,000 students, not counting the faculties and staffs," he said.

Recounting what one school principal said about Paint the Townís significance, Hoenigmann said that about 90 percent of the students qualify for financial aid. Living below the national poverty level, he said these students endure disadvantaged home lives in downtrodden neighborhoods===>Click headline to access compelte article . . .


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Prayer Secrets of Healthy Churches

Secrets of Healthy Churches by Thom Rainer:

Healthy Churches emphasize corporate prayer and church prayer ministries. They do more than give lip service to the importance of prayer. My team and I once worked with a church of 250 that had someone praying in an intercessory prayer room every hour of every day. That means 168 members (67%) committed to pray in that room one hour of every week. Since the leadership of that church began emphasizing prayer three years ago, attendance has more than doubled.

Another common element in healthy churches’ prayer ministries is that members pray for non-Christians by name. Theya re unashamed and unafraid to be vocal about the greatest need any person could have: salvation through Jesus Christ. (Outreach magazine, 9-10/06}


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Church Planting & Prayer

NPPN Article #64: Church Planting: A Prayer Strategy by Phil Miglioratti

Every church planting leadership team has the opportunity, and responsibility, to build prayer into the DNA of the new congregation. Church planting pastors should learn from those colleagues who have realized the importance of prayer and are struggling to change an already set church culture.

Our Lord has never commanded us to build a house of preaching and certainly not a house of programs. But He has passionately made it clear that He expects us to become households of prayer for all nations (ethne'). This requires:

• Every strategy to be prayer-birthed
• Every ministry to be prayer-based
• Every activity to be prayer-bathed

Church planting pastors and leadership teams would do well to include these components in their philosophy and strategy of ministry from the very beginning:

Prayer Warriors

Every pastor should recruit prayer partners

Men (or women for female pastors) who meet with him for Prayer

Men & Women who prayer for him weekly

Recruit prayer support from partner congregations

Read Prayer Shield

Visit MyPrayerteam.com

Prayer Walking

The pastor should walk various parts of the community daily or weekly
Prayer teams should be assigned specific neighborhoods & hot spots

Prayer in Worship

Work diligently at an inspiring and engaging pastoral prayer

Inject prayer:

Before the service: Leaders gather for prayer
During the service: Volunteers pray throughout
After the service: Train a team to minister at the altar of in a prayer room

Involve the congregation in prayer:

Repeat-after-me prayers
Silent praying (through the bulletin, for example)
Kneeling or standing or moving (to a designated location)
With other church members; praying for identified needs

Prayer Weekend

For core leadership

Retreat together to pray for God's purpose and plans and power

Prayer Workshop

For prayer team and praying people

Training in:

The various types of prayer and when to use them
Evangelistic praying strategies
Ministry prayer (healing and strengthening)

Prayer Watch

Establish a regular rhythm of prayer among all the members

Daily: teach daily praying for family, church and community
Weekly: establish Watch & Pray groups

Watch – "Lord what are you saying to us through scripture and the events of the week … We want to see what you see as we pray…"
Pray – "Lord, help us pray the promises of scripture and the purposes of God more than the problems of daily life."

Pastor – Meet with a group of local pastors http://nppn.org/PPG.htm

Monthly: Design an exciting, everyone participates, evening of prayer

Quarterly:

Invite another congregation to join you in prayer
Schedule a prayer workshop
Bring in a special speaker to preach on prayer

Pastor:

Schedule a day of personal prayer
Read a new book on prayer
Retreat with your Pastors' Prayer Group

Yearly:

Call the entire congregation into a week of prayer
Pastor – Attend a major prayer conference and include your designated prayer coordinator

NPPNow Blogs
Pastors' Prayer Groups
Prayer Leaders
Praying Pastors
Prayer~Care~Share Strategies

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IBSA @ Prayer ~ Campus Prayer Movement

September is here -- School is back in session!

There are not many of us who do not know of a student in one of our nation's college or university campuses this coming school year. Please join the millions who are praying for our students returning to classes at this time.

Are there days that you think that there is no hope for revival across our land? What about 24/7 prayer? Well, while many of us are unaware and sit quietly in our pews each week... God has been at work on our college campuses.

Did you know that a prayer room will open this week on one college campus to launch a new year of ministry to our students all across our nation? Please join in praying for their work, as Fall is upon us!

Thursday, Sept. 7 thru Sept. 14, 2006 --- NW Missouri State University will host the 24/7 Prayer Room at the Baptist Student Union. Please pray for Jeremiah Davis and his "crew"... Go Missouri State University ! !

This school year, many of our 24/7 Prayer Rooms will open with a group of "seasoned" prayer warriors. They will take their places and begin to pray. Many will begin to launch their fall ministry to their campuses and become aware of this "new movement". May many students share with their home churches what God is doing in and through their prayer work on their campuses. They will be joining in the call for 24/7 Prayer Rooms all across our nation, to pray for revival and spiritual renewal on college and university campuses.

--Thank you, God for activating more Christian campuses to join the adventure.
If you want to follow the college campus 24/7 Prayer Room calendar, you can access it at:
http://www.campustransformation.com/sign_up/calendar.php

ANOTHER exciting prayer effort... God is putting the final touches on the SBC efforts along these lines. You will be able to follow the progress of the Haystack Awakening 2006, beginning next week as the web site comes up ... http://www.haystackawakening06.com
===>Click headline to view an excellent ABC News report on prayer among collegians (brief ad at the start) . . .

Here is the contact info for that initiative:
Mark S. Lydecker
Director, Collegiate Evangelism, North American Mission Board, SBC
4200 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30022
770-410-6380 / FAX 678-624-3404
mlydecker@namb.net
"Doing Redemptive Ministry in a Self Destructing World"

* Try these keywords in the Search This Blog box above: Resource, Idea, Prayer, Pastor . . .

*Visit http://www.IBSA.org/prayer.php
for more articles and resources for
your congregation's prayer ministry
*Coaching? Teaching? Preaching? on prayer ... Contact Phil@nppn.org

Prayer Births A New Church Plant

Church Planting Through Prayer

By Kent Shirley

In the spring of 2004 and only a few short months after God called us to Colorado to serve as an associational director of missions/church planter strategist family, I found myself in a position of moderating a meeting where a church started in the late 1960s was about to vote to close its doors. I was troubled within my heart because seeing a church close its doors was far from my dream of serving as a catalyst in the beginning of new churches.

Being led of the Lord, I made a promise to those nine people who had gathered to pronounce the last rites over the church that day, that our association would hold in trust the Lord's properties and reinvest them in the future in a new church in that community. I began to pray that the Father would reveal His will with respect to the right church planter/pastor to see a new church birthed in that community.

Over the next 15 months that request was made unceasingly of our awesome God. That prayer expressed a burden, which our great and powerful God had placed on my heart. It would not go away. The interview process began as our association looked for God's man for His harvest in this community.

The community is growing rapidly with over 500 new homes having been built within the past few years. Getting to know the community and its make up convinced me that this would not be your average church start, but one that would require a contextually unique strategy of the Father's design and just the right family of His choosing.

After fifteen months of praying and about thirty interviews later God revealed to our missions team a young family with a heart for the unsaved and a passion for church planting. This young family had spent the last five years in a church with a heart to be used of the Father to begin new churches. They had developed a hunger to follow the Lord's will and His call into church planting.

They had been praying for just the right opportunity. We had been praying for just the right family. God in His infinite wisdom and in His perfect timing brought the two together. Isn't that just like Him!

Eight months have passed and today there is a unique congregation in that community, which is growing, reaching the spiritually needy and impacting their town for our awesome Lord. This young missional congregation has a goal to reproduce soon because they believe that multiplication is the normal lifestyle for a community of faith. They are impacting their town because they believe they should live as Jesus with skin on.

I am expectant of what our great God will do next as we continue to pray, walk in faith, wait with anticipation and leave the results to Him. Through this process God reaffirmed the fact that the only irreplaceable part of our church planting strategy is prayer.

Without the essential of passionately seeking the Father's will and direction at each step of the process it is very easy to have the right person in the wrong place or even more frustrating the right person in the right place with the wrong strategy. Making prayer the primary tool in our church planting strategy is a constant reminder that any successful church plant will take place only through His power and direction. Only a prayer based strategy elevates Him to His rightful place as the one essential and acknowledges Him as the Leader in a new church plant. This is what He is teaching us about prayer and church planting!

Kent Shirley is the Associational Director of Missions at the Grand Valley Baptist Association in Western Colorado.

"Reprinted with permission from the NAMB Prayer Connection Web site, http:www.namb.net/prayer."

* Try these keywords in the Search This Blog box above: Resource, Idea, Prayer, Pastor . . .

*Visit http://www.IBSA.org/prayer.php
for more articles and resources for
your congregation's prayer ministry
*Coaching? Teaching? Preaching? on prayer ... Contact Phil@nppn.org

IBSA @ Prayer ~ Bike Trip Results in Prayer @ 30-40 Churches!

Phil,
Last week Charles Campbell, Sylvan Knobloch, myself and Pastor's Tom Eggely and Chip Faulkner completed a three day Bike Ride throughout Southern Illinois stopping to pray at around 30-40 churches each day with pastors and their laypeople. The Church Strengthening Team led by Bob Dickerson alogn with Alan Mashburn and his wife drove to other churches. It was a great experience along with some great exercise.

Love in Jesus,
Bob Burton

* Try these keywords in the Search This Blog box above: Resource, Idea, Prayer, Pastor . . .

*Visit http://www.IBSA.org/prayer.php
for more articles and resources for
your congregation's prayer ministry
*Coaching? Teaching? Preaching? on prayer ... Contact Phil@nppn.org