Hello. My name is Scott Brown. I’m a pastor at Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and the president of Church and Family Life. I’d like to give you some instructions on how to engage our global Prayer Summit.
I first want to start with a quote from Charles Spurgeon, who said, “If a church is to be what it ought to be for the purposes of God, we must train it in the holy art of prayer.” So I want to give you nine things along those lines:
- Begin with Family Prayers: On Tuesday evening, October 3, start with family prayers.
- Continue with Prayer and Fasting: Continue on with prayer and fasting on Wednesday. Break the fast at the end of the day, but continue praying. Maybe gather in small groups and continue the prayers throughout the day on Wednesday, and then gather with your church.
- Consider Opening with Singing: On Wednesday night, consider opening with singing.
- Refresh with the Word of God: Have someone briefly refresh the congregation with the Word of God on some matter of prayer, particularly this call for revival. Keep it short, no more than five minutes, because we want to get to praying.
- Avoid Prayer Requests; Go Directly to Prayer: Taking a request consumes valuable time, so this allows us to spend more time in prayer.
- Encourage Short Prayers: Kind of like Nehemiah’s arrow prayers. It’s important that we give everybody the opportunity to pray.
- Pray Sequentially: What I mean by that is, redeem the time, take up all the time in prayer that you can. Don’t let there be gaps between the prayers. If someone’s not praying, you jump in and pray.
- Pray Responsibly: Say “amen” in one accord. Say “yes, Lord.” That’s what “amen” means. Express your heartfelt affirmation of that prayer. Martin Luther encouraged the church to be bold in saying their “amens” during times of prayer. He said, “You must always speak the amen firmly.”
- What to Pray About?: Well, there’s that wonderful acronym ACTS, with A standing for adoration, C for confession, T for thanksgiving, and S for supplication.
So there you have it. There’s some preparation for this time of global prayer. I really hope you can join us on October 3 and 4 for this global Prayer Summit. Go to the website globalprayerforrevival.com and sign up.