Project Pray Coordinating Prayer Efforts
Rev. P. Douglas Small, director of Project Pray Pray, reports several prayer initiatives and activities are slated or have taken place across the nation.
The North Cleveland Church of God will host one of forty Korean prayer teams coming to the United States from May 3-7, 2023. Teams will be located throughout the nation, from the border of Canada in Washington State to Miami, FL, and from San Diego to Maine.
Other cities hosting teams include Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Lima (OH), Delbarton (WV), Mt. Home (ID), Centerville (IA), Phoenix (AZ), Murphy, Hendersonville, Newton, Charlotte, Asheboro (NC), Charleston (SC), Corbin, Lexington, Madisonville (KY), New York, Washington (DC), Newport News (VA), Buffalo (NY), Springfield, St. Louis (MO), Kenly (NC), Selma (AL), Dallas, Houston (TX), Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis (IN), Boston (MA), Memphis (TN).
Two Church of God state offices will host teams, Bishops Steve Smith (NY) and Melvin Shuler (ENC). Several Southern Baptist Associations will host teams, as will a number of city-wide, multi-denominational city-reaching groups. Notables are Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis and Dream Center Church Prayer Pavilion of Phoenix. Two denominational headquarters will host groups – the Assemblies of God (Springfield, MO) and CMI Global. Numerous Church of God congregations will be involved in hosting teams or leading prayer efforts across their cities.
The teams will be in the United States during the National Day of Prayer, May 4, and are expected to participate in numerous prayer efforts, praying for spiritual awakening in the US. Dr. Nam Soo Choi leads the 25,000-person Kwang Myong Church in Seoul, Korea. The church has committed itself to being a praying congregation. Thousands attend the daily early morning prayer services. Their School of Prayer effort has touched 104 nations. They prayed at Westminster Abbey. The President of Benin invited them to pray for spiritual awakening in his nation and help establish a national prayer center. Last year, they prayed with the US House chaplain in Washington, DC, and at the South Carolina State House.
Last year the teams came to the US, quite coincidentally on the dates of the Billy Graham historic Seoul, Korea crusade 49 years ago. The leaders of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association noted this and felt that it was divine timing, the grandchildren of almost 75,000 saved in the historic crusade, returning to bless this nation. As a result, they hosted a 90-minute television program from the new archive center announcing the coming of the Koreans.
Dr. Choi says, “America has been so good to Korea. You have been our spiritual mentors. Now you are in trouble, and it is time for us to pray for you. We want to give America the gift of prayer for a spiritual awakening.”
Small reports, “In one city where the teams prayed last year, thousands gathered for a community prayer service that resulted in almost a thousand conversions, and thousands of Bibles distributed. In another community, revival erupted, with more than a hundred people baptized. Across the nation, there is a stirring, a growing hunger, a desperation that senses that only God can save the nation.”
In other news, Small was one of the speakers at the soft opening of the new World Prayer Center for the Assemblies of God in Springfield, MO. Joe Oden has been named the center director, working with the Assembly of God Prayer Commission and directly with the movement’s leadership. Doug Clay, General Superintendent, greeted the gathering. Rick Dubois, the assistant General Superintendent shared a moving vision of prayer in heaven that inspired the design of the prayer center’s prayer room. It features a glass floor with an embedded google map allowing intercessors to virtually prayer walk a nation, a continent, a city, or even a neighborhood. Other speakers included John Kilpatrick and John Lindell (James River Church). International leaders gathered with a representation of state leaders and pastors.
The movement’s initial goal is to identify a hundred “prayer missionaries” that will travel to spend thirty days or more praying in a given area before significant evangelism-mission endeavors. The partnership of prayer and evangelism-mission is a key strategy, reaching back to Daniel Nash and Abel Clary, a pair of intercessors who preceded Charles Finney’s crusade efforts. Prayer missionaries will be partnered with traditional missionaries. Congregations will bring prayer teams to the center to pray and learn about prayer. The center has an area for teaching. It will also have prayer cubicles and will eventually be open seven days a week.
“There is a rising tide of prayer around the world and a vision for the prayer-evangelism tandem. Most churches have no organized prayer leadership team and have never identified intercessors or teamed them with those who have the gift of evangelism. Small noted that this is an old, Biblical, but new paradigm for prayer,” Small noted. “Prayer is at its heart worship, and at its edge mission, and in between, God meets our needs.”
P. Douglas Small served as the prayer coordinator for the Church of God for 14 years. He was the initial chair of the PCCNA prayer commission. He is the founder of Project Pray and continues his work with congregations and movements around the world.
(Source: Project Pray)
