Prayerwalking Story

I've been promising stories and I finally have the first of hopefully many. This is from Ronnie Walker, the pastor of a local church. I hope you are challenged and encouraged by this story.

During the fall, 2008, First Baptist Church Belleview engaged in 40 days of prayer walking. An area within a five mile radius of the church campus was mapped out, with that large geographical “pie” divided into 8 pieces or zones. Eight zone leaders were enlisted, and they in turn were challenged to enlist 10 other people to join them in prayer walking their respective zone. The enlistment system worked well and 80+ people were enlisted.

The strategy involved prayer walking on at least two given dates with the intention being to pray solely for the purpose of asking God to show us how and where He might be working in the zones we were covering. We wanted to hear from Him by way of seeing things which might prompt us to recognize Him at work in the neighborhoods. Our teams came back with refreshing reports as to how God showed them some “indicators” where He was at work, or in many cases some “indicators” or “prompts” which He used to guide our intercession. For example, many empty homes were discovered, and many homes with for sale signs. The implication was that many people are in transition, and by that, in some sort of crisis due to relocation. There was a sense of heaviness in many neighborhoods. This all came from observations and impressions given by the Holy Spirit. In no case did we engage people in conversation on this phase of the prayer walking effort.

Then, in the spring we engaged in a 40 day period of prayer using a prayer guide titled “Seek God for the City” distributed by Waymakers ministry. This 40 day period ran from February 25-April 5. During this 40 day period we did a prayer walk (covering our respective zones again) with the intention to ask the Lord to let us engage people and pray with them as He provided the opportunity. Those in my zone had great experiences and several opportunities to pray with, and before, people. In our portion of our zone, Alice (my wife) and I had several occasions to pray with entire families. Several of these were families having yard sales for the purpose of just trying to “make ends meet” during the tough economic times. In one instance, the Lord directed us to stop and introduce ourselves to a man and his children. As we did we discovered that he directs a Christian recovery program for men being released from prison. It was a very definite Divine appointment!

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of our prayer walk however, was our asking God how He would use us to invest in the zone; how we might personally connect with a family for a longer period of time and disciple them toward the Lord. As we prayed for that, the Lord placed a young family on our hearts…a family living in the zone we were prayer walking, though we had not engaged them during any of the walks. We knew this family from prior contacts through the parents of the young man. With them on our hearts, we went to their home. We told them openly that the Lord had put them on our hearts as a result of praying in their neighborhood. We further asked them to join us for lunch on a given Sunday, and at lunch we asked if they would be interested in doing a seven week structured Bible study, offering to come to their home every two weeks in order to cover the seven sessions. They agreed. We began going, and to our blessed surprise they are soaking in our efforts to invest in them by way of very elementary Bible study and discipleship.

During our most recent time with them (Alice had baked them a cake…always a good way to “sweeten” a relationship) they were clearly attentive and appreciative, stating at the end of our session with them, “we recognize that God put you in our lives.” We acknowledged to them that we recognize that God had put them into our lives as well, and that it was all a direct result of prayer walking their neighborhood. Further, we have told them that they are now responsible for their entire neighborhood, and that we will walk with them in the effort to reach their neighbors for Christ. We expect to do some things with the neighborhood children during the summer, and perhaps just simple hamburger cookouts to assemble other families and connect with them In any case, the entire connection has come about as a result of simple prayer walking…walking with Jesus through a neighborhood asking Him to show us where He is working and allowing Him to make the connections.

Awesome! A great book on prayerwalking is called "Follow Me: Becoming a Lifestyle Prayerwalker" by Randy Sprinkle. Another free resource is this pamphlet called "Prayerwalking Made Simple" by Chris Scofield.
Blessings,
Shiloh

Catching Up

It's been almost a month since I updated this blog, so I have a ton of things to say, but I am going to keep it short and sweet. There are two main things that need to be updated. First, I want to share a bit about the Exponential Conference and then I want to share some of the great things that are happening in my neighborhood since Easter and the last blog entry.

Unfortunately I didn't get to stay for all of Exponential, but the days that I was there were absolutely great. I spent the first day and a half with two guys Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, authors of the Tangible Kingdom and co-pastors of Adullam in Denver. Really good discussion on "Missional Practices" that was relevant to local churches and church planters. I also heard from other great speakers like Erwin McManus and David Ferguson, but the main reason I went to Exponential was to spend time with Hugh and Matt. I've got a ton of notes and highlights, but I want to share a few of them with you.

First, I took a bunch of notes about the idea of faith communities and churches. I wrote that faith communities are groups of people who are exploring spiritual issues together. Many of them may even be following Jesus, but many may not. A church is a group of people who are committed to following Jesus together; who are committed to God, to each other, and to being an expression of Jesus to the world together. A faith community needs Christ followers to give direction and Truth to the spiritual journey that those in faith community are on. People are seeking spiritual guidance from each other, the internet, and many other places. The Church should be committed to becoming part of faith communities so that each community can become part of the Church.

Another thing we talked about was the difference between being a believer in Jesus and being His apprentice. Apprenticeship is learning by doing, not just watching or listening or reading. Apprentices are apprentices because they are in process of becoming like their Master. Jesus chose His disciples because He intended for them to become just like Him. Are our churches doing a good job of making apprentices?

I guess that's a pretty good transition into what's going on in my neighborhood. Easter was a major transition point for us. Before Easter we were a friendly bunch of neighbors who appreciated each other and occasionally shared spiritual things together. Since Easter we have been a faith community. My neighbors are great people, but not many of them are "church people." They have relationships with God, but they're still exploring what that means exactly. The great part is that we have begun exploring that together. Just this weekend, one of my neighbors asked if we can discuss how to "keep the faith" in difficult times. Another one asked if I could give him some reading assignments and meet to talk about it weekly. He takes his spiritual journey seriously, but just doesn't know where to begin.

I am so thrilled that these men and women have included us on their journeys. I pray that I would be an encouragement to them and that Jesus would use Kim and I to help them become apprentices of the Master. What an honor and privilege. Maybe one day down the road we will be a group of people committed to loving God, loving others, and living sent together.
Blessings,
Shiloh