It Started with a Prayer Room

By Rev. Tom Swank

Several years ago I was struck by the prayer request Paul made to the Ephesians. Here is perhaps the most influential leader in the first century, apart from Jesus, requesting prayer “that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:19-20, NKJV).

I realized if God was going to use me, I needed to have my church praying for me.

I had recently moved to assume leadership of a church that had been through a split and had been without a pastor for two years. They were discouraged and some relationships were still bruised.

Above the sanctuary was a balcony of sorts. There were three rooms, each with windows overlooking the auditorium. The middle one was used as a sound room and the others for storage. I approached the leadership about making one of those rooms a prayer room. They thought it was a good idea and one of the leaders soon had it cleared and had set up some comfortable chairs and small coffee table. That was the easy part.

Now, how to populate the prayer room on Sunday mornings.

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I wanted to accomplish three objectives. I wanted a prayer covering during the morning worship time; I wanted leaders to model the value of prayer; and I wanted to use this ministry to communicate the value of prayer to the broader body.

Once again, I went to the leadership team and ask that each of them along with their spouse would take one Sunday in the prayer room. I also asked that each of them recruit another couple to join them. There were 8 or 10 in leadership at the time. This meant they would be in the prayer room once every 8-10 weeks. They all agreed--some a bit reluctantly, but they agreed.

Before each service the couples assigned to the prayer room that day would meet me in my office to pray with me. Each week I provided a brief outline of the message and general direction I was going that morning. This became their prayer guide. From the prayer room, they could see most of the people in the auditorium. I suggested that as they saw people come in, they should pray for any specific needs they knew of. If they knew of a marriage in trouble, they should pray for them that morning. If they saw new families, they should pray for them.

In a matter of a few weeks, we had between 35 and 40 people involved in this prayer ministry. Several confessed that they never imagined enjoying a prayer time as much as they did those Sundays when they were praying for me and for the service. In spite of what the church had been through, we saw more conversions and baptisms than I had seen in any other ministry. It started because the leadership was willing to engage in intercessory prayer for the pastor and for the time of worship.

I was recently invited back to that church for the dedication of a new prayer room. The new space is a beautifully decorated, 24/7 prayer room. It is equipped with a number of prayer guides and is open 24/7. There is a culture of prayer in that church that was developed because some leaders were willing to give up a Sunday worshiping with others to simply pray.

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Rev Tom Swank is currently the Director of Prayer Ministry for the Missionary Church. In this capacity, he oversees its prayer ministry PrayFirst! A longtime pastor, who has led a number of churches into becoming strong praying churches, Tom also serves on the leadership team of the Denominational Prayer Leaders Network.