One church in Michigan is skipping the giveaways, glitz and glamour. The LA Times tells the story of a church in a Michigan town, hit hard by the recession. They set up a prayer booth at their local city hall, offering a prayer to each passerby.
At first it might sound a bit cheesy or ineffective, but they’re seeing around 175 people per week dropping in for a prayer. When a third of a town find themselves jobless, prayer becomes a bit more of a felt need.
Any worries of ineffectiveness or general heavy-handedness are eased by this paragraph from the article:
Word of the prayer station has spread as the City Hall crowds have grown. The manager of a 7-Eleven wants a station set up next to his soda machines. So does the owner of a ConocoPhillips gas station.
It’s easy to get caught up in making church more sexy when a lot of people simply need the church to be more available.
Justin
August 7, 2009
This is a great story! Yeah for the LA Times for covering it. But I’m disappointed in your coverage. Since when has prayer become “…cheesy or ineffective…” or do you not believe that prayer works.
I’m a devoted reader of your blog and know that you are interested in motivating the church to communicate the truth of Jesus Christ. What could be more truthful than putting actions to words and actually going out and praying for people.
Maybe this isn’t the most effective marketing strategy to get people into the church, but certainly it’s a great way to effect peoples lives.
I agree with your final statement, sometimes we need to forget about all the glamor and glitz and just ask people “Do you need some prayer today?”
Adam Rushlow
August 7, 2009
Wow. What a great story to wrap up the workweek on. Thanks fellas.
Zach Pippin
August 7, 2009
I’ve started something kind of like this on my blog. a simple weekly post for people to leave a request for all of my readers to see and pray for.
Ian
August 9, 2009
“It’s easy to get caught up in making church more sexy when a lot of people simply need the church to be more available.”
Amen.
David Meeks
August 12, 2009
dude, your website is great. Why don’t you add a share button to each story so people can pass on each story? see http://www.addtoany.com/buttons/ or something like that. You’re website needs to be heard by the church. Thanks so much.