It was terrific having you with us. I’ve heard nothing but wonderful reports from those who participated. I sensed that all of the matters about which we had prayed on Friday night were wonderfully answered. I actually had a terrific opportunity to introduce the prayer cards to one of my neighbors yesterday! She was greatly blessed by the idea of praying for a difficult person in her life, trusting the changes to God and then just focusing her attention on loving them!
I’ll gladly answer your questions and look forward to talking further with you in the days to come.
Pressing in and pressing on,
Tom
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1. How did you get interested in focusing the membership on prayer? (I really appreciated your story about going to visit other "praying churches"...could you give me a few sentences on that?)
About 5 years ago, I sensed God inviting me to follow Him on a journey to take me deeper in my prayer life. My grand prayer adventure began with a search to discover and visit churches with a demonstrable passion for prayer. I also began to read a wide array of prayer focused books, both classics and contemporary. As oftentimes happens, my personal prayer journey soon became a prayer journey for our church. God is growing us into a house of prayer! We’ve still got a lot of growing to do but prayer is now a vital dimension our church life.
2. How did "A Praying Life" (the book, the seminar, etc.) factor into your spiritual journey?
My 5 year journey into a deeper prayer life has led me to be constantly on the lookout for prayer focused books, seminars and conferences. God has taught me a great deal through the prayer journeys of others and every year one of those books, seminars or conferences stands out as the one having the most impact on my prayer life over the course of that particular year. In 2010, the most life impacting prayer story was the one I found in, “A Praying Life.” While still reading the book, I sensed God prompting me to contact the author to see if he would be willing to lead our 4th annual prayer conference at our church in 2011.
3. How did you prepare your flock for the seminar? (I love that you guys had a prayer meeting about the seminar! Could you bring that in to your answer?)
To prepare our church for the Prayer Life conference, I began talking months ahead of the event about the way “A Praying Life” had impacted me. After talking about the merits of the book, I ordered several boxes of “A Praying Life” three months prior to our conference and began to encourage our congregation to read the book prior to the conference. Finally, and most importantly, we prayed for our conference. One of the lessons we have learned on our journey toward becoming a house of prayer is that God blesses those events/ministries for which we have fervently prayed. The Friday before our prayer conference, we met to lay a foundation of prayer beneath every aspect of our prayer conference. Once again, God answered our prayers!
4. How did you enjoy the seminar?
Our Prayer Life seminar was a huge success on every level. Our seminar leader, Bob Allums, was knowledgeable, genuine and engaging. His teaching was clear, practical and immediately accessible. Our people connected with him within the first few minutes of our first session. By the final session, Bob was no longer a guest among us. He was part of our family. Every so often a major event not only meets but exceeds your expectations. This was one of those events. We were tremendously blessed.
5. Would you mind giving us an endorsement that we could use with other churches who are considering hosting a seminar?
As God has grown my own prayer life over the past 5 years, He’s also grown in me a passion to help my church family discover the joys that can only be experienced through a dynamic prayer life. To that end, I’ve introduced them to several great prayer focused books, taught several prayer focused classes, preached several prayer focused sermons and hosted a number of prayer focused conferences. I don’t know of any single resource that more effectively puts a dynamic prayer life within reach of the average person in the pew as does the Prayer Life seminar. I am delighted to enthusiastically commend the Prayer Life seminar to every pastor who longs to help his congregation see Jesus!
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| Petaluma Baptist got ready for the seminar by having a prayer meeting! |
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