By Kim Butts
With ICOM”s “Vertical” theme this year, hundreds of people, young and old, had the opportunity to be a part of something that had never been done at the conference. Two interactive, station-based prayer rooms were set up as sacred spaces for people to engage with God in compellingly creative ways, day and night, from the first hour of ICOM to the last.
A prayer room in the middle of the exhibit hall included themed prayer stations and also this prayer map, where people attached prayers and concerns for individuals and people groups around the world. A smaller, more intimate prayer room set up in an adjoining hotel was open around the clock.
The largest prayer space was located in the middle of the exhibit hall. The area, graciously designed and set up by the prayer and missions teams of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, was open during regular conference hours. Prayer stations focused on intimacy with God, confession, forgiveness, the great love of the Father for his children through restoration, interceding on behalf of unreached people groups, missionaries, the persecuted church, and more. A children”s area allowed kids to draw their prayers to God and engage with him in other creative ways.
A second prayer room, smaller and more intimate, was set up at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, attached to the Columbus Convention Center. It was open 24 hours a day throughout the conference. People engaged with God at all hours of the day and night, enjoying his presence in creative ways. Four Ohio churches””Buckeye Christian and Amazing Grace Christian from Grove City, First Christian of New Philadelphia, and Beavercreek Christian””cooperatively set up this space under the direction of Stan Kirtlan, senior pastor of Buckeye Christian Church.Â
These prayer rooms, which were focal points for ICOM”s “Vertical” theme, had a twofold purpose. First, the rooms provided an opportunity to engage each person at the conference in a creative experience of seeking God”s presence and interceding on behalf of his kingdom purposes. Second, they provided a replicable model for churches, colleges, and missions organizations to teach people fresh and exciting ways to engage with the Father in order to take steps toward becoming a “house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7; Mark 11:17). Â
Our hope is that many churches, colleges, and organizations will use this model to help train people to pray in ways that will ignite their prayer lives. Our desire is for people to connect with what is on God”s heart, rather than focusing only on our “default” requests for health and personal needs. Finishing the task of world evangelism is going to require God”s people to recognize that prayer is his foundational strategy for accomplishing his kingdom purposes on earth.Â
Day and Night Prayer
To put this into practice in a purposeful way, Restoration Revolution, a collaboration that desires to share Jesus with all peoples, has relaunched “Light the Fire,” a prayer initiative to engage churches, colleges, and organizations to step into a week of day-and-night prayer, passing a virtual “torch” from one location to the next.Â
Can you imagine a torch of uninterrupted prayer being passed from group to group, across this nation and around the world? Continual day-and-night prayer among our churches can transform lives and the missional focus of our churches. It can lead to the planting of new churches; the development of tools and resources; and raising up, training, and equipping of leaders for the purpose of completing the Great Commission. With prayer as our foundational strategy, who can imagine what God will do as his children yield their hearts to his divine plans and purposes?
Interested in more information about how to engage in a week of “Light the Fire” to give people an opportunity to engage with God in prayer in ways that will compel them into their neighborhoods and the nations? Send an e-mail to [email protected].Â
Kim Butts is cofounder of Harvest Prayer Ministries, Terre Haute, Indiana.
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