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9-9-07 -- A Place for Prayer, a Place for All
Heart Gallery
Highland Christian Church in Asheville, North Carolina, isn’t the first congregation to set aside a special area for prayer. But the church’s “Prayer Gallery” is a first for Asheville, and it’s making an impact on both HCC and the surrounding community.
“We originally planned the gallery as a one-month experiment in January, and people wanted to keep it going,” says lead pastor Shannon McCready. “We recognized the need for a place set aside to meet with God.”
The rented space downtown includes the “46:10” room for meditation (from Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God”); visitors can use special markers to write thoughts and prayers on its large windows. The wailing wall encourages prayer warriors to petition God, leave requests, and pray for others, and the worship room includes prayer with music. A host quietly welcomes newcomers and answers questions, and a journal waits by the door for participants to share final thoughts.
The Prayer Gallery is open four hours each day, and volunteers from HCC serve as hosts during each shift. The church hopes to partner with other churches to eventually keep the gallery open around the clock.
“We want the space to belong to the city, not just our church,” McCready says. “We recently held a prayer walk with two other churches and involved their leaders in a united prayer and worship night.” Highland also invites area churches to attend the Prayer Gallery’s weekly worship and prayer time on Friday evenings.
As those relationships develop, the Prayer Gallery continues to reach Highland’s members, many of whom have been Christians for less than a year and have little experience with prayer.
“A woman named Pam visited the gallery a while back and my wife, Sherri, showed her around,” says McCready. “Pam asked Sherri to pray with her because she wasn’t sure how to pray or what to do. Pam kept coming back, and she prays by herself now.”
www.highlandchristian.com
Beating the System
Each year the leaders and volunteers at Christian Community Services Inc. celebrate the achievements of low-income families and individuals who become independent of government assistance. Since 2000, CCSI—a nonprofit organization created by Schrader Lane Church of Christ and The Family of God at Woodmont Hills, both in Nashville, Tennessee—has helped 36 families purchase homes and 12 families transition into nongovernment housing, worked with four adults starting new businesses, assisted 11 individuals completing college degrees, and encouraged participants to save more than $90,000.
“Although the HUD and welfare programs were designed to help lower-income families, many participants have become trapped by the system, becoming permanent recipients of government handouts,” according to Woodmont Hills.
To reverse this trend, more than 60 volunteers from the two congregations provide training, tutoring, meals, and friendship to CCSI families each week.
A free four-week financial training workshop teaches money management and budgeting skills, family mentoring and tutoring programs build relationships, and life-skills classes address practical financial, employment, and parenting needs.
Participants even have the opportunity to open “Individual Development Accounts” that help members “learn saving habits and prepare for future goals such as a down payment toward a house, starting a business, [or] going back to school,” the church shares. “CCSI matches IDA family savings $2 to $1 up to $5,000.”
www.schraderlane.org
www.woodmont.org
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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