By Aleta Spell

My husband, Gerald, and I, have been members of New Covenant Church in Valdosta, GA, for more than 22 years. Throughout our church’s history, prayer has had an emphasis but it was mostly designated to a chosen few, of which we were not a part due to our ignorance concerning the true value of prayer. During the middle 1990s, God changed Gerald and my personal view and experience concerning prayer. As a result, we found ourselves consumed with the desire to pray, learn more about prayer, and for our congregation to have this same desire. In the spring of 1998 this led to our senior pastor, L. A. Joiner, seeing the need for a more focused arena for prayer, and raising us up as the first prayer coordinators for our church.

Shortly thereafter, our church sent us to the first conference for the National Association for Local Church Prayer Leaders (now CPLN) in Colorado Springs, CO. We were enriched greatly with so many ideas and in-depth knowledge concerning how to help our church grow and develop a stronger prayer life. We were almost overwhelmed by it all. At the last meeting, Chuck Pierce encouraged us all with these instructions, “Now go home and ask the Holy Spirit just what part of what you’ve heard is specifically for YOUR congregation.” So we did.

As we were flying back home we sensed the Lord saying to us, “I don’t want you to build a prayer ministry; I want you to help Me build a house of prayer. Go home and reproduce what you’re doing.” Our church is built on the concept of small groups, or home churches as ours are called. So we realized that what He meant was for us to raise up leaders in each home church that does for that small group basically what we do for the whole congregation. Our senior pastor and home group pastors saw the potential and bought in.

The purpose for establishing a home church prayer leader was the same as for us: it signals to the (small) group that prayer is important; brings attention to the ministry and gets others involved; ensures that the ministry will not fade or be forgotten; provides a way to recruit ministry participants and to encourage greater participation in prayer. Here’s how we went about it.

The home church pastors work with us in praying and seeking someone who fits the qualifications (see Points of Interest) within their groups. The candidate then is asked to pray about taking the position. The position can be held by either a man, woman, or a couple. After they’ve agreed, I then meet with them to better get to know them and explain all the qualifications and responsibilities. Several times a year I meet with all the prayer leaders to discuss upcoming prayer events, problems they may be encountering, and exchange ideas with each other concerning getting their small groups involved in prayer.

When we first established this position we held prayer training sessions during our Sunday morning Equipping Classes.They were open to all the congregation, but especially for the prayer leaders. Now, we hold a class on some aspect of prayer at least two quarters per year. When those are not available, a new leader is supplied with the necessary training materials for them to work on personally.

There have been many advantages to this prayer strategy. We have been able to assign the home churches with specific prayer focuses through their prayer leader. For example, one strategy we carried out for several years was that each home church was assigned to pray for a particular pastor, elder, or ministry leader of our congregation. The prayer leader periodically communicated with their assigned leader to receive their prayer requests for which the entire home church prayed. Each home church has “adopted” one of the missionary families sent out from our church. Some prayer leaders have helped their home church adopt a specific prayer target, such as the one who helped her home church target military personnel stationed overseas who were in any way connected to our church family.

Our home church pastors have said that having a prayer leader in their group has helped their members become more involved in prayer and learn the importance of praying for issues outside of their small group. It has also helped them personally by knowing someone is specifically covering them and their families in prayer. Pastor Joiner says, “This prayer emphasis has created a greater understanding and burden for the overall ministry of the church. This has led to prayer and preparation before our corporate services by varying members and not just staff pastors.”

We’ve seen the greatest blessing from raising up these prayer leaders the last couple of years as we’ve gone through some very trying times personally, which prevented us from being as effective in our ministry as prayer coordinator as we had been before. Our home group prayer leaders faithfully kept prayer alive and strong within their small groups, and that preserved prayer throughout the congregation. They also diligently covered us with prayer through our ordeal. Even though that season is over, we felt it tested God’s “house of prayer” and found it to be standing strong, secure and now expanding again.

--Aleta Spell and her husband Gerald are the prayer coordinators at New Covenant Church in Valdosta, Georgia.