Prayer Leader OnLine interviewed Lori Freund, prayer leader at Oakland Drive Church of Christ in Kalamazoo, Michigan, following her first experience of hosting a Regional Prayer Conference.

Q. Lori, what gave you the idea that a congregation of less than 150 could put on a Regional Prayer Conference? (Most congregations the size of Oakland Church of Christ are pleased to have 15-20 attend a church-sponsored prayer event)
When I first heard Jon Graf speak three years ago, I knew his message would be relevant to our church, and other churches in our area also. God has shown our church what we are capable of doing when He is in control over the last few of years, with results beyond our means or even what we thought we could do. About 18 months ago we started a weekly prayer group simply seeking God's vision for our church and we have started to see fruit of this over time. Hearts are being changed spiritual depth is growing and there is a greater hunger for the Lord. Commitments to Christ in the last three months have been about one every week or so where as before, we would maybe see five to seven a year! Our leadership has begun to pray together, consistency has yet to be better. Prayer is starting to be recognized as a vital part of our church that has not been emphasized enough.

My first thought was to do this prayer conference and bring our two sister churches together to work on it. Unity is something that we really need to work on with them. And we have come a long way in the last year. During the prayer and planning of the conference, the vision for the event itself grew, to inviting all churches in the area then to others from CPLN. We wanted to follow God's plan for the conference and this is where He led us.

In the planning of the conference, we thought we would be doing good if 75-100 registered. We actually wound up with 140 registered!

Q. Lori, what gave you the idea that a congregation of less than 150 could put on a Regional Prayer Conference? (Most congregations the size of Oakland Church of Christ are pleased to have 15-20 attend a church-sponsored prayer event)
When I first heard Jon Graf speak three years ago, I knew his message would be relevant to our church, and other churches in our area also. God has shown our church what we are capable of doing when He is in control over the last few of years, with results beyond our means or even what we thought we could do. About 18 months ago we started a weekly prayer group simply seeking God's vision for our church and we have started to see fruit of this over time. Hearts are being changed spiritual depth is growing and there is a greater hunger for the Lord. Commitments to Christ in the last three months have been about one every week or so where as before, we would maybe see five to seven a year! Our leadership has begun to pray together, consistency has yet to be better. Prayer is starting to be recognized as a vital part of our church that has not been emphasized enough.

My first thought was to do this prayer conference and bring our two sister churches together to work on it. Unity is something that we really need to work on with them. And we have come a long way in the last year. During the prayer and planning of the conference, the vision for the event itself grew, to inviting all churches in the area then to others from CPLN. We wanted to follow God's plan for the conference and this is where He led us.

In the planning of the conference, we thought we would be doing good if 75-100 registered. We actually wound up with 140 registered!

Q .Where did you begin, once you were sure this was a God-thing for you to do?
I really think we did things backwards from what they normally would be or should be done. First of all, found out if Jon Graf was available, then got permission from church leadership, then we talked with our minister. We should have talked with the minister first, then church leadership approval--but God took care of that detail. We asked all of our ministry leaders to participate - publicity, greeters, fellowship, small groups, youth group etc. We really emphasized that this was an opportunity for us to use our gifts together in a big way and to work together as a body. And we bathed it in prayer!!!

Q. How did you design the conference schedule? 

We have done women's retreats at our church and attended several prayer conferences in the past, so we went with what we thought had worked best at these events.

Southwest Michigan Prayer Conference Schedule
Feb 4 and 5, 2005

Friday
6:30 Registration
7:00 Worship
7:15 Jon Graf - Keynote Speaker
8:15 Worship and Prayer Time (Maryland Model)
9:00 CoffeeHouse - Mix and Mingle time for our youth and college age.

Saturday
8:30 Registration
9:00 Worship
9:15 Jon Graf - Keynote Speaker
10:00 Workshop Session 1
    Hindrances to Prayer – Jon Graf
    Facilitating a Dynamic Prayer Meeting - Phil Miglioratti
    Teen/College Workshop - Rob Schwartz
    Prayer Room Experience - six interactive prayer stations
    Lord, Teach Me to Pray - Lloyd Stinnet
    Spiritual Warfare - John Thybault

11:00 Break / Prayer Response Time

11:15 Workshop Session 2
    Developing a Prayer Strategy for Your Church - Jon Graf
    WWJP - What Would Jesus Pray? - Phil Miglioratti
    Teen/College Workshop - Praying with Passion
    Prayer Room Experience
    Lord, I Surrender all -- Now What? - Matt Gilligan

12:15-12:30 Break/ Prayer Response Time

12:30 - 1:30 Lunch

1:30 Worship
1:45 - 2:30 Jon Graf - Keynote Speaker
2:30 - 3:00 Worship and Prayer (Maryland Model)

For a future event, we would like to include a time of corporate prayer so that the area churches would have the opportunity to pray together.

Q. How did you publicize the event?
We did a mailing to 140 area churches two months prior to the conference. We included a letter from the prayer conference committee, a Pray! magazine and conference brochures. Then we did a follow up mailing with flyers to churches four weeks prior to conference. We also emailed several area churches, did a mailing to CPLN members within a three or four hour dirve from Kalimazoo. Finally we did a reminder email three weeks prior to the conference. Since Jon works with the Christian & Misisonary Alliance, we mailed C&MA churches within a five-hour distance. We also had a DVD that we used within our three churches that had "commercials" for the prayer conference. These commercials were originally created by the 24-7 Terre Haute team for their 24-7 prayer initiative.

Q. What role did the pastors of the various congregations play in making the conference a success?
The family minister of West Kalamazoo, John Thybault, attended planning sessions and helped to coordinate and promote the event at their church. The senior minister of West Kalamazoo Christian Church lead worship on Friday evening of the conference. The worship minister of Comstock Church of Christ lead worship on Saturday. The amount the event was promoted and supported by individual church leadership greatly influenced congregational attendance.

Q. You delivered your fourth child just weeks before the conference. How did you utilize your planning team?
God was behind us all the way. Thankfully God provided someone who could run the planning meetings when I was unavailable.  Every ministry area was given a direction and the authority to make decisions in their areas of responsibility.

Q. How did you determine the budget? 
This is where we really had to step out in faith. Our church had never done such an event where we would charge so much! We very much felt, though, that we had something valuable to offer and felt God would lay it upon those hearts that he wanted to be there and cost would not be an issue. Jon Graf had indicated that he would take whatever we could provide for an honorarium so that gave us a little freedom in planning. We figured that we could draw at least 75 people and charging $40 a person would give us around $3,000 ($1500 speaker expenses, $1000 publicity, $500 food and other). 140 wound up registering and our expenses were more than we had planned, so we came out just about even in the end.

Q. How did you involve members of other congregations?
Our two sister churches provided their worship teams and workshop leaders and we invited the youth groups.

Q. What would you say to a prayer leader in smaller-sized congregation who has a vision to bring prayer training to their church or region but assume they cannot not afford a conference? 
God's plans are perfect and His timing is also. We have learned to be obedient to what He lays upon our hearts and there is great joy in taking those steps of faith. We also have to remember that God's idea of success is different from ours. We cannot gauge our success solely on numbers and financially ability. "For I know that plans I have for you" declares the Lord. "Plans to give you hope and a future." What might God want to bring to your church? What blessings is He waiting to pour out until we learn to ask Him in prayer? Can we afford not to be obedient?

Q. Lori, write a prayer for the hundreds of prayer leaders who have a dream of hosting a prayer conference.
God of Wonders, beyond all majesty, You are Holy and worthy to be sought! You are placing a dream to host a prayer conference on many prayer leaders hearts for one reason and one reason only . . . to draw Your children closer to You for Your Glory! Pour out a spirit of boldness on these prayer leaders. Our time here on earth is only fleeting, help us to make our time count for You. Pour out Your spirit of unity as denominational boundaries fade away. Pour out Your spirit of love and grace as we come together and pray together, seeking Your face. We long to see more of You Father. Give us Your eyes to see the world as You do and Your heart to love the world as You do. Through You, all things are possible! In Christ's name I pray, Amen!