prayerstrategists.net · Prayer Support Team Case Study — Global Conference, Feb 2020

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Prayer Support Team Case Study — Global Conference, Feb 2020

Fellowship of Prayer Strategists February 2020 Global Conference Prayer Support Team Case Study

Case Study on the Global Summit for Church Multiplication with 6 networks working together.

Prayer Team Members and Meetings:

Our team was unusual as we were “appointed” or asked to be on the small prayer team by leaders in our organisations. It was also very refreshing that our team and the focus on the Global Summit, was upon the collaboration of 6 networks together, to see what could be accelerated and achieved together rather than independently. Over the course of time in preparation, we had a multi-cultural team with 3 couples; 5 men and 7 women, 6 from Global South and 6 from Western nations, 7 nationalities out of a team of 12.

A key element to our prayer team was that we had a good amount of time to prepare before the event. We were first contacted 16 months prior to the Summit.

We started to pray together online for an hour a month, 6 months before the event, and increased this frequency to bi-weekly with a couple of months to go and then weekly in the month prior to the summit. We were also able to have the prayer team leader participate in the Executive team meetings which gave up to date insight into the needs for logistics, programme planning, fund raising etc.

We recommend a) Advanced preparation for the prayer team b) A strong connection between the prayer team and the organising team.

Prayer Tools:

Together across our networks we produced a 40 day prayer guide that we were free to share with our constituent partners and prayer networks. We also encouraged all prayer team members (12) to have a PIT crew (Personal Intercession Team) to cover their participation.

2 months prior to the event, we wrote to the executive and invitations team to encourage each Delegate attending the Summit, to also identify a few intercessors who would pray for them personally pre, during and post the Summit. They were invited to use the 40 day guide and were also invited to join a VIRTUAL prayer team supporting the summit.

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Fellowship of Prayer Strategists February 2020

Virtual Prayer Team

In addition to the 12 intercessors invited to be ONSITE at the Summit, we also recruited a virtual team (approx. 60-70 people). We had a leader for this team who was responsible to be a) hosting zoom prayer calls during the summit, and b) a Communication bridge person between those at the summit and those meeting online, or in their home church setting.

The Virtual team also had a Whatsapp group that was active during the summit giving updates and which allowed participation in prayer for those who could not join the zoom calls.

Information and updates and reports from the prayer meetings were also sent by the Virtual team coordinator by email to all those who had o ff ered to be a part of the team, many of whom were personal intercessors for one of the delegates.

The summit ran for 4 days, and the virtual team met to pray 8 times, twice daily. They were joined at each of these meetings by someone from the ONSITE team who could bring fresh news from the gathering. Notes of these prayer calls were taken by the Virtual team coordinator and edited for any security concerns before being circulated to the Whole Prayer team. Journaling/ Scribing of the prayer content from both the onsite and virtual team was kept by the facilitator of the virtual team.

We were very encouraged that the Virtual team was powerful in prayer, on the mark, and took their role very seriously. There was a solid core of people throughout the summit. The Onsite team felt the virtual team’s role was essential, and extremely helpful, catalysing events that were happening in the summit meetings themselves. There was confirmation of discernment of God’s leading mutually across the teams. The communication across the two parts of the team was strong, flexible, and in real time. We felt God’s presence and leading at the summit and saw answers to our prayers, particularly in the regional cross network partnerships that formed.

ONSITE Prayer Team’s Participation at the Summit

We had decided, in consultation with the organising team leadership, to spread the onsite intercessors across the variety of meetings taking place. We were all present at the plenary times and took in turns to lead those corporate times of prayer for all those gathered at the summit. We then were distributed across the breakout groups and workshops. This enabled us, with just 12 people, to have an overall picture of all the

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Fellowship of Prayer Strategists February 2020 event. Each intercessor prayed during the meetings that they attended and when asked participated with the discussion.

We had a prayer room, but the location was not helpful for us on this occasion. We instead, decided to meet in the main meeting hall 30 mins prior to the start of each day’s worship time. We also met after lunch together. Those times were vital to share news and updates, be prepared to feedback to the virtual team, and of course pray together. We announced from the front that personal prayer ministry was available for those attending the conference.

DAY OF FASTING:

The leadership team had designated a day of prayer and fasting for the whole conference. This was widely observed and we had a powerful time of prayer, worship and repentance for approx. 2 hours over the lunch slot. Having a Worship leader, invited and part of the onsite prayer team, who was very sensitive to the Holy Spirit and adaptable was very helpful for that time together.

Lessons Learnt

1) The Day of Fasting, corporate prayer time could have been better attended by the leaders and delegates had the announcements and expectations been more clearly communicated.

2) We would want to encourage more feedback from those in the virtual prayer team, through email and Whatsapp, to hear about how the experience was for them and receive their insights.

3) There was some time zone issues for the virtual team. We could have communicated the local time in some of the countries with larger delegations. In the future we would have facilitation of the virtual meeting led by people living in di ff erent time zones to spread the opportunities for participation to perhaps an option of 4 times in the day.

Follow Up Steps – Post Summit Event

It was communicated to the Whatsapp group that the group would be closed 10 days after the summit ended. This was to encourage continued prayer protection as people travelled home and processed what God was calling them to do.

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Fellowship of Prayer Strategists February 2020 The database of those who signed up for the virtual team is available to the prayer team leaders from each of the networks involved. However, we recognise that those intercessors were specifically o ff ering to pray for the summit.

As the prayer team came together in such unity and oneness of heart, we have decided to be open to continue to meet to cover next steps that the leadership might be considering. We would also be ready to step up again for a follow up meeting of the same network collaborative e ff ort.

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