Have you ever considered what God is able to do through ordinary church members who partner with one another as prayer partners? We in the Pipestone Church decided to find out.
The Minnesota Conference office recently recommended setting up prayer ministries programs in local churches. Because of this, my friend Marilyn Strippgen and I were contacted by our church board to co-chair a prayer ministry program. We decided this would eventually become a multi-faceted ministry, so we invited two more friends, Darlene Forde and Marie Atkinson-Smeins, to join us.
After much heartfelt prayer and many phone calls, we felt God leading us to begin our prayer partners ministry as the first facet of our overall prayer ministry. After all, COVID-19 may keep us from our church building, but it can’t keep us from our church family and, more importantly, it can’t keep us from our Lord.
By Sabbath, April 11, everyone who accepted our invitation to be part of this ministry had their prayer partners, and with God’s help they are praying weekly for God to ignite a flame of prayer in Pipestone, Minnesota; Flandreau, South Dakota (where most of our church family lives); in Minnesota Conference; in our country and around the world.
We have felt a desire for some time to learn how to pray more effectively and powerfully within our church. We want to, “Come boldly before the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). We want to remember, “My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him” (Ps. 62:5).
As we were reminded in our Sabbath school lesson, our God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. He answers the prayers of His people. We can hardly wait to see how He will use our prayer partner ministry at the Pipestone Church.
Judith Schreck is a member of the Pipestone Church in Pipestone, Minnesota.
