When it comes to the ministries of a typical church today, prayer is most often at the bottom of the list in terms of effectiveness and participation. But what happens when a church truly prioritizes prayer? That’s the question we asked Michael Catt in a Zoom call on October 21, 2021.
Catt is recently retired as senior pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, and is the co-founder of Sherwood Pictures.
You can view the conversation below.
Some bullet points from the conversation:
- Seven Practical Steps on Praying for the Lost
- Pray for them by name
- Ask others to pray with you
- Pray for their conviction of sin
- Pray for a contact
- Pray for them to get a seeking heart
- Pray in faith for salvation
- Pray in thanksgiving to God
- People are encouraged to pray for HIM-possible things….things that only God can do and time will not change.
- We overestimate programs and underestimate prayer.
- In order to build a prayer culture, a church must pray for more than others in the hospital.
- Sunday School teachers were consistently (once a month or so) sharing their testimony with their Sunday School class.
- Sherwood used several different prayer methods. They would have a concert of prayer, invite members to make their pew an altar and pray. Many times they would divide into groups of nine, six, and three and pray. They also prayed specifically for leaders in their community. They invited the school superintendent in for prayer. They prayed for missionaries by name and also adopted an unreached people group and prayed for that group.
- Michael also mentioned a video of a 12 year old child with cancer on the Who’s Your One website that had a tremendous testimony.
- When asked about praying for lost people, William Booth founder of the Salvation Army, said, “Try Tears.”
BONUS: Here’s a list of prayer ideas submitted by our churches that may spur your church on to a deeper prayer ministry: Prayer Ideas from Our Churches