Jefferson Baptist Church has been doing a five-day prayer event for probably around 25 years now. We have one four times a year. The one we are in the middle of now is our Christmas prayer event, and we pray for many people to attend our Christmas outreach event and that God will use JBC and all the people in it to reach many people with gospel. T

he next one coming up in February is for our Missions ministry. We pray for each of the missionaries that we support and the ministries that they lead and are involved in. We take a special offering for our missions ministry the week after the prayer time so we also pray about that, asking God to supply extra funds for people so that they can give more.

The next five day prayer event in June we pray about another special offering that is used for the expansion of our facilities. All of our facilities have been paid for in cash as we build from these offerings.

The last five days of prayer is in September and we pray for all of the various ministries that we have at the church, that God will bless them and use each one to reach people and make disciples.

We pray ten hours each of the five days, 5:00 to 10:00 am and 5:00 to 10:00 pm, Monday through Friday, and we average about 40 people praying every hour. Some people pray one hour during the five days and there are a few who pray all 50 hours. Breakfast is served in the morning and dinner in the evening with lots of snacks in between. There are about 300 different people that pray during the five days, and it is a fantastic time of fellowship as we pray together, talk, and eat.

During these prayer times there is a very real sense of God’s presence that has a definite impact on the spiritual life of each person who attends. These five day prayer events are the foundation of our church, and have more impact on the corporate and individual spiritual health than anything else that we do.

If you can imagine five circles, each one bigger than the other, and inside of each other, like a target. This group of circles represent what a church looks like and each circle represents a group in the church. The inner circle is the core group, the next circle represents the committed, next would be the congregation, then the crowd, and last would be the curious. Each group has a level of love for the Lord and His church, and a level of willingness and desire to serve and be involved in the church. Nothing is as effective in moving people from the outside to the center as corporate prayer. I love it.