Get up, get ready and get going!
Roger Grassham explains the theme behind March’s Engage Prayer event when people were called to prayer walk
The Elim Prayer team is excited about a discernible increase in prayer engagement across Elim churches nationwide. Our March 2023 ‘Engage Prayer’ was the latest in a twice-yearly series of online and in-person events.
The purpose has been to encourage churches in life-transforming prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit. The dream is that fresh waves of prayer will be motivational for our churches to be ‘mission ready’ and serving in our communities.
The Elim Prayer team felt the need to pray through the prophetic call of our General Superintendent Chris Cartwright in his New Year message. Based on Isaiah 60:1-3 he called us to ‘Awake, Align and Advance’.
This call for the church is an urgent message to be the light of God in a troubled world.
The theme of ‘Get Up, Get Ready and Get Going’ became the basis of three days of prayer in March. This was with a goal – to take prayer outside into the community. The team felt an urgency to take prayer onto the streets so that the Holy Spirit would have freedom to give specific keys to release, influence and bring about positive transformation.
Shan Brown
Shan Brown from Elim Life Church in Kingstanding got involved in prayer walking during the Elim Prayer week in March and found it a joy as she connected with God and her community in a new way.
“I’ve been walking my dogs around the parks and streets near me for 15 years. I’ve shared my faith with so many people while out because dogs are a wonderful draw and a great conversation starter.
“I’ve never had any trouble witnessing but when the prayer week came up, I suddenly realised it had never occurred to me to also pray around the streets or for people in the park I was passing but wasn’t necessarily talking to.
“I also realised that if I walked a different route I would pass a junior school, a care home and a toddler nursery. I decided I was going to start praying for the people in them as I walked past. On the left of the park there’s a big council estate with a few rough areas and I started praying for them too.
“We’ve been having a lot of problems in the park recently with young lads being mugged – I think there were 15 incidents in a month – so I started praying about that too. The police hadn’t been able to catch the gang responsible but, lo and behold, the next week they caught them!
“I don’t know if you’d call that a God- incidence but it’s quite incredible. We all know God works and that he does what he says he’ll do, but we don’t always believe it.
“Prayer walking has made a big difference to me. I’m effectively housebound with my husband who has vascular dementia, so my hour walking is the only time in the day when I can leave him safely and go out. It’s given me another way to share my faith and to spread the gospel.”
Arise Sheffield: unity, prayer walking and city-wide mission
For the past two years an exciting prayer movement has been uniting churches in Sheffield. Elim pastor Sallie Wilson tells the story.
Arise Sheffield brings churches and Christians together in mission and prayer at Easter, Halloween and Advent through prayer walking, events, gospel campaigns and an app and magazine to impact the city.
Sallie Wilson with the united churches of Sheffield
before taking part in Arise Sheffield
The idea was born out of an inter- church leadership meeting as well as inspiration from other cities.
It was initially intended to be a one-off prayer walking event.
“In March 2021 more than 1,000 believers from over 100 different churches rose up together to pray for Sheffield,” says Sallie.
“We were emboldened in our faith and unity in a way we have never seen before. With the aid of the Arise prayer walking app we were able to see our amazing city turn gold on the prayer map as Christians prayed throughout March up to Easter.” Momentum grew as more churches got involved. An open-air Good Friday service in the city centre, a magazine, a Streets of Light Halloween event, a Wear your Faith fortnight and an Arise Christmas event were also introduced.”
Arise Sheffield is thrilled at how this Easter’s prayer initiative impacted the city. “2023 was our best year so far. There was an amazing launch in Sheffield Cathedral which was well attended by Christians from across the city and from all denominations.
The launch of Arise Sheffield at the city’s cathedral was well attended
As well as praying on the streets, local residents
were encouraged to send prayer requests via an app
“The prayer walking app was improved to include more areas around the outskirts of Sheffield and this time we were able to put on prayer requests from people we met on our walks.
“This was so powerful as it gave us an opportunity to ask people if we could pray for them and show them the app, which often opened up some amazing conversations about Jesus.
“Banners were put up outside 60 of our churches with a QR code for members of the public to put in prayer requests. We had more than 170 requests, and some of these were amazing, ranging from people asking God to make himself real to others asking for healing or help.
“The amazing thing was that the 850- plus people who were using the app could pray for these requests.”
In total, the app showed more than 5,000km were covered in prayer and nearly 67 per cent of the streets in Sheffield were prayed for at least once.
The unity and outreach are having an impact.
“The spiritual atmosphere in Sheffield is changing and I believe we’re seeing breakthrough. As our unity increases, we endeavour to do more mission together and pray like we’ve never prayed before, that God will move in a mighty and a powerful way.”
The fact this Easter’s event aligned with Elim Prayer’s Engage Prayer was a huge bonus.
Praying on the streets of Sheffield
on Good Friday
“The Elim Prayer team encouraged us as churches and Christians to get out into our communities throughout March and pray.
“Amazingly the theme was also ‘Arise!’ This is God at work.
“As well as joining with other Christians in Sheffield over Zoom to pray we also joined Elim churches online. Those prayer events were so powerful and for us in Sheffield so timely.
“For me as a pastor of Church on the Corner in Sheffield it’s great to join with Elim Central and Elim Mosborough here, the whole Elim network and also churches within Sheffield from every denomination.
“For the past two years we in the Southey Green/Parson Cross area of the city have made the Good Friday prayer walk and open-air event our main service and the response from the church is great. Jesus is really moving in our city!”
Prayer walking: stories from Arise Sheffield
“I was out on my prayer walk, enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on my face. Suddenly, a strong urge welled up inside me, urging me to pray for my neighbour. Specifically, I felt compelled to pray for their salvation.
“I couldn’t ignore this feeling, so I stopped in front of their house and prayed for them with all my heart.
“As my day continued, the urge to pray for my neighbour persisted, so I stopped again later that day and prayed once more. Little did I know that it would be the last time I would pray for them while they were alive.
“Later that evening, I was shocked to see ambulances arrive on our street. It was for my neighbour, who had passed away. Though I was heart broken , I couldn’t help but feel that God had a plan for me that day. I believe that something happened between them and God as a result of my prayers.
“This experience taught me the power of prayer and listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I will never forget the sense of urgency I felt that day, and how it led me to pray for my neighbour’s salvation during their last day on earth.”
Mark
“I never normally stop to talk to people while prayer walking, but the Arise team showed a really easy way to approach people so I thought I’d try it. I talked with a woman out walking her dog and was able to hear her passion for our local area and pray with her. I bumped into her again the following week and she was really pleased to talk some more. It made me feel much more confident about offering prayer in future.”
Ben
“I went to the highest point in my village and claimed the whole village for Christ. As I’ve been walking round, I’ve been thanking God for the churches that will grow up on each street, even though they aren’t there yet.”
David
“I prayed for a neighbour I barely knew and he came to church on Sunday!”
Patricia
“We’ve been praying to connect with more Christians in our area and met some at the Arise March launch evening! We have started meeting up to prayer walk together and another person who hasn’t been to church in years has joined us and is reconnecting.”
Francis
This article first appeared in the July 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.