September 11, 2006

On September7, 2006, a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week prayer movement launched on the Wilmore, Kentucky, campus of Asbury Theological Seminary. At 10pm E.S.T. on Monday, September 11, the Asbury House of Prayer officially opened in its temporary home in the Fletcher Prayer Chapel housed in the McPheeters Center Building on the campus.

We determined at the outset that our approach would not be to “fill slots” of one hour each for the 168 hours each week. Rather, we determined to create a more flexible structure which could accommodate varying levels of investment for participants, foster a more generous framework of accountability and more readily lend itself to communal participation and not just individuals sequentially exchanging places in a prayer closet.

Each day was divided into 7 Watches of 3-4 hours each. Watch Leaders were recruited with the responsibility of recruiting persons to participate in their assigned watch and to provide encouragement and pastoral guidance to these participants. An open invitation was extended to persons to sign up as watch keepers. Watch keepers commit to spending time in prayer in the Prayer House at some point each week within their chosen watch.

Participants from the Florida campus began signing up as Watch Keepers and located their efforts in the Prayer Room on the Orlando campus. As well, participants from all over the world via our Extended Learning Campus and our Alumni population began to sign up as Watch Keepers. Members from the Staff, Faculty and Administration have all joined into this crucial work of prayer.

Participation grew as dynamic expressions of prayer emerged from the prayer house. Significantly, this prayer effort systematically undergirded the work of PeaceMaking in our seminary as the leadership crisis unfolded around us.

One of the great serendepitys of the movement occurred at the mid-point of the semester. We were approached by students from Asbury College across the street informing us of a similar prayer movement which had been unfolding for the past year among their population. Upon discovering each other we both expressed desire to join our work. Coincidentally, they also worked under the name of the Asbury House of Prayer. Numbers of our students began joining in a Monday night prayer gathering with Asbury College students. Tremendous encouragement continues to issue from this growing shared movement of prayer.

more to come. . . . . .