Houston ministry urges believers to 'pray the word' of God
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___HOUSTON--If prayer and the Bible are the weapons in a Christian's arsenal, Mary Ann Bridgwater is helping churches sharpen those tools and learn to use them together.
___It all began with a burden to undergird Promise Keepers rallies with prayer. But today, Pray the Word Ministries is much more.
___"For many years, the ministry's primary function was organizing, activating and promoting prayer coverage through the local churches for the Promise Keepers conferences," Bridgwater said. The ministry gradually expanded to prayer support for other large events. Now it has developed an emphasis of helping churches learn to call upon God's word to support their own ministries and staff members.
___"Every tool we use in this ministry is saturated in the word of God, that the body might be living and active," Bridgwater said.
___Pray the Word Ministries offers prayer guides for specific needs that are common to churches. Prayer guides are available to help churches know how to pray for the pastor, the pastor's wife, non-Christian people, college students, singles and the local church itself. Other prayer guides lead participants to pray for crisis pregnancy centers, national prayer events, public and private schools, marriages and mission trips.
___Each one, however, focuses on prayer using Scripture. The guides provide Scripture verses that are appropriate as a prayer for the issue or person at hand.
___"These are tools anybody can pick up, and anybody would be able to use it and encounter God," Bridgwater said.
___One of the ministry's newest offerings is a prayer guide for churches without a pastor.
___"We mobilize churches to pray, 'We are without a physical shepherd, but we are looking up to the Shepherd,'" Bridgwater said.
___First Baptist Church of Houston has utilized several prayer guides prepared by Pray the Word Ministries, including the one for churches seeking a pastor, said member Dena Lee.
___"I think what we're seeing happening is that our church is learning to pray in one accord and is learning to have really strong, powerful prayers," she said.
___Implementation of such a prayer strategy has been helpful to the church's ministry, Lee said. Each staff member is assigned a member of the congregation who specifically intercedes daily for him or her. That group of intercessors meets every other week to pray for the staff as a group.
___"That is a very important part of the prayer ministry of our church," she said. "That has been going on for four years now and was born out of Mary Ann Bridgwater's heart."
___The idea of praying Scripture was a new concept for Lee, and she believes it probably was for many others as well.
___"I know I had never been taught that you could pray the word back to God and power that comes from praying Scripture," Lee said. "The thing is that you know you're praying God's will, because it's coming from the Bible."
___Lazybrook Baptist Church in Houston also has found the prayer guides to be useful, said Jane Campbell. Her church used one of the guides in preparation for a revival.
___"It kind of walks you through the steps of praying and helps you to stay focused and not get off the point while you pray," Campbell said.
___Bridgwater said the ministry has four primary functions:
___ Teach people biblical principles and practices of prayer using the word of God.
___ Assist the body of Christ to develop prayer ministries for the church and community.
___ Mobilize church leaders to intercede in local, national and international prayer activities.
___ Network with other Christ-centered ministries to provide prayer coverage for their ministries.
___Two Bible studies also are available--"Building a House of Prayer" and "A Complete Prayer Covering for the Staff in Your Church." Both are multi-session studies that include workbooks and videotapes. For more information, call Pray the Word Ministries at (281) 656-2919.
The Baptist Standard
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