Prayer on the Streets

Like many congregations, St. Mark (Clifton Heights) has long had prayer chains and prayer lists.  We also heavily advertised our opening the church for prayer during the week, but we had few participants.  Several members of the prayer team wanted to go where the people are instead of expecting them to come to us.  So, we decided to take prayer to the streets by setting up a table with a large sign encouraging people to “Stop by for Prayer.” 

While the large big box retailers would not let us set-up outside, we found a pizza shop and neighboring ice cream parlor that did allow us to set up outside their establishments on a busy road.  We set up once each week for 1-2 hours, depending on the weather.  We generally had 10-15 people who stopped by each time.  (Pulling over and parking in the lot and walking to our table.)

As they filled out a request and dropped it in the box to be included with our congregation’s Sunday morning prayers, we also offered to pray with them on the street and almost all were very open to praying with us.  A few others simply rolled down their window and shouted out requests for prayer as they drove by.

It was clear that many people were deeply appreciative.  Some asked for information on the location of our church, at which time we handed them a refrigerator magnet from St. Mark.  We think a better location would be one with more foot traffic and have discussed going to area flea markets, etc.

Submitted by: Pastor Chris Franz, St. Mark’s, Clifton Heights