Introduction to Praying for the City

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity." Jeremiah 29:11-14a NIV

Bob Cryder is an evangelist who lives in the Portland area and helped lead peripheral crusades in the outlying areas during the last Graham crusade. He is also involved in leading the prayer summits. Bob says that as he travels around the country people continue to ask him why God continues to move and the commitment to prayer continues at a growing pace in the Portland area. In other cities this prayer movement peaks, then ebbs and dies.

Bob says this prayer movement is essential for revival and that there are three reasons for the continued growth of the movement in Portland:

1. The prayer movement is not event-oriented. If it was event oriented, you would have a crusade one year, then play can-we-top-this the next year until the whole thing crashed.
2. We've got our hands off. We don't understand what's happening. We just let God bring His agenda.
3. We don't see the prayer movement as an end in itself. We pray for the Presence of God and don't make prayer an end in itself. And we keep on praying until the Presence of God comes.

A.T. Pierson said "No revival has ever come about but by united supplicatory praying...and no revival has every continued beyond that same kind of praying. IRM has a four-phase plan to sustain a city-wide prayer movement." This plan should be vigorously implemented until at least 25% of the local pastors are praying together on a consistent basis.

Jack Dennison with DAWN has said:

"Virtually ever major evangelistic movement throughout history and throughout the world was preceded by God calling his people (the harvest force) back to himself through prayer." (Dawn, August, 1994)

Bob Cryder has said that prayer is the only way in which we can move the Hand of God. To quote Jim Wallis from The Work of Prayer:

"We must no longer see prayer as a preparation for action. Prayer must be understood as action itself, a way of responding, a potent spiritual weapon to be used in spiritual warfare against the most powerful forces in the world. Prayer is not undertaken instead of other actions but as a foundation for all the rest of the actions we take."

There are (at least) five forms of prayer to God cities can use to get the walls down:

Prayer Summits

A prayer summit is defined as "a prolonged, 4 day, life-changing worship experience attended by a diversity of Christian leaders from specific targeted communities whose singular purpose is to seek God, His Kingdom, and His righteousness with the expectation that He will create and guide them through a humbling, healing, uniting process which will lead them to a unity of heart, mind and mission and will qualify them for the blessing of God." Elders in a church can hold a prayer summit, churches in a region can hold a prayer summit, or a group of Christian women can hold a prayer summit. A prayer summit for pastors is held annually in the Portland area, and other prayer summits are also held for lay leaders.

Praise Marches

These are city-wide events, such as the annual prayer march scheduled in 1995 (Portland) on May 27. Churches come together as one, singing praises and marching together. This movement is birthed and led from Austin, Texas.

Prayerwalking

These are focused on neighborhoods, and are often used in preparation for church visitation programs or for spiritual mapping at a micro level. A good textbook here is Prayerwalking by Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick.

Prayer Expeditions

This type of prayer is focused on regions.

Prayer Journeys

This type of prayer is focused on strongholds of enemies. With this type of prayer a specific stronghold is defined, such as a mountain, and Christians work together to claim the stronghold from the enemy.