Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Prayer is the primary critical success factor for the advancement of God’s Kingdom in this world; therefore everything we do is contingent upon prayer! And that’s why we are kicking off the week of ServeRDU by coming together to pray and then literally taking our prayers to our city as we pray on location throughout the week. We are hoping that our organized prayer efforts will result in an amazing transformation of our city and a great harvest of souls.

As part of ServeRDU, we are going to engage in intercessory prayer that is going to involve prayer walking together to or near particular places identified as strategic places of influence where we want God to work. Being close to a location will allow us to pray clearer as we pray nearer. These prayer walks will range from short walks in neighborhoods, parks and schools to long stretches across college campuses or downtown.

The idea behind prayer walking is using all of our senses to increase our understanding of what we need to pray for. For example, if we walk through our neighborhood looking for things to pray about, we might come across a yard that is unkempt and a house in need of repair, this will prompt us to pray for both the physical and spiritual health of the those who live there. As we walk on school grounds, this prompts us to pray for the faculty, teachers, students and parents who attend that particular school. As we walk through the community, we want to be aware of what we see and let that inform our prayers. We gain insight by being on site. We are hoping that prayer walking will help us as a church recognize the importance of praying before, during and after outreach events such as ServeRDU.

Get involved in ServeRDU and local missions at summitchurch.com/missions/local.

by Ryan Doherty