ANAHEIM, Calif. (BP) – Long Hollow Church Senior Pastor Robby Gallaty of Hendersonville, Tenn., knows the value of crying out to God and sitting silently for His response.
“For a season, I was praying for God to fix the problems in my church. God, would you fix the problem in my deacon body? Would you fix the problems in my staff?” Gallaty recounted to Baptist Press. “After spending time with the Lord, He came back and said, ‘Robby, the problem’s not your church. It’s not your staff. It’s not the deacon body. The problem’s actually you.’
“If you’ve ever gotten that gut-level honest with the Lord before, it’s painful, but you know, that’s where true breakthrough and transformation came. Because God began to show me my own pride and arrogance and jealousy.”
Gallaty will share and encourage transparency, repentance and confession as he leads a special prayer service June 12 at 4 p.m. in the main meeting hall venue of the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in the Anaheim Convention Center, inviting pastors, messengers and guests to the event. Bill Elliff, founding and national engage pastor of The Summit Church in North Little Rock, Ark., will co-lead the prayer session, which Gallaty estimated will last about 90 minutes.
“I want to challenge the pastors to think, and I’m going to say, ‘You may be the blood clot to revival coming to your church, Pastor,” Gallaty said.
The prayer meeting, an official activity of the 2022 SBC Pastors’ Conference, is one of several prayer opportunities planned for the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting.
The SBC 2022 Prayer Team, a group of prayer leaders drawn from across Southern Baptist life, is hosting through the California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC) an online portal to volunteer to pray in the SBC Annual Meeting Prayer Room in Anaheim. Southern Baptists are also encouraged to pray in advance of the meeting.
“Whenever we attempt to make decisions for God’s work, He should be consulted, honored and sought,” said Grant Bennett, SBC 2022 Prayer Team leader, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gilroy. If Jesus prayed before making any decisions, how much more should we be praying and seeking God when we decide on kingdom work?
“Join us in the prayer room as we seek God and lift up our prayers to a heavenly Father who loves us and wants to see us united in His mission as a loving, cooperating, Christ-honoring family,” Bennett said. “In the prayer room we are praying for the decisions of the convention, our missionaries and our messengers and kingdom work. We are thrilled to join you in praying to our awesome God about what you are facing and where you need His power and love to meet you.”
Bennett is appealing to leaders and messengers to pray for the annual meeting, encouraging SBC entity leaders and pastors to consider volunteering to pray in the prayer room for at least an hour. The room will be staffed throughout the annual meeting.
The prayer team shared prayer requests with Baptist Press:
- Pray for SBC leadership to seek Good and follow His direction in all they do;
- Pray for unity, harmony and synergy among the SBC leadership team;
- Pray for revival in Southern Baptist churches and spiritual awakening in their communities;
- Pray for Spirit-filled preaching and leadership among SBC pastors and churches.
Gallaty believes revival is always birthed by prayer, and has dedicated special quiet and prayer times in advance of the June 12 prayer meeting.
The meeting will include times of silence and solitude, worship, meditation on Scripture, confession, repentance, introspection and crying out to God.
“I want to have a rough outline (of the program) but I also want to be led by the Spirit and see what He wants us to do,” Gallaty said. “The tone of the entire convention will be set in that hour-and-a-half prior to the Pastors’ Conference. Prayer is not ‘a’ work in the Christian life. Prayer is ‘the’ work of the Christian life.”
