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In All Things Pray [2], a repository of state convention and SBC entity prayer resources posted on SBC.net since 2015, has been redesigned to assist pastors and other church prayer ministry leaders foster a movement of prayer.
“We were glad to create In All Things Pray in 2015 and are now pleased to improve its further for use by pastors, church prayer ministry leaders, and others,” D. August Boto, interim president of the SBC Executive Committee, told SBC LIFE.
“Prayer is an act of obedience, praise, and worship. It is our connection and communion with the Creator,” he said.
The landing page for In All Things Pray links to 52 Sundays, a Cooperative Program resource widely used in many in Southern Baptist weekly church services. It also contains links to prayer updates from the International Mission Board (IMB), North American Mission Board (NAMB), and Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU).
The PrayerLink leadership team, which helps populate In All Things Pray with Southern Baptist-generated resources, includes representatives from IMB, NAMB, LifeWay, WMU, the Executive Committee, and five Baptist state conventions. Chris Schofield, director of the prayer office at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, leads the team as volunteer executive director.
[3]PrayerLink hosts an annual prayer gathering each October for prayer leaders from local churches, associations, SBC entities, state Baptist conventions, ethnic minority fellowships, and others involved in numerous prayer ministry networks.
The prayer gathering is designed to “share ideas, strengthen partnerships, and spend time in corporate prayer toward revival, spiritual awakening, and the Great Commission,” Schofield said.
PrayerLink, now in its thirtieth year of encouraging prayer through Southern Baptist churches, was originally called the Bold Mission Thrust Prayer Committee. The group changed its name when the Convention-wide Bold Mission Thrust initiative ended in 2000.
In a Zoom conference following his April 2 election to serve as seventh president of the SBC Executive Committee, President and CEO-elect Ronnie Floyd assured PrayerLink leaders he would “heighten prayer from the office of president and CEO of the Executive Committee.”
“If we will lift up prayer from the beginning, then hopefully we can see this trend [of declining priority in prayer] reversed,” Floyd said.
Boto said, “If this utility helps more Southern Baptists engage in prayer regularly, deepening their walk with the Lord, creating it will have been worth the effort.”