Citywide Prayer in Madison during Holy Week

In Madison, Wisconsin, the proud capital of the Forward State (or Dairy State, if you like that nickname better!), there are plans afoot for city-wide prayer to take place among many churches and ministries this year during Holy Week, leading up to Easter. Wendy Porterfield, who has a long history with both the city of Madison and the 24-7 Prayer movement, including living as a 24-7 missionary in Hong Kong for several years, has found herself back in Madison, raising a family with her husband, Tad, and working part-time with a local grassroots organization seeking to foster unity and prayer among the churches in Madison. 

Collaboration Project is an organization that started about three years ago, after Jon and Mary Anderson, who had pastored youth and done community outreach with two different churches over the former few decades, sensed the Lord leading them into a season of stepping out to serve a significant need they saw in Madison—namely, a greater sense of unity in the churches in the city. They wanted to see stronger relationships among the churches as well as a greater missional impact in the city together, so they identified four ways that they could practically help make that a reality. Those four areas are sharing stories that celebrate and accelerate Kingdom work and the Gospel, hosting affinity groups to bring churches together practically around shared areas of common ground, caring for pastors through pastor retreats, and hosting collaborative events. 

This week of citywide prayer is one of those events that a collaboration of churches will host together. There are plans for three different prayer rooms to be hosted in different areas of the city, with day and night prayer happening simultaneously. 

There have been some significant united 24-7 prayer seasons in Madison over the last two decades, one of which happened in 2005 for 40 days on the campus of UW-Madison, and was a major catalyst in the lives of many people throughout the city. 

Let’s pray with Wendy, Jon, and the churches in Madison, Wisconsin this Holy Week for Jesus’ Kingdom to come throughout the neighborhoods and people of the city.

Learn more about Collaboration Project at: https://www.collaborationproject.us/

Learn more about the week of prayer here: https://www.collaborationproject.us/prayer

tent of meeting [on commons lawn]

I turn onto the wide walkway's of the Commons Lawn at Calvin College and make my way toward it's center in the same minivan I used to drop off a full load of prayer room supplies just a week before. The 24-7 Tent in the center of Calvin's campus has been in commission this entire week with every prayer slot in the online sign-up filled by the second or third day running. As I approach the tent at about 10pm to pick up the prayer supplies, technically hours after it is supposed to have been over and done with, I see that it still looks very lively from a distance--and when I arrive I realize that there are still students using it. Not only are there still students using it, there are multiple groups of students praying both inside and out!

Ana and the team she's been coordinating meet me there and realize they are going to have to kick the students out of the tent while we tear down, but end up just redirecting them outside with some blankets to sit on as they continue to pray in huddles. We begin packing up the supplies and I overhear snippets of pray ministry going on around us:

--One group is huddled around a young woman and declaring the Truth over her that she is a daughter of the Father, first and foremost, and that the enemy can't bring a charge against her identity.

--Another girl pops in earnestly seeking a copy of the "Who I am in Christ" sheets to use to minister to a young man sporting a backpack and chucks who had just shown up asking for prayer.

--As we are loading up the van with bean bag chairs, christmas lights, and totes full of art supplies, one member of the team shares with me several stories of Jesus encounters during the week, including a young man who showed up one morning in the middle of the week saying that he had planned to commit suicide that day, but for some reason ended up there at the prayer tent and did not know why. He was able to receive prayer from those present, be encouraged to hope in The Lord, and seek help in his struggles.

As yet another student helping tear down shares with me his heart and desire to see food more evenly distributed and not gone to waste right here in this city and is beginning a practical food-waste reduction program in conjunction with his campus dining hall, I am amazed at the ways Jesus is meeting these students right where they are in prayer--His Spirit addressing hearts, comforting, restoring hope, spurring them to be agents of change for His Kingdom. He is drawing them to worship Him with their whole lives, and find their true identity and purpose IN Him. 

Thank You, Jesus for these students, for this tent of meeting--and for meeting your children here this week. 

:: tim ::