Wednesday Night Prayer Walking

Just before Easter in 2002, Joy and I visited Seoul, Korea. We met with Bishop Sundo Kim, the pastor of the largest Methodist church in the world, Kwanglim Methodist Church. Bishop Kim was appointed to the congregation in 1971. There were 150 members. Over the next 30 years the church grew from 150 to 80,000. To begin with they had no money or resources. But every Wednesday evening became “soul winning” night. They gathered for thirty minutes of Bible study. Then for thirty minutes they went out by twos visiting door to door. At each house they simply talked about God and what they had experienced in their lives. They shared their personal stories. Then for thirty more minutes they gathered back at the church to share testimonies of what had happened that evening. Doing this they grew day by day and built the Kwanglim Methodist Church (20,000 people) and several branch churches (60,000 people).

Kwanglim became the largest Methodist church in part because of the many branch churches. We toured one branch church near the North Korean border. I asked how they gathered people for that congregation. The pastor there said they brought together a core group of people from the Kwanglim mother church. These were people who already lived in the area of this new branch church. Then the core group began bringing people—friends, neighbors, business associates—and they grew and grew.

When Bishop Kim shared the ten most important keys of their church ministry, the first one was prayer life. He said prayer makes miracles happen in your ministry. He said money is never the problem. Prayer is always the issue. They began having a 5:00 am prayer meeting (John Wesley did this too!). Prayer is the first and most important key for any church. He called it “the secret of church growth.”

This example of “soul winning” night and the primary importance of prayer has come together in a special way for Salem. I am very excited to share our leaders’ enthusiastic desire for Salem to begin a time of prayer walking in the neighborhoods around our new location on 33rd Avenue. Simply put, prayer walking is prayer that is targeted for the place you are walking. We want to pray over our land and neighborhoods as we prepare to take responsibility for a new territory. Pastors are sent by the bishop and churches are deployed to a whole community, not just a congregation.

Beginning September 15, then, we will gather at our new location at 6:00 pm each Wednesday and spend 20-30 minutes together in prayer. Then we will go out into the neighborhoods for prayer walking. Finally, we will come back together again to share our experiences. We will do this from 6:00 – 7:30 on Wednesdays.

We will talk specifically about how we will prayer walk when we get together the first Wednesday. We will not be knocking on doors, though it is possible we will encounter our neighbors and even have an opportunity for conversation and invitation. The main intent, however, is to go out in groups of two (or more) and walk (or drive if necessary) and pray on our new land and in the neighborhoods surrounding us. For a wealth of information about prayer walking, see this interesting website.

Bishop Arthur Kulah, the resident bishop of Nigeria, spoke to our Annual Conference gathering in June this year. He said walking in America is an exercise – not so in Africa. In Africa walking is much more than that. When they walk they talk, discuss, connect, and share fellowship. In Africa walking is communication. Bishop Kulah was called upon to preach to the country after civil war. He did not know what to say. So he took a walk along the coast to one of their churches. It took him almost five days to reach his destination. As he walked on the first day, nothing happened. On the second day he sat down to rest and God spoke to him.

In the paradise of God’s creation, the LORD God would come and walk in the garden with the man and woman at the time of the evening breeze (Genesis 3:8). Let us join together in walking with the LORD on Wednesday evenings and communicate with our God and see how God leads us.