I love summer! It's a great time to not only eat watermelon, but also to catch up on some great bucket list items.

Things like:

• Take an online course to strengthen my prayer life.
• Read fiction that will grow my faith.
• Listen to podcasts that equip me to share my faith.
• Grow my prayerlife with the classics

And if your bucket list looks like mine, you're going to love what I'm about to do. I'm going to give you links to some of my favorite books, podcasts and online courses in hopes that you might soak them in as you enjoy this season.

Take an online course: The Prayer Course 

We did this course together with our Prayer Clinic team during 2020 when we were separated from each other due to Covid. It was SO good! And, it's FREE!! Here's the link: 

The Prayer Course

Read Fiction that Will Grow Your Faith:

I love fiction but I'm picky about the books I read. I need characters that are unpredictable, and those that are both good and bad. I long for narratives that are set in...

The National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday in May is quickly becoming one of the most powerful evenings in our community. Last year we partnered with Mark and Lee Ann Rampulla, dear friends and pastor/wife who serve at Southview Church about 3 miles south of our campus. We gathered the area pastors and worship leaders together for a worship and prayer service focusing on the 7 pillars of society that are the theme of the National Day of Prayer (Government, Media and Entertainment, Military and First Responders, Education, Business, Family, Church). 

But before I share how powerfully God is working among us, let me first give you a little background. 

During Covid, in 2020, Mark partnered with other pastors in our community to gather the area churches together and we all got to be part of what turned out to be thousands of people participating in a drive-in worship and prayer event at our large "Ag Center." 

Fast forward to 2022, we got together again with the...

I had the privilege of interviewing a pastor today; one who got saved after he graduated from seminary and pastored a few churches.

How cool is that?! Listen to my Leighann McCoy podcast and you'll get to hear Rick Nelson's story next week. This week I posted an interview with Dr. Chuck Lawless who shares with us a great definition of spiritual warfare and discusses the battle to believe. You will love this conversation as well.

Back to Rick. As he was sharing, I thought how hard it must have been for him to overcome the humility of admitting to his congregation that he'd been leading them all this time and he wasn't even saved. And then, I got to thinking about how hard it is to live our faith authentically as we lead ministry. 

I want to encourage you today with these 3 truths:

1. It's okay to struggle in your own prayer life while you urge others to pray.

One of my favorite Bible stories is the one that tells of Jacob's tussle with God near the Jabbok...

This post comes from some Facebook messages that were exchanged many years ago. I'm sharing it with you now in hopes that it helps you wrestle with and explain to others how they respond to God when they're haunted by the challenge that their own faith might be causing them to miss out on His best in their lives.

The mother who wrote me the message was spending her days at Vanderbilt Children's hospital with her 2 year old hooked up to life-saving devices because she'd been diagnosed with leukemia. 

(Remember this was many years ago...)

A few weeks ago, I received this facebook message from a friend:

“Hey Leighann, I am struggling with all the Scripture that people teach about having enough "faith" and people will be healed. I feel so stuck, I feel like I am still processing most of what we went through…before my daughter was sick, I just thought being a Christian meant that God was just gonna bless my life and not have any bumps along the way. Especially...

This is the 3rd and final post in my series on "Why the Church Needs to Pray" be sure to scroll back and read the other 2 posts. In this article I want to introduce you to 3 Praying People Whose Lives are Living Proof of what happens when prayer is priority.

E.M. Bounds (1835-1913)

Edward McKendree Bounds died in 1913 and yet he has a facebook page and website today. I wonder if he knows that. E.M. Bounds lived his life from 1835-1913, serving in the ministry during the tumultuous years leading up to, during, and after the Civil War. He was a chaplain for the confederate army and even served time in prison (in Nashville, TN!). Fortunately for us, he spent much of his time writing. His books on prayer are CLASSICS because their words continue to bear fruit for the kingdom today. 

E.M. Bounds on the priority of prayer: 

"What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use men of...

Dave Butts, the former leader of Harvest Prayer Ministries began his article titled "Prayer Power in the Church" with this quote by S.D. Gordon, 

“The great people of the earth today are the people who pray!  I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life’s schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going...

I'm starting a mini-series of blog posts on the importance of prayer in the church. And I'm going to begin with the argument that the activity of prayer ought to take priority over all of other activities in the local church.

Wait, what? 

You mean prayer ought to take priority over Bible study? 

Yep.

It's more important than fellowship? 

Yep.

...preaching? 

Yep.

...evangelism?

Yes.

If I were to do a survey of how many churches make a priority of prayer, I would most likely be disappointed. When compared to the priority of children's and youth activities, nurturing relationships with each other, women's ministries, men's ministries, and weekend gatherings, the presence of corporate prayer experiences on the church's calendar would lag far behind.

Barna discovered that the culture we live in today has impacted the way we approach prayer in the church, this is what he has to report: 

"The forces of our individualistic culture...

I love that we've begun a new thing that has become a church-wide trend. Many of our churches ring in the new year with an emphasis on prayer that includes a 21-Day fast.

I'm writing this post on Day 2 of our 21 days and am feeling the physical  and spiritual effects of this fast already! Every year we challenge our congregation to join us in a fast. We provide resources to help them know what fasting is all about, and we create a daily devotional guide to accompany them along the way.

In order to hold each other accountable, we ask participants to sign-up by giving us their email address. These emails go right into an online group where we can send the group emails of encouragement along the way. And, because we want our people fasting and praying MORE than just for 21 days in January, we use these 3 weeks as a time to recruit them to become a part of our ongoing prayer and fasting team. I share with you what that team does in this blog post, What is a Prayer and...

At our church we have a team of over 100 people who've committed to fast and pray once a week, or one day a month specifically for the purpose of praying for our church. We provide this team of prayer partners with a private prayer list. The list is compiled by collecting prayer requests from church staff members. Staff share their requests both for their personal lives and for their areas of ministry. At the first of the list we include churchwide annual goals (what we update monthly). Each month we update our requests and list praises for the answered prayers we've experienced. 

In order for you to capture the spirit of this vital ministry, let me share the introduction I wrote for the first private prayer list we sent to our team members this past January 2022: 

Happy New Year! If you have just now joined our praying and fasting team, WELCOME! We are so glad you are here. This list is for your personal use as you fast and pray a day a week, or a day this month.

The best...

Every church knows that prayer is important but these churches have prayer ministries that work. And I'm not just saying they work! I'm saying they are structured in such a way that there is a time, place and plan for people in the congregation to participate in their prayer ministries. 

Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama

  On the Church of the Highlands website you will learn that they are "here to help people know God, find freedom, discover their purpose, and make a difference." When you click on their "about" page, there are several ministries listed from left to right on the page. The first option of ministries is prayer.

  Don't you love that? This is a congregation with their priorities in order! When you click on the video of Colette Green, their prayer pastor, she shares that prayer is foundational to the life of the Church. Then she tells you how their prayer ministry functions and how you can be involved. 

  I LOVE IT! 

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