By Ed Barnett

Prayer makes a difference! My grandfather was 50 years old on that long-ago day when he was feeling so terrible. When he could no longer stand the pain, he went to see his doctor who put him in the hospital and ran a battery of tests. When the test results returned, the doctor summoned my grandfather back to his office. The news was not good. “You have bone cancer,” he was told. The doctor gave him six months to live.

There was nothing else to do but to return home to his farm. Grandpa asked his pastor to come and bring the church elders to anoint him. Arrangements were made and grandpa was anointed. My grandfather lived to be 93 years old.

Prayer makes a difference! North American Division Prayer Ministries recently announced a project called HOPE, an acronym for Houses of Prayer Everywhere. The idea is to encourage every church throughout the division to become a House of Prayer. Here in the Rocky Mountain Conference, we have more than 120 churches. What if every one of those churches became a House of Prayer? What a difference it would make in our territory. I believe that prayer makes a difference not only in our private lives, but in the corporate life of the church and in our conference.

Each of our churches would have to puzzle out how they might make their church a House of Prayer. Since there is no formula for a church to make this work, each church would need to literally pray their way through making this dream a reality in their local congregation. The North American Division Prayer Ministries has set up a web page that gives some direction for a local church to become a House of Prayer. Visit www.HOPE-heals.org.

A well-known speaker, writer and educator, Don Jacob- sen, makes a weekly blog contribution for the web site. In his recently-released book, Okay, All Together Now, he presents reasons and simple strategies to help local churches trans- form into Houses of Prayer. He writes, “Only the supernatural, miraculous, unearthly, transformational power from the throne can undo the damage sin has done. And God has declared that that comes down only in response to serious, fervent intercession by His people.”

Prayer makes a difference, and a praying church can be a powerful conduit for change. Let us all rise to the challenge of helping our churches become Houses of Prayer!

–Ed Barnett is RMC president. Email him at:[email protected]