Thousands of people took part in the Day of Prayer for the Baptist Union of Great Britain on Sunday - and to build on that momentum specific prayer points from Association will now be uploaded to the BUGB website each Friday

 

The number of people to access the online Day of Prayer resources jumped from 3,500 last week to 5,700 by Sunday, and several churches responded creatively to the call.

New North Road Baptist Church in Huddersfield joined in both its morning service and café church in the evening. In the morning the congregation of 150 prayed in small groups, while prayer tweets coming in from around the country were displayed on a large screen.

Church administrator Debbie Adams was given the job of tweeting the prayers of the church.
 

The church's minister Wayne Clarke said, 'Praying for the Baptist family reminded us that we were part of a bigger community of Christians all praying on the same day, and seeing tweets coming in from different places encouraged us to keep on praying.

'The Lord hears our prayers, both spoken and tweeted, and we're trusting him to answer us.'

Minchinhampton Baptist Church in Gloucestershire set up three prayer stations in its 'Altogether Service', a 30 minute gathering before its more traditional service. 

Minister the Revd Liam Eaglestone said, 'It helped us to recognise that we are part of something bigger.

'It helped us to recognise our responsibility, and the privilege of being connected with Christians of the same outlook.'
The tweet aggregator page had been set up by the Revd Tim Hyde, minister of West View Baptist Church in Hartlepool. There were more than 200 tweets, sent by around 50 users.

'I just felt it was a good idea to have it one place,' he said. 'It gave a sense of connectedness, and if people were saying significant things it was a way of recording it.

'We showed it one a live feed and had people tweeting what people were saying.'

'We proved we could do it, and it would be great if more churches could do it, even if it's just one tweet at the end of the service. Twitter is a great way of getting people talking.'

Commenting on the day, BUGB general secretary the Revd Jonathan Edwards said, 'It is clear that many thousands of Baptists shared in the Day of Prayer and that's great news. 

'It is only as we look to God and open our lives to him that we will make progress together as we seek to serve him in these challenging times.  I urge everyone to keep praying!'

Associations have now been tasked with providing prayers for the BUGB website, starting from September 21.

'It would be so good if we could all pray together for our Baptist Union on Fridays and prayer material will on the website to help us to do so,' added Mr Edwards.