CONCERTS OF PRAYER
-BY DAVID BRYANT
DAVID BRYANT
David Bryant is founder and president of Concerts of Prayer International, and Chairman of America's National Prayer Committee. He and his team have conducted hundreds of citywide mass prayer rallies for renewal and evangelism; trained tens of thousands of pastors to focus their congregations on spiritual awakening; and net- worked national leaders and ministries into coalitions that promote revival. He hosts a daily radio program, and shares in the Leadership of international efforts for world evangelization. His training materials as well as his latest book THE HOPE AT HAND: National and World Revival for the 21st Century (Baker) have received wide acclaim.
It is clear from both Scripture and the history of the Church: God moves in amazing ways when people are praying in unison.
Right now, many nations are witnessing the dramatic growth of grassroots movements of united prayer.
Like feeder streams, these movements of prayer are rising and expanding. It is our firm conviction they will soon build and con- verge into a literal torrent of focused united prayer, carrying the Church into a time of dramatic spiritual renewal.
We will then see a time of sweeping moral and spiritual rebirth in North America and beyond, fueling a global thrust toward world- wide evangelization.
The Concerts of Prayer movement is helping to dig trenches between these prayer movements, directing all the divergent streams of prayer and revival together into what we believe will become a raging river of genuine, widespread spiritual awakening to Jesus Christ. Already hundreds of cities, thousands of churches and hun- dreds of thousands of Christians have joined in Concerts of Prayer throughout the past 10 years.
PROMOTING A UNITED VISION
The term" concerts of prayer" actually dates back to the great spiritual awakening of the early 1700s. At that time puritan Jonathan Edwards called for concerts of prayer to promote a united vision in prayer among God's people. The purpose for those prayers? Spiritual revival and the advancement of God's kingdom on earth.
Helping to promote this same united vision of prayer for our generation, a
Concert of Prayer is vitally important to the prayer movement as a whole.
One distinctive of a Concert of Prayer is that it gathers a broad representation
of prayers. In a citywide Concert of Prayer, Christians unite across various boundaries: denominational, institutional, ministerial, social, generational, ethnic, cultural and even across minor doctrinal boundaries.
Additionally, the whole Body of Christ in a community or church meets around the larger biblical concerns for spiritual awakening and world evangelization.
Like a grand symphony, prayers blend their hearts, minds
and
voices by faith in God's Word. Basing the prayer agenda upon Scripture, they intercede harmoniously with one another and with all God has promised for His Church and for His world.
Participants in a Concert of Prayer submit to the Holy Spirit, who "orchestrates" each prayer meeting so one prayer theme builds upon another according to the will of God. In fact, we could say that Jesus Himself is the "concert master" who leads the "composition" of inter- cession in His name, which the Father delights to both hear and answer abundantly.
UNITED PRAYER IS KEY TO ANY SPIRITUAL REVIVAL.
MORE THAN AN EVENT-IT'S A MOVEMENT
Concerts of Prayer International (COPI) was founded in 1988, and built on a dream for what God might do in our nation and our world through a widespread spiritual awakening to Christ.
United prayer is key to any spiritual revival. Therefore, the organization was dedicated to serving the Church by promoting, equip- ping and mobilizing movements of united prayer that seek God for spiritual awakening and worldwide evangelization.
A Concert of Prayer is much more than a one-night event. It is part of a growing cycle of prayer within a community or city. Eventually it will build and join with prayer movements in other cities, culminating in God's answer to our prayers-a global, spiritual awakening to Christ.
In fact, the Concerts of Prayer movement encompasses a broad range of outreach efforts as it:
1. Presents the "Message of Hope"-igniting and sustaining an expectation for the coming spiritual awakening to Christ. COPI currently teams
with organizations such as Promise Keepers to present the message of hope to large gatherings of pastors; preaches the message of hope at other large assemblies of pastors, leaders and Christian students; produces materials that inspire believers to join the united prayer movement; and organizes and leads mass rallies and strategic Concerts of Prayer at locations throughout the world.
2. Ministers to local pastors and churches, working to unite the Body of
Christ across ethnic, racial and denominational lines. In Metro New York,
COPI's Urban Strategy division is modeling and serving urban prayer movements by
directing urban consultations for prayer leaders; organizing dozens of Concerts of Prayer events; gathering pastors,
laymen and missionaries from different ethnic backgrounds around a Metropolitan
Prayer Covenant calling for revival, reconciliation, reformation and reaching
the lost; administrating The Lord's Watch (an ongoing 24-hour-a-day prayer vigil
with thousands of participants in more than 100 churches); and hosting Pastors' Prayer Summits, Unity Dinners and regional leaders' meetings.
3. Provides tools for prayer leaders. The COPI Services division creates many training tools for pastors and church leaders related to spiritual awakening, prayer and prayer events-including how-to training materials for leading a Concert of Prayer, vision-casting videos about the movement of united prayer toward revival, as well as many other pamphlets, books and cassettes.
4. Networks among national Christian leaders to present a united vision for revival to the entire Church. For example, COPI currently provides Leadership within American's National Prayer Committee; facilitates events related to the National Day of Prayer in May and the National Concert of Prayer in October; fosters communication among local prayer movements; and consults with national outreach leaders to clarify the united vision for revival throughout the Church.
5. Links individual believers in united prayer. COPI produces the daily two-minute National Concert of Prayer radio feature, which both models and actually unites listeners in prayer. It also distributes a quarterly publication that provides news of local, national and international prayer movements.
6. Influences the global Christian community in concerted prayer for revival. For example, by serving the growing, multifaceted prayer movement in New York City, COPI hopes to see the Church within this world-class city influence the moral and spiritual life of the entire world. Our Message of Hope division also provides Leadership and preaching missions for major conferences in countries around the world.
Upon request, COPI will provide a free ministry brochure and product catalogue that will explain more about Concerts of Prayer and the united prayer movement. Address your correspondence to:
Concerts of Prayer International (COPI)
P.O. Box 1399, Wheaton, IL 60189
Phone: (630) 690-8441
Fax: (630) 690-0160
E-Mail: COPI@AOL.COM
