Uniting in Prayer

A California pastor's challenge to his congregation to spend six minutes in prayer every evening at six this summer is spreading across his city and the nation. The challenge has reached at least eight states so far.

The 6@6 initiative, which kicked off in June, began as part of Pastor John Heide's "90 Days to a Better You" sermon series, which is intended to help Christians improve spiritually, physically, and mentally. As part of the spiritual portion of the series, Heide who is the lead pastor of Leisure World Assembly of God in Seal Beach, is also asking those in the congregation to read through the New Testament.

Heide, who with his wife Judy is the first AG U.S. Missions appointed missionary to "mature adults," says although the prayer time is short, he believe it's doable for everyone and will have great impact when God's followers join together to pray.

"If we have 100 people praying for six minutes, that's 600 minutes, that's 10 hours," he says. "We believe it's going to catch on and there will be more people."

Attendees of the Leisure World church, which is located in a gated retirement community, are focusing their prayer time on four areas: rain for the parched state of California; families; the nation; and churches. As other Christians across the nation join in, Heide encourages them to tailor their prayers to local needs, but to unite in praying for the nation, churches, and families.

Those in the Southern California congregation already have experienced answered prayer. After several months of drought across much of the state and strict water usage restrictions, the local community finally saw some rain in later June.

After issuing the challenge at the church, Heide told other pastors about 6@6 during a monthly interfaith meeting. Some other ministers jumped on board and said they would challenge members of their churches as well. Heide also told friends not in the area on Facebook. Although these Christians are praying in their individual homes, Heide believes they are together in mind and spirit.

"It's neat to think as we pray in our house, hundreds of people all over the nation are also praying for similar things," he says.

Heide says he's not sure where God will lead the prayer initiative after this summer, but he knows God is hearing the prayers.

"I believe that little is much if God is in it and we are expecting great things from a great God," says Heide.

Jennifer Pallikkathayil

Jennifer Pallikkathayil is a public relations professional from Columbia, Missouri, who loves sharing stories of the work God is doing in people’s lives. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State University.