Challenge Update #2: Prayer Army

A note from Greg…

This is my 5th Challenge conference that I have been to. My first tip was in 2002 to Atlanta, GA. I was in college at the time and my youth pastor from high school (Glenn Olson) had just purchased some huge sound equipment for the Prayer Army that meets before the evening gathering. Since I’ve been playing with electronics since I was five and running sound systems since middle school, Glenn asked me if I wanted to help him setup the sound system and run it at Challenge 2002. Since then, I’ve been to Salt Lake City (2004), Purdue (2006), Salt Lake City (2008), and now Columbus in 2010. My primary job is driving the van and setting up sound systems, lots of sound systems.

Today I set up 10 sound systems from 9AM to 1:30PM, in what seemed like 40 acres of Columbus Convention Center concrete and carpet. I have a box on wheels I made that’s small enough to fit through doors and elevators but big enough to fit some mic stands, speaker stands, lots of cables, and room to stack speakers on top. This box was a really big lifesaver for me.

I usually get together with Glenn and pack up the sound systems before we leave. This way I know exactly what we have and can pick up any needed parts. This year I did not have the opportunity to meet with Glenn before we left, so I did not know any details of the sound systems that we would have available and had to set most of it up on the fly, and was worried that we would not have enough equipment. But as I went from room to room, I kept pulling cables and adapters out of the box, and I was always able to find the cable or adapter that I needed. I even had a couple extras left over. To me it seemed like a taste of what it was like for Jesus to feed the 5000. As he kept breaking the bread, there was always enough, and even a little left over.

When I know there is a deadline to complete something, I tend to become very focused on the task at hand and tend to tune out the distractions and become oblivious to others around me. After getting it all set up, I was finally able to open my eyes and heart to what is really going on. I spent time walking around and praying for all the seminars. It was a really great time, not only because that is really what my job as prayer army staff is supposed to be, but because God is doing an amazing thing through prayer at this Challenge 2010.

At my first prayer army in 2002, we met in a large gymnasium, and by the end of that week a couple hundred people were attending. The momentum of the prayer army has been growing stronger and stronger every conference since then. In 2008 I think it went from 500 to 2500 by the end of the week. This year we started with over 1000, and tonight (only day 2!) we packed out our room with about 2500. It is simply awesome to see half of the people at the conference come to a voluntary prayer session before the evening gathering to pray for the band, the speakers, and hearts to be prepared for worship and teaching.

Jennifer worked with some people to set up a number of prayer stations that are available all day long for everyone to have a more interactive experience with prayer. Some of the prayer stations should be familiar to you because we’ve done them at CEFC (like the wooden cross to nail sins to, the holy of holies with paint and black lights, and prayer for the world). We also have a number of new stations, like a six-foot canvas shaped like a heart that we will write God’s promises on, a five-foot globe to stick prayers for the world on and many others. I’m looking forward to using some of these ideas for our next 24-hour prayer room at Centennial.

Needless to say, I really feel prayer is very big part of Challenge and I thank you all for your prayers for us and hope this gives you a taste of my experience at Challenge 2010.

The packed-out prayer army room:

A sample of the interactive prayer stations we set up: