Prayer & Prophetic Ministries

Daily Calendar | PLOW Team | Prayer Times | Corporate Prayer

Would you like to keep up with what's happening in the AVC prayer ministry? All we need is your name and email address, and we'll keep you informed!

If you have received any emails from the prayer ministry, you are already signed up!

Click here to sign up!

If you would like to join the Ministry Team (those who pray with others at the conclusion of our services), you will need to take Introductory Ministry Team training. Email me if you'd like to know when the next training session is.

We are always in need of people to serve in a wide variety of areas in support of prayer and prophetic ministries, including administration, graphics, communications, and much more. Let me know if you're available to serve, how much time you'd like to invest, and what kind of thing you'd like to do. There's a place for you no matter what your gifts, talents, schedule, and experience are!

Prayer & Prophetic Calendar

Sundays

Every week: 09:30 - 10:10am -- AVC Prayer

The purpose of our AVC pre-service prayer meetings is to pray for our church at this strategic time. We put out a welcome mat for the Holy Spirit on behalf of all those who will attend services that day. In welcoming Him, we want to ask Him to:

Put in us a hunger for God's Word... Reveal the Word to us... Help us to worship in freedom, celebrating who He is and what He's done...Anoint the preaching / teaching and musical worship...Demonstrate His kingdom with signs and wonders...Do His work in us so He can do His work through us...Draw the un-churched to worship...

First Fridays

7:30pm -- Vertical Church [Auditorium]

Directing our prophetic expressions and prayers heavenward.

PLOW team -- Pray, Listen, Overcome, Watch

The PLOW team is made up of those who feel that God has called them to pray for the AVC for at least one hour per week. The acronym speaks for itself--praying, overcoming in prayer, and listening to and watching what the Father is saying and doing. To plow is to prepare the soil for seeds to be sown.

PLOW (cultivation of one's own land) -- prayer for AVC family and friends

"Let my prayer be set before You as incense" (Psalm 141:2)

Prayer for AVC family & friends. We pray over the prayer requests that come in to the church via Sunday services, connect cards, the church office, emails, and the website. Our desire is to lift up people before the Father in prayer, and that they would connect with God and with others in the body of Christ. Prayer requests include prayer for healing, finances, salvation, special deliveries (expectant mothers), etc.

We pray over all who serve as prayer warriors or leaders in prayer. We need each other!

We pray over each AVC-sponsored event, covering leaders & participants in prayer.

Members of this team received the weekly "Set!" newsletter (not available on the website). They also receive urgent prayer requests via an email prayer chain.

Contact us if you would like to join the PLOW team.

Prayer Times

Vertical Church [1st Fridays 7:30pm Auditorium]

Putting out a welcome mat for the Holy Spirit . . . this is our "main event" worship-driven prayer time.  Vertical Church exists to provide a time and place for the Atlanta Vineyard community to touch the heart of the Father, seek the face of Jesus, and hear the voice of the Spirit, through corporate worship and prayer.  We begin with worship and prayer, and continue with worship and prayer! It's all about Him!  A group of instrumentalists and singers lead in musical worship, and a microphone is available for anyone who wants to pray, share a Scripture, prophetic word, dream, or vision.  This time has been described as "wasting an evening on God."  No two Vertical Church services are the same, as we seek to be Spirit-led and go with the flow of where the Lord leads us.  Periodically, we invite other area churches (through Unite!) to join us at Vertical Church in praying for the body of Christ and city of Atlanta.

The Vertical Church leadership team consists of Allen and Nancy Penton, Dena Gaddie, Marc and Nancy Ledoux, Karen Sculley, and Walt Hill.

AVC Prayer [Sundays, 09:30 - 10:10am]

The purpose of our AVC pre-service prayer meetings is to pray for our church at this strategic time. We put out a welcome mat for the Holy Spirit on behalf of all those who will attend services that day. In welcoming Him, we want to ask Him to:

• Put in us a hunger for God's Word
• Reveal the Word to us
• Help us to worship in freedom, celebrating who He is and what He's done
• Anoint the preaching / teaching and musical worship (in all services)
• Demonstrate His kingdom with signs and wonders
• Do His work in us so He can do His work through us
• Draw the un-churched to worship
  

These are just suggestions, not a formula! It's good to have an idea where we're going, though--the focus of our pre-service prayer meetings is prayer for services. When our prayers are focused, they are more effective.

For more information, please e-mail Nancy Penton.

What is Corporate Prayer?

The chief quality that corporate prayer has over other kinds of prayer is agreement. Jesus said, "If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." (Matt 18:19) The Message puts it, "When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action." Leviticus 26:8 says that "Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand," implying that the more pray-ers, the more agreement, and the more power. As the saying goes, "No prayer, no power; little prayer, little power; much prayer, much power!" Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." He's waiting for us to call out to Him!

Common misconceptions about corporate prayer:

• I have no contribution to make
  • We are a body--every part is needed, and everyone has a contribution to make! We can all pray--it is simply conversation with God. We pour out our hearts to Him; He speaks to us. Jesus promised that we would do even greater things than He did, if we have faith in Him (John 14:12). Even a tiny amount of faith is enough (mustard seed)!
• I don't know how to pray in public
  • The best way to learn how to pray in public and become comfortable with it is to just do it! We grow in our understanding of corporate prayer by being around others who pray.
    

Principles for corporate prayer meetings:

• Submit to God
  • Come prepared to pray
  • Wait and listen to the Lord
  • Be humble
• Submit to one another
• Make others feel welcome
• Be in unity
• Go with the flow of the Holy Spirit (avoid jumping around from topic to topic)
• Be brief, allowing others to participate
• Mutually support one another (e.g. verbal agreement)
• Pray
  • Invite the Holy Spirit to empower us
  • Ask God to make His Kingdom evident
  • Pray Scriptures
  • Pray what the Lord reveals to you (dreams, visions, words, pictures, impressions, etc.)
  • Keep prayers vertical (directed towards God, not others)
  • Avoid preaching at people through prayer
  • Be concrete & specific
  • Personalize your prayers
• Believe
  • Believe that God hears and answers!