Don Rayno on Citywide Prayer & Unity Movements
In this episode, Matthew chats with Don Rayno, director of Raleigh-Area Concerts of Prayer. They’ve been bringing hundreds of people together for years to pray, and Matthew refers to him as a “hidden gem” of the prayer movement.Don started out as a nuclear chemist, for about 20 years. The term “concerts of prayer” actually comes from Jonathan Edwards in the 1700’s, when he and another pastor wanted to bring people together for prayer across denominational lines. Don and a friend from work started the Raleigh Concerts of Prayer group, with about 30 people in 1984! Don laughs that they went through “prayer movement growth” from 30 to 3. He was encouraged by a Jonathan Edwards book that said to keep praying regularly for 7 years and then see if God wants you to keep going, so he determined in his heart to power through.
After a couple years, they reached out to local pastors and got 12-15 to join in, and by the time they did another big rally, there were 35 pastors and 1,000 people in attendance! However, one of his mentors told him after the event he needed to do more to get the pastors unified and praying. He put together a one day camp for local pastors to come together, share struggles, and encourage each other. That has continued every year except 2020!
At this point Matthew points out Don’s faithfulness in the small things. As Matthew puts it, before you bring an entire city together to pray, you might have to bring together just a handful of people for a long time!
In 1996, Don’s friends in Concerts of Prayer asked him about doing this full time and quitting his job. He and his wife talked about it and weren’t sure. They were doing more and more prayer events, like traveling around in a bus with local pastors and a police officer to stop and pray over places that needed it the most. Then, Don got his answer – he came home smiling one evening and informed his wife he’d been laid off! This allowed them to really jump in with both feet.
Since then, the focus has been not just building prayer meetings but building prayer in the local churches. They have their big rallies in the fall, but it’s never promoted on social media – every church has a coordinator and brings people from their church. This has also led to a great mix of different types of people and churches, across racial and socio-economic lines. They now have about 120 churches involved just in the Raleigh area!
What about the challenges? Don says keeping the differences lower on the agenda than just being “saturated with Jesus” is the way to get around that. He also says that he saw some people early on get discouraged and leave the prayer movement, and then miss out on the growth and excitement.
In the last 5-8 years, Don’s biggest encouragement is seeing guys in their 20’s and 30’s, like him with he started, picking up the baton and leaning into prayer and unity. He says it won’t look exactly like it has looked for the last 30 years, but that’s okay. To those young people, he says : find a mentor, and prepare to be tested. You’ll have to transition through the stages of your life while keeping your commitment to this ministry. God will use all the enthusiasm, but He will also build patience in you.
To end, Don says he always thought revival was coming in his generation, but now gets the sense that they were building to prepare for this upcoming generation, so that revival could finally come. He believes there is a lot to look forward to!
Key Scripture: Zechariah 8:20-22
