The Power of a City at Prayer: What Happens When Churches Unite for Renewal

by Mac Pier, Katie Sweeting, Ray Bakke (Foreword)

Months before September 11, 2001, many Greater New York churches were uniting together in one of the largest urban prayer movements in the world. So when disaster struck on that late summer Tuesday morning, the churches and people were already in place to comfort, heal and pray for miracles.Mac Pier and Katie Sweeting, coordinators for Concerts of Prayer Greater New York, write about their experiences in The Power of a City at Prayer. They explain how to build an urban prayer ministry, and they share powerful examples of how such prayer movements have dramatically influenced neighborhoods, communities and cities around the world--including New York City before and after September 11, 2001.

Genres: Prayer

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Mac Pier is the founder of Movement.org. He helped to birth the Concerts of Prayer Movement in 1988 in New York City. He also co-founded Movement Day in 2010 with Dr Timothy J. Keller. He is the author of nine books including A Disruptive Gospel (Baker Books) and New York Disrupted (Movement Day Publishing). Mac and Marya have been married 40 years and have three children and five grandchildren. Pier has been a Lausanne catalyst since 2013.

Reviews

[Becky Durstenfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelf for a long time and when I saw that it was about New York City I almost didn't read it. But I am glad I did. It is a very good and well written book. Even though it is from 2002, it is still relevant to today. I hope this amount of prayer is still going on there and I wish we had this kind of prayer happening in our area. The only thing I somewhat disagreed with is saying that a prayer meeting needs to have 20 to 30 minutes of worship, though I did appreciate them saying that singing is not the only way to worship God, but one way. I do agree that worship does need to be part of a time of prayer, but in my experience, the prayer meetings I've been to is often more singing than prayer and the songs are not necessarily worship songs or songs directed to God. So often "worship" leaders and teams are just musicians and singers who don't always understand that worship is more than that. Many church prayer meetings also only include prayers for the church and not for the lost or the things happening in the world so I appreciated that this book encourages prayer meetings to be both internally and externally focused.

[Lynnda Ell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book to prepare for holding prayer workshops in my own city. I found it full of encouragement, surprising insights, and tips on how to organize. Having some idea about what to expect was also helpful.

My only issue with the The Power of a City at Prayer is that it is poorly organized. Sometimes it's a descriptive narrative of New York City's experience, sometimes a devotional study on biblical precedents, and sometimes a "how to..." book. Unfortunately, all of those are found in each section.