Church launches 'pray as you go' initiative 

Loughborough Baptist Church is reaching out to the mobile generation by offering a ‘pray as you go’ telephone service to anyone in need of prayer support.

The initiative, advertised on a poster outside the church, was launched to try and connect the church with a generation who spend much of the time on their mobiles. 

The phone number connects the caller with the church office; when the office is closed callers can leave a message. Their prayer need is then passed on to a team of 20 volunteers who commit to praying for the issue.

“We already have a prayer chain in the church and between 10 and 20 members request prayer each week,” said Michael Limb, a church member who has been running publicity for the church for 40 years. “The issues can be anything from being made redundant to illness, to bereavement, and we thought making this available to the community was a good way of connecting with people who wouldn’t ordinarily come into a church.”

So far they are getting between two and three calls a week from locals. “They have reassurance that a group of people are praying for their concerns,” said Michael. “We are hoping to widen it to other media in an appropriate way like text messages or Facebook,” he added.

The church has been producing its own posters for the last 40 years. In fact the church will be celebrating its 40th anniversary on 14 June with an exhibition of the church’s past, present, and hoped-for future which, after the Sunday service, will be displayed at a local library for two weeks.