Photo by Cassidy Higgins
LITTLE ROCK –Arkansas Baptists gathered at The Summit Church in Little Rock on August 26 and 27 for the 11th Annual Statewide Prayer Gathering: Praying for His Presence.
The facilitator of the two-day gathering was Bill Elliff, founding and national engage pastor of The Summit Church in Little Rock. He also serves on the Prayer Task Force at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC).
“Everything flows from God’s presence,” Elliff said. “If you have His presence, you have everything. If you don’t have it, you have nothing. And, we’ve got to have His presence in our lives, our homes and our churches. You’re not going to have His presence if you don’t talk to Him and listen to Him through word fed, spirit led prayer. “
The event kicked off Monday with a welcome from ABSC Executive Director Dr. Rex Horne. Prayer exhorters of the evening included Elliff, Jim Byrum of Trinity Chapel in Carlisle, Ahmad Muqtasid of The City of Mosaic in Maumelle, and Stephen Harrison of Summit Saline in Benton.
Tuesday morning began with a welcome, recap and prayer by Elliff. Prayer exhorters on the second day included Horne and Sean Mills of Friendship Baptist Church in Conway. Additionally, the morning included two panels.
The first was facilitated by Elliff and focused on revival of unceasing prayer in His presence. The panel was comprised of Grey Falanga of Walnut Street Baptist Church in Jonesboro, PJ Noland of Collective Church in Bryant, BJ Stricklin of Summit Church in Little Rock, Chad Graves of Compass South in Batesville and Rob Stewart of Kennect City Church in Kensett.
The second panel was led by Jordan Bowen, pastor of Hillcrest Community Church in Little Rock, and focused on the exhortation for the presence of God to reach the nations.
“Pastoring is painful. Doing life is painful. And I am thankful for the pain of the journey because it brought me to a place where I recognize I need the presence of God in my life, deeply. And if I even want to be just an ounce of what I believe God has called me and our church to do, we’ve got to be … a presence centered church that is desiring to build that as our foundation and through that allow God to accomplish the mission of engaging the nations,” Bowen said.
The panel was comprised of Pranay Borde, who moved to the U.S. from India, Rosita Waite, who moved from Indonesia, Ola Oyinbooke, who is from Nigeria, and Sweetie Chen, who is from Taiwan. They are all involved at Hillcrest, and all have the same heart and desire to reach the nations as Bowen. Each person on the panel briefly shared their story on how they came to the states and discussed ways to welcome people from around the world and begin to minister with and to them.
Roughly 150 participants attended this year’s Prayer Gathering.
“I think I had more guys this year than any year tell me this was the most important and significant year for them personally, and I felt the same way,” Elliff said.