NEED A PRAYER?
Church takes requests from those in need
An old song states “what goes up must come down,” but in the case of Cross Way Church on County Avenue, prayer requests placed in a box in front of the building go heavenward.
“We believe in the power of prayer and we want to attest to that,” said Pastor Michael Mauldin.
A metal box outside the church and a nearby sign soliciting prayer requests are a ministry for the church’s congregation.
“I read about that (prayer box for the public) one day in California. … The article was about a prayer box along a trail at the top of a mountain or hill,” he said.
Mauldin said it made perfect sense for a church to have a prayer box in its community.
“We have always been a praying church, and the Lord put that on my mind one day,” Mauldin explained. “A lot of people need church, but they don’t know they need church. They have turmoil in their lives and not a church to call on,” he said.
Cross Way moved into the church building, formerly County Avenue Baptist Church, about two and a half years ago.
The prayer box placed in front of the church is considered an outreach project.
“We want to reach out to the neighborhood. This is one more way for us to reach out,” Mauldin said. “We are here to be a point of contact for people. A lot of people don’t attend church, but have a need, and God loves us all. He is in the prayer-answering business. …
“If the opportunity is there, they will reach out to the Lord. We want to be that intermediary. God knows, and God is not our bell hop. I know my mother prayed for me all her life, but didn’t see me turn to the Lord until she passed away,” Mauldin said.
Abiding by the Bible verse James 5:16, which encourages praying for one another and states “fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” Mauldin says the prayer requests left in the box are lifted up frequently.
“We pray for them over and over. We believe in fervent prayer,” he said. “We want to supply that for anyone who may not have someone to join them in prayer. God encourages us to pray without ceasing and to be continuous in our prayer lives. We are firm believers in prayer.”
“God set this system up a long time ago, and the Bible says ‘pray ye one for another,’” he said.
A recipient, beneficiary and faithful participant of prayer, Mauldin said the Lord
healed him of cancer 27 years ago. But he knows medical needs are not always the reason people need prayer.
“We get addictions and people wanting prayer. That plagues our society now—things people are addicted to. They will write these things on the back of a matchbook cover or whatever they can find. It doesn’t matter what it is written on, as long as we get the message. God knows the message before we receive it,” he said.
The prayer requests in the box have no pattern or frequency.
“It’s all kept confidential, and we pray over that box on a regular basis. As far as the usage, sometimes it’s bam, bam bam, and then we may go two to three weeks without anything. It depends,” he said. “It has met my expectations, but I wish more people would utilize it.”
The box is sturdy to stand up to all kinds of weather.
“One of my members built it, and it far exceeded my expectations. … It’s heavy-duty metal. It’s sturdier than our mailbox,” he said. “I keep it locked to keep people from tampering with it. Once it (prayer request) is in there, it is secure. I check it before service on Sunday and before service on Wednesday and sometimes other times,” he said.
Once a prayer request is placed in the box just off County Avenue, it is transferred to a box the size of a shoe box inside the church, Mauldin said.
“We still have the first one (prayer request). Sooner or later, we will have to enlarge the box (inside the church). It’s getting full,” he said.
“We keep them all. We pray over the prayer requests in the box during the regular service when we have a time of prayer. We don’t take them out individually. We pray for them as a whole. The people are encouraged to pray over these needs on a regular basis.
“I read them when they first come in so I have head mileage of what we are praying for. We don’t read them out loud—some of them are kind of personal. I don’t think the people would care, but the Lord knows the need. There is nothing mystical about a piece of paper. Prayer is God’s system for us to communicate with him. It is a means we have to lift things up to the throne of God,” Mauldin said.
Mauldin has witnessed and experienced answered prayers in his life and ministry.
“We’ve had some miraculous answered prayers in our church. A lot of people say, ‘I will pray for you,’ but it’s sometimes (just) a statement, rather than statement of fact.”
Maudin and his congregation want to be the instruments that make praying for someone a statement of fact.
Cross Way is a nondenominational church established in December 2005. It will have been at the building on County Avenue for three years in July. Before that, Cross Way was at Sixth and Waterall streets on the Texas side in the former Rose Hill Church of Christ building.
Maudlin said he can’t say with certainty he has met someone who left a prayer request in the box.
“I have never had anybody say, ‘I put a request in your box, and I want you to know this.’ I have had some poeple drop in and hint to the fact they have put in a prayer request. I don’t press them on it. If they want to, they can share it.”
Mauldin said he and the church’s members are just happy to cast the prayer requests heavenward.