A team of 9 persons from Rapid City First United Methodist Church attended the Breakthrough Prayer Training Event in Mitchell in January.  

“When we returned to Rapid City we asked several others to join in developing our plan to introduce Breakthrough Prayer to the congregation,” described Rev. Greg Kroger.  We initiated a focused call to prayer at 6:29 on behalf of the church (629 Kansas City Street is our physical address).”

The team developed some tools to encourage broad participation.  A prayer card was printed to assist folks in their praying (see image).

The church utilized the talents of Rev. John Britt, associate pastor at Rapid City First and Ryan Becker, praise team leader, to create a video.  The video was created to inspire and invite everyone to pray at 6:29. The video provides images and a powerful overall message. “Presenting the message in this format can be more powerful than simply having someone stand up and speak about Breakthrough Prayer.” stated Rev. Kroger.

Different groups that meet in the church were encouraged to begin incorporating prayer walking in the church as part of their meeting agenda.  As the weather warms, church members will be practicing prayer walking throughout the downtown area of Rapid City.  

“Our purpose in prayer walking is to offer blessing and seek alignment of our church with God’s preferred future for Rapid City First and the community.  We want Breakthrough Prayer to extend deep and wide as an enduring practice at Rapid City First,” described Kroger.

Ongoing training and inspiration are also part of the Breakthrough Prayer plan at Rapid City First. Quint Miklos, a participant the January training, presented the material to the church’s leaders and other interested persons in March. This training will be offered periodically.

This is only the beginning of the prayer effort at Rapid City First UMC.  The church is involved in the Missional Church Consultation Initiative.  Prayer is part of the journey.

“I don’t know that there has ever been this level of focused prayer offered specifically around aligning our church with God’s preferred future.  We have much remaining work to do in assisting more and more in our congregation to join in this movement.  I believe the greatest impact thus far has been the ordering of our practices and conversations around prayer - we are placing ourselves in a fresh, new position to listen and discern where God is leading us as a church,” said Kroger.

629Prayer from Ryan Becker on Vimeo.