The Deacons at Woods operate a prayer tree to care for the needs of the congregation and its friends. Anyone may participate, either through daily prayer or by submitting prayer concerns (or both!). There are about 40 active prayer partners. These prayer partners are organized in a email and phone tree structure. A prayer request comes to the tree coordinator. The coordinator then passes it along by email to the electronic tree or by phone to the tree branch captains, who in turn pass it along to the sub-branches.

 

            Prayer requests come in varying degrees of details. Sometimes names are given and sometimes not. Sometimes detail about the prayer concern is given. Sometimes just general guidance, such as “pray for healing for a friend of Dan’s.” Prayer requests often come with a suggested time period for which to be prayed. Other times the coordinator decides on a sensible period for the prayer. Each prayer tree member has a log to record the nature of the prayer and the length of time. They are encouraged to record and pass on precisely what they are told so that prayer requests don’t morph as they move along the tree! All of this recorded information is confidential.

 

            There are typically 10 to 15 active prayer requests at any time. The hope is that each prayer tree member will pray daily for each active prayer request. Many people take comfort in knowing that they or their friends and family are being prayed for daily by a large group of people. Without betraying confidences, the prayer tree coordinator will pass along whatever news might be new about certain prayer requests.

 

            The prayer tree is slightly different from the Sunday pastoral prayers and the Woods prayer list. The difference boils down to the initiative of the person requesting the prayer. If the person requesting the prayer would like for the prayer tree to be involved, then they need to call the prayer tree coordinator. If they want their concern to be on the Sunday pastoral prayers and the Woods prayer list, then they need to call Pam Anger or Nancy Lincoln Reynolds in the church office. A prayer request can also be made through the Woods website, www.woodschurch.org. When a request is made through the website, an e-mail is sent to the church office and the prayer tree coordinator. The people that we pray for on Sunday aren’t necessarily on the prayer tree and vice versa. It is up to the person requesting the prayer to call both the church office and the prayer tree coordinator if they want to be on both lists.   For reasons relating to confidentiality, there is very little communication between the various praying groups.

 

            Thanks be to God that there can never be too much prayer!