West Virginia Network of Prayer
Dear fellow ministers of the WV/ Western MD district,
Greetings in the lovely Name of Jesus. I pray that this letter finds you and your family doing well. My purpose for writing you is to introduce myself as the newly appointed district Prayer Coordinator for West Virginia/Western Md. I am very honored that our district board would consider me for such an important position, as I feel that there are so many others who are much better equipped and more experienced for this most important task. Thank you Pastor Garlitz, Superintendent Hudson, and to the rest of our esteemed board members for showing such confidence in me. I will do my best to serve you and this great district.
Four years ago as a newly elected pastor here in Moorefield, I quickly learned the value of organization and structure. We needed to revive our bus ministry, department leaders needed fresh vision and purpose, and we desperately needed property and a building of our own to have church in. So as Keisha and I began the daunting task of buying new vans, training leaders, and putting together a rather large capital improvement program, we soon learned that there was no amount of talent or training that could have sufficiently prepared us for the task at hand. Above and beyond anything else we needed supernatural guidance to lead us into Apostolic revival. It was during this time of restructuring that I decided to incorporate a prayer department into our church leadership. No differently than a Sunday School department or Youth department has a leader and a team with responsibility and accountability, I decided that the prayer department must have these key elements as well. I soon appointed a trusted elder in our church to head up a Prayer and Outreach department and we put together a prayer team. I also made the decision that this person would not be head of any other church program, but their primary focus would be prayer.
Four years later I can tell you that we have read many books on prayer, I have flown prayer warriors such as Tony Bailey and Lisa Marshal to Moorefield to teach us on the subject of prayer, and we have attended different prayer seminars and meetings. But I am convinced that the key to whatever success we have had and the revival that we’ve experienced was our decision to make prayer a structured and organized major part of our church. The results have been more positive and the dividends more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.
So in my opening letter as your prayer coordinator, I want to encourage you to do the same. Perhaps you don’t have anyone to fill the position of prayer coordinator at this time in your church. If not, then would you be willing as Pastor to fill that role until God provides a man or woman for you? Looking back on those early days of being pastor, if there was anything that I could do over, I would have trained a prayer coordinator and developed a structured and organized prayer program before I tackled anything else. If you have not already done so, please consider organizing a structured prayer program in your church with either you or a trusted elder as its leader. Perhaps your wife could take the lead in this department. Not only would it make a positive impact on your local church, but on the district as a whole. Ultimately, it will help us to create a contact list and put together a district prayer team, so that when a need arises, a team from across the entire district can go to prayer, just like we do in the local church.
I am excited about what God has in store for this great district. If I can be of help to you in any way, or if you have some ideas that might help in our pursuit of prayer, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I want to encourage you to utilize the West Virginia Network of Prayer web page as well. This is a great tool to share your needs and the needs of those in your church, as well as let folks know that you are praying for their needs and give praise reports. God bless you as you work in the Kingdom of God. You will be hearing from me again soon.
In His Service,
Pastor Eugene A. Whetzel
