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“It’s the most simple and profound thing that you can do as a believer.”
That is what Kimberly Baldwin, a Berean Christian parent and the organizer of the school’s Parents in Prayer group believes about the role of prayer in a Christian’s life. She is a mom to one Berean graduate and one current sophomore.
Every Friday a small group of parents get together somewhere on campus to pray for the students, staff, and teachers of Berean Christian High School. They are a diverse group of people according to Baldwin. It’s one of the things she loves most about the group.
“We all come from different backgrounds, perspectives, and denominations. It’s what the Kingdom is supposed to look like,” she says.
What they have in common is a love for God and for seeing God at work in the school. There’s no other agenda for a Parents in Prayer gathering. Just prayer. Of course, there’s a bit of fellowship that happens when believers get together. Sometimes someone in the group needs prayer. But for the most part, they focus on students, staff, teachers, and board members.
During the course of the school year, these parents pray through the entire student roster by name. They do about 14 names per week. Baldwin also started a tradition of writing encouragement cards to about six people each week – three staff people and three seniors. They want to let the seniors know that they are being covered in prayer during their final year at Berean Christian.
Prayer is a tricky thing in our Christian culture. It’s a spiritual gift. It’s a discipline. It’s extremely important. Nevertheless, some of us feel confident about our prayer skills and some of us feel awkward about it. But we likely overthink it.
P.T. Forsyth, in his book about prayer says that we were made for prayer (p. 14). He writes that simply by engaging in prayer “we have already begun to do God’s will” (p. 11). If that’s true, how could we go wrong?
Paul writes to the Thessalonians that they should never stop praying. That’s hard to do when you have to eat, change diapers, go to work, and keep your eyes open on the freeway. So it must mean that one might find additional ways to live a life of unceasing prayer other than the customary hands folded, eyes closed, pray out loud practice that make some people shy away from joining a group of prayer warriors.
Forsyth proposes that prayer goes hand in glove to living in community. He writes, “Prayer is an act, indeed the act, of fellowship” (p. 10).
Kimberly Baldwin has felt the power of prayer in her own life. She did not grow up in a Christian home. She describes it as a toxic home involving alcoholism, neglect, and eventually separation. But there was a woman in her life who prayed for her – Baldwin’s babysitter. From when Kimberly was six months old to when she was nine years old, this babysitter stayed in her life. She was a pastor’s wife. She took Kimberly to church. “They were like a second set of parents to me,” says Kimberly.
The influence of that babysitter shaped Kimberly’s life. From them she learned the discipline of prayer. During hard times, Kimberly prayed to Jesus for help. Knowing that her spiritual parents were praying for her. It got her through a lot of rough times.
Kimberly’s parents divorced, but they stayed in the same home to raise their daughter together. Kimberly prayed for them well after she left the house as an adult. She prayed for them to know Jesus and to repair their broken marriage. Both of them became believers and 33 years after they were divorced, they remarried.
One of Kimberly’s favorite verses on prayer is 2 Chronicles 7:14-15. In this part of the story, God is speaking to Solomon about leadership and about prayer.
The people who participate with the Parents in Prayer group frequently don’t know how their prayers affect the specific students or staff for whom they are praying. But occasionally they will get some encouraging feedback. Parents have thanked them for praying for their son or daughter. Sometimes the encouraging cards and prayers land at just the right time. “A student will see me and say, ‘Thank you so much, you have no idea how much I needed that,’” say’s Baldwin
For those of you who feel the spirit tugging at you to engage more in prayer for the Berean Christian community, consider sticking around the campus on a Friday morning after drop off. Or join the Parents in Prayer email list to get updates on current prayer requests and weekly scripture.
In his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning says, “There are as many ways of praying as there individual believers” (p. 149). This is an encouraging thought. Prayer is personal. At the same time, prayer is communal. What better way to engage and give thanks to God for the blessings that Berean Christian High School is to students and families then by engaging in regular prayer.
“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:16).
If you have a prayer request, please send it to prayer.bchs@gmail.com. If you would like to learn more about how to engage with the Parents in Prayer group, there is a dedicated page on our website. Get in touch. And we hope to see you on Friday morning.
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