“If the Apostle Paul had been born in this generation, I believe he would have been a media hog and he would have loved using the iPrayerworks prayer ministry management system,” says Lake Palestine UMC Pastor Valerie Hudson. Prayer volunteers and staff at her rural church, of approximately 100 in worship, love the convenience and simplicity of this “online prayer room man- agement system” now available via special “yearend discount” to Texas Annual Conference churches.

“We love the idea of reinforcing the prayer ministries across the conference while simultaneously reducing administrative tasks for the local church,” says Rev. B. T. Williamson, Assistant to Bishop Huie, “so The Texas Annual Conference would like to encourage churches to consider this resource by offering a significant discount between now and the beginning of 2012.” While the typical initial set up fee is $250, all churches mentioning the Conference Special will only pay $25 to enroll their church and attend a training session with interactive ministry idea sharing that will be scheduled for new sub- scribers. The monthly fee for iPrayerworks will then be scaled according to church size and ranges from $25-200.

iPrayerworks is a database-driven, web-based application that offers clergy and intercessors round-the-clock access. It simplifies prayer ministry management by:

• Tracking prayer activity as well as hospital and home- bound visits in one central place

• Offering permission-based access to prayer needs and updates 24/7 from anywhere around the world.

The iPrayerworks system is already getting rave reviews from churches of multiple denominations and sizes. Most churches are finding a 50% savings in administrative time spent managing the prayer min- istry, among other benefits.

“My favorite part is finding and sending prayer devotionals through the system,” says Lay Leader Sandra Burchett of Asbury United Methodist Church in Bossier City, a church of 600. “This program allows everyone in the church to access the prayer requests that we have posted, and it give pastors access to the notes section so we can coordi- nate our own information pri- vately. The system tracks the communication between the different care team members, logs the requests as well as those that have been prayed for, tracks who has received a note and who needs a hospital visit. It keeps us all on the same page and is so easy to access and update.”

Privacy concerns are handled in several ways, according to Candy Randolph of Woodlands UMC. “The submitter chooses whether they want the request to be public or private, and we typically only use first names or initials with our specific prayer requests,” she says.

“When you enter someone’s private world, you have to respect that information, so I filter all requests before others see them.” Adds Randolph, “In our crazy busy world, this sys- tem has been such a blessing to help us coordinate and keep up with the needs of our commu- nity. Now that we are stream- ing our services online, it is very convenient for those watching to click on their screen and submit a prayer request anytime.”

“Being that we are a rural church, this keeps us focused and organized. It is now a part of our website which gives prayer more visibility and more volunteer support,” adds Rev. Hudson. “The more I learn about all of the functions, the more impressed I am. And I love being able to update it from my iPhone from any here at anytime.”