Overview

Preparing Your Heart and Planning Logistics

• Plan your route: Decide on the route you will take and identify specific areas that you want to pray for; if you are with your Community Group or a group of friends, you can also split up into smaller groups and cover different areas simultaneously. Do be sure to pray over each house specifically.
• Invite others: Invite other believers to join you in the prayer walk. 
• Prepare your heart: Before starting the prayer walk, take time to prepare your heart by confessing your sins, praying for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and asking God to reveal His heart for the area you will be praying for.
• Start walking: As you walk, pray silently or out loud for the area, the people who live there, the local businesses, and any specific needs or issues that you know of or that our list stirs up in your heart. While praying aloud, you don’t have to necessarily stop, close your eyes, kneel or cross yourself. Don’t trespass or disrespect others’ property or space in any way. 
• Listen to the God’s Spirit in you: As you pray, listen to the Spirit’s promptings. He may lead you to pray for specific people or situations. He may lead you to engage with others along your walk, asking questions, lending a hand, saying hello, or speaking a word of encouragement.
• Encourage others: As you walk and pray, encourage others to join in prayer and share any insights or prayers that God lays on their hearts. For a lot of us in Christ Church, prayer walking is new and a little scary! Encourage every step someone takes...and be encouraged by your own steps of faith.
• End with thanksgiving: At the end of the walk, thank God for the opportunity to pray and ask him to continue to work in the homes and places you covered.
• Record it: Don’t forget to submit your streets through the QR code so we can keep a record of your dates, times, streets/places, and people who prayed with you. We long to see hours and hours of prayer logged for Charlestown this year!

Taking a Prayer Walk: Specifics in Each Area

Unity and Community

• deep, meaningful relationships to exist within this home -- spouses, children, siblings, family, roommates, neighbors
• brotherly love and agape (self-sacrificing) love to fill and flow through all individuals who live in this home
• neighbors to come together in unity of mind within this house, showing sympathy, a tender heart, and a humble mind towards one another
• shared understanding and a coming together for the residents in this home with others around them (and across this community) regardless of background, race, nationality, age, phase of life, socioeconomic realities that divide people
• justice for those the Lord is concerned about to be experienced by and fought for by those at this home
• opportunities to get together for fun and community-building among neighbors
• people and families to stay – for Charlestown to be a place of less transience, especially for families with children and teenagers
• family and neighbors to give each other the benefit of the doubt whenever possible 
• Christians to come together, know each other, and mobilize for mission 

• people being afraid of one another or worst-case scenarios 
• dissatisfaction and a sense that life would be easier in a suburb or another city where things are more convenient
• the various divisions, including politics, and general anger that mark our society as a whole
• people thinking unity and uniformity are the same thing so we naively trust or feel safe around the one who looks, thinks, talks, or votes like us while lazily not putting in the work that creates and fosters unity within the neighborhood

Wholeness and Peace

• the safety of this home and the individuals that live within it
• emotional health and well-being of all living in this home
• peace and wholeness within this home
• rest and margin when it comes to time
• financial peace and freedom from debt when it comes to finances
• at crosswalks in Charlestown: pedestrian safety in and around this community 
• first-responders and law enforcement officers that keep watch over this home; that they would uphold the law, protect, serve, and care well for the well-being of the individuals in this house
• wisdom and integrity for the elected officials of Boston who serve and represent Charlestown and the city, that they would consider the needs of the individuals in this home and that they would care for them well
• wisdom and integrity for elected officials who serve and represent us at the county, state, and national level as well
• affordable housing at this home and across our community
• good, fair landlords and respectful, gracious tenants where there are renters
• most of all, people at this home to sense that their deepest peace is found in Christ – a nagging sense of being “without” apart from relationship with Christ 

• the relentless spirit of achievement and innovation that can plague our city’s residents, leading them to work as if they have no limits
• hunger and lack of resources for basic needs and services
• anxiety that plagues people of all ages in our city and society
• anger, rage, road rage, hatred, malice, resentment, and the way they express themselves
• the false paths to peace that we all believe we can find in prosperity, success, health, relationships, religion (done without relationship with Christ), or by any other means

Relationships

• the individuals in this home to hear the Gospel and have friends with lives built around the Gospel
• the families of children that live in this home to have friends in their lives that point the children to the Gospel
• fathers and heads of household to lead well as they come to know and follow the Lord; to be peaceable, joyful, patient, wise, gracious
• new opportunities within this house for individuals to build relationships with their neighbors and engage them in gospel conversations
• stability in this community
• young people, especially the “at-risk,” to know this community and our church are for them
• the elderly to be known, cared for, served, and befriended in Charlestown
• the health of relationships at work, school, and “play” for those living in this home
• someone to share the Gospel with each person living in this home so they have at least one chance to say “yes” to Jesus

• superficial relationships built around meaningless or passing things
• loneliness
• divorce
• cohabitation
• brokenness in relationships between people that comes from having a broken or non-existent relationship with God
• abuse – physical, emotional, verbal, spiritual
• indifference 
• generational strongholds of sin and brokenness in family homes and family trees; pray these persistent, generational sin patterns are broken by God’s power and grace and do not assert authority or inflict pain on these families anymore

Healing/Forgiveness

• individuals within this home to experience reconciliation with past or present hurts and move towards healing and forgiveness 
• individuals within this home to humble themselves before the Lord and ask for forgiveness for their sins so that they can experience new life in Christ and the insurmountable blessings he has for them
• individuals within this home to experience the peace of healing and forgiveness that comes from the Lord, the One who is near to the brokenhearted and saved the crushed spirit
• biblical counselors, resources, and friends to encourage and help on the road to healing
• healing for grieving people in Charlestown who have lost loved ones to violence or addiction

• people believing there’s a shortcut apart from Christ to ultimate healing
• addictions to alcohol, drugs (illegal, prescription, or over-the-counter), gambling, greed, work, pornography, gaming, and any other struggles which grip us and offer us hope, peace, prosperity, success, or anything else apart from Christ
• generational patterns of addiction, abuse, anger, broken families, dysfunction, rejecting the Gospel 
• any stronghold that convinces people in this home that this is as good as it gets

Salvation

• every man, woman, and child that live within this home to have a chance to hear the Gospel and have a hunger for it
• each individual in this home to embrace the love for the Lord and accept the free gift of salvation
• each individual in this house to know the depth of God’s love and receive wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the grace given to us by Jesus dying on the cross
• the people living in this home to come to know someone from Christ Church Charlestown
• the people living in this home to visit Christ Church Charlestown (or another Gospel-centered church in our city) and become known to us – either on a Sunday or through a Love Charlestown event
• God’s Spirit to tear down any spiritual strongholds in this home or community
• revival and spiritual awakening in this home, on this street, in this community, and across our city

• people in this home believing hope, meaning, or salvation are found in success, wealth, fame, the “American dream,” or down any other path 
• any barriers preventing access to the Gospel including spiritual strongholds, busyness, pride, family religion, or fierce independence

Broader Charlestown 

• Charlestown as a Whole: no gun violence, gangs, racism, homophobia, transphobia, lovelessness for immigrants, bullying, addictions, needles, graffiti, and dirtiness – but where these signs of brokenness and sin are present, that they would point people to the Savior; additionally, that God would lift the “lid” of spiritual heaviness, oppression, and apathy that plague our community and city, ushering in spiritual freedom for a move of his Spirit in the lives of every man, woman, and child as well as the community on the whole
• Schools, Preschools, and Universities: pray for safety and protection, kindness, no bullying, quality education, access to and affordability of preschool options, holistic flourishing at all levels, teachers to feel encouraged, teachers and staff who are persons of peace, for teachers who are believers have chances to share, and openness to partnership with Christ Church (includes Harvard-Kent, Warren Prescott, Charlestown High, Horace Mann School for the Deaf; preschools; Bunker Hill Community College, Cambridge University, MGH Institute of Health Professions)
• Businesses: pray for affordability of their rent or taxes, customers and a thriving business community, safety in their spaces, and a sense of serving this community
• Parks: safety, connecting place for people, life-giving for families and children as well as pet-owners, clean, places of unity and not division
• Not for Profits: clarity of mission, justice, integrity, generosity as they give back, generous partners in the community, and that they would do good Kingdom work even if it is not explicitly Gospel work
• First Responders: for police, firefighters, and EMS in Charlestown; for safety on site, for their stations to be places of peace, for their families and personal lives, for the ability to service our growing community and to get safely and quickly from their station to the place of an emergency
• Christ Church Charlestown: for continued spiritual growth and revitalization of the church, for the renovation of our church building, and for multiplying by starting a Gospel-centered church in another neighborhood in Boston;