Greetings, and welcome to the Dakotas-Minnesota Area Dynamite Prayer Initiative! This effort begins Sunday, Jan. 14, and we hope you join us in reading one chapter each day from the “Dynamite Prayer” book by Rev. Dr. Rosario “Roz” Picardo and Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey. Below are some resources to help you infuse prayer into the life of your congregation over this 28-day period.

Resources

Use these resources on your social media channels each day, in worship each week, or in some other unique way to engage your congregation in this initiative.

Prayer Graphics: These square images contain the breakthrough prayers listed in the first seven chapters of the book. 

Prayer Videos: Each vertical video features someone reciting a breakthrough prayer listed in the first seven chapters of the book.

Additional Resources: The Dynamite Prayer website also has some excellent downloadable graphics and videos that you are welcome to use as you wish.

Great Ideas

Glendale UMC in Savage, Minnesota, is one congregation participating in the Dynamite Prayer Initiative. Here is how that church will incorporate breakthrough prayer throughout the 28 days (feel free to borrow these ideas!):

Rev. Brenda North will preach a four-week sermon series on prayer.

Every Sunday during worship, a layperson will share their personal story about the power of prayer.

During children’s time in worship, North will teach a simple prayer practice each week: how to pray out loud, breath prayers, praying without words, and “Mad, Sad, or Glad” prayers.

One Sunday during worship, each person will be invited to write their prayer concern on a square. Everyone will learn how use the square to make a paper airplane, and the congregation will together fly their prayers up to God. Each person will take home a plane created by someone else and pray for the specific concern listed on it throughout the next week.

Throughout the 28 days, the church will have some paper hearts on tables in the worship center and invite people to write their breakthrough prayer for Glendale on one of them and tape it on a window. They can do this anytime, and it will be an activity during worship one of the weeks. Some prayers written by the congregation will be used in worship, in the church newsletter and/or on social media. 

North will lead a Sunday evening small group focused on the book for those who want to go deeper, and especially for those newer to church and faith who haven’t had much instruction on prayer. 

Reflection: Fire In Our Soul!

A childhood memory of mine is that of my dad and a neighbor dealing with a huge rock half-buried in a field just down the road from our farm. Some dynamite had been acquired and placed below ground level by the rock. The long fuse was lit. We jumped into the car and quickly drove to a safe distance. We waited…and we waited…and we waited. Suddenly there was a big BOOM and an impressive cloud of shattered rock and dirt went flying into the sky. As a little kid, I was awed to see such power released and impact something that seemed so immovable. 
 
Over the course of my ministry and walk with God, there have been moments in which I have experienced boulders, obstacles, and roadblocks that seemed impossible to navigate. Or it has seemed that my faith has been flat, lacking energy, and lacking power. Those same words have been used by many to describe how they feel in recent months because of all the distractions or obstacles we’ve dealt with in life and in the church world, too. It is time for me, and maybe many of us, to release God’s Holy Spirit dynamite on the obstacles and roadblocks of our day so that we, too, might be awed by witnessing God’s Holy Spirit power at work. May this focused prayer experience be the lighting of the fuse. And then let’s wait with anticipation to see God’s Holy Spirit impact in our lives, in our churches, and in our world. 
 
People who work with explosives at times will shout, “Fire in the hole!” once the fuse is lit or the trigger is about to be flipped. As we begin our journey through the Dynamite Prayer experience, may we all shout out, “Fire in our Soul!” And may it be so!

Rev. Keith Nelson
Downtown Mitchell FUMC
Mitchell, South Dakota