“A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.”

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

While I am not 100% convinced of Bonhoeffer’s conclusion in the above quote, I do believe that the health and fruitfulness of a fellowship is intimately tied to the level of intercession for one another. It is clear, that God’s people are exhorted to live a life defined by praying for one another. Jesus was characterized by praying for his little fellowship of disciples (John 17:9) and Jesus is interceding for us now (Hebrews 7:25). We also see this in Paul’s way of life. He was always interceding for the fellowship of believers he was called to, whether it was the churches he had planted or the apostolic fellowship he was a part of. (I Thessalonians. 1:2, Colossians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:11).

One of my first impressions of the the people who were part of the Antioch Network family was the passion and commitment they had to love and serve God. What inspired and attracted me most about this, was that the source of their passion, was a prayerful and intimate relationship with God. Whenever the AN family gathers, we strive do so in a posture of prayer. One of the primary physical touch points for the AN family historically has been our annual Gatherings. At our last in-person Gathering (Istanbul 2019), we heard an important word from David Sanders,“one should never initiate anything that he cannot saturate with prayer.”

With the arrival of Covid our ability to gather in person was limited. With this reality we saw not only the vulnerability of not being able to gather together but also the increasing need and conviction for concentrated intercession for one another and for the ministries represented within AN. This led to the birthing of the Antioch Network Prayer Hub, in March 2020. God gave me and others a vision for this and God raised up Alison Burch, along with her husband George Burch to help it become a reality.

The AN Prayer Hub meets on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Our purpose is simple: to pray for the AN leaders, their families, and the ministries they are part of. Our desire is to have a core team that is committed to this ministry of prayer, who can commit to praying together twice a month. But we always welcome, and even more, desire the participation of the wider AN family to join us as they have the grace and capacity to do so. Finally, the AN Prayer Hub has a WhatsApp group that receives prayer requests that can be prayed for in real time. If you would like to be added to this WhatsApp group or if you would like to share a prayer requests, please reach out to Alison Burch.