In an increasingly high-tech world that has given the Church all sorts of tools from websites to PowerPoint, The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada (C&MA) is putting a new emphasis on a low-technology medium that is as old as the Christian Church itself: prayer.

“Everything we do and everything we are,” says C&MA pastor T.V. Thomas, “needs to be bathed and soaked in prayer.” For the past decade, the C&MA has been focusing on prayer through its National Prayer Mobilization Team. But the importance of prayer hasn’t yet reached the grassroots in the significant way organizers hoped for.

Now with a new name—Alliance Pray! Team (APT)—and a new approach, the prayer movement should gain momentum, says Thomas, who heads the transdenominational Centre for Evangelism and World Mission in Regina. David Chotka, pastor of Spruce Grove Alliance Church in Alberta, chairs APT.

Although APT has been in effect since January, Thomas, speaking to ChristianWeek prior to the C&MA general assembly July 4 to 9 in Edmonton, hoped it would really take off during the assembly. Before the assembly even started, there was a one-day prayer seminar for delegates, led by Jonathan Graf, founding editor of Pray magazine.

“We planned for 200 but we’re oversubscribed,” says Thomas. “We are turning down people.”

The assembly included a concert of prayer on the opening day, a prayer luncheon focusing on Tibet—a country the C&MA is hoping to re-enter for ministry—and a prayer room that was open during sessions. “We asked churches to send intercessors just for that,” says Thomas. “People [came] to the assembly just to pray. They’re not regular delegates. It [was] very encouraging.”

And the prayer won’t stop there. Next November Alliance Pray! will hold “Ignite Prayer” events in Spruce Grove as well as Bayview Glen in Toronto, where pastors and lay people will be instructed and spend time in prayer.

Through corporate intercession, Thomas says, “we will have greater spiritual results.”

He cites recent prayer movements that have made a difference. In Fiji there has been a 24/7 prayer movement for several years, and the country is now seeing revival. And in New York City, the crime rate has gone down in recent years, a trend some say is a direct result of a prayer movement among 400 churches there.

Canada has yet to see dramatic results, but there are beginnings of prayer movements here, says Thomas. The annual Global Day of Prayer drew an estimated 12,000 people to its latest gathering in Calgary, and included participation in several other cities. 24/7 prayer is catching on across Canada, notably in Calgary and Saskatoon.

And it’s not just the old-timers who are catching on to prayer, says Thomas. The 24/7 prayer movement, patterned after one that started in Britain, is primarily youth-driven.

Although none of the movements are specifically tied to the C&MA, Thomas has hopes that the denomination will become a part of the big picture of prayer.