Every year Taylor holds the As We Pray initiative, a week dedicated to prayer where parents and alumni pray for the community in specific ways.
The initiative took place this year from Feb. 28 to March 4.
“It is Taylor’s desire to dedicate one week in March each year to prayer; a week where parents and grandparents from across the United States and the world would gather together and lift up Taylor’s students, faculty, staff, and one another,” Taylor’s website says.
As We Pray started in 2011, and has expanded to include people all over the U.S. hosting prayer gatherings for Taylor.During February, a QR code was available for students and staff to send in their prayer requests. 79 student and 18 employee prayer requests were anonymously collected and prayed for. The list was prayed over by Taylor staff, As We Pray groups and those participating in the 175 hours of prayer initiative.
These groups received prayer requests collected by Taylor, as well as a video from Rebecca Lindsay, ambassador to the university, and President Michael Lindsay welcoming them to the gathering.
When President Michael Lindsay initially heard about As We Pray, he gave the idea to supplement it this year with 175 hours of continuous prayer for Taylor, its students, faculty and staff. A website was set up so people could sign up for every single hour of the day from Feb. 27 to March 6.
The hours filled up with people from all over, 19 different states and 11 total countries on 5 different continents.
Taylor parents and alumni are not the only ones praying for Taylor; multiple groups of staff and faculty corporately pray for Taylor. Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies Jenny Collins started a staff prayer group back in 2017 to help the university as it worked on an interdisciplinary project. After that, Collins decided to keep the group going and open it up to all staff and faculty.
The half-hour long weekly meetings usually have around eight people in attendance, but the actual faculty rotate through as they are free or busy on different weeks.
Prayer is a big part of life for many at Taylor. Campus Pastor Jon Cavanagh said that one way he tries to stimulate prayer in the student body is giving students time after his messages to talk to God and through giving campus a corporate time to pray in Sing, Pray, Reflect chapels.
“Making space for prayer in chapel is a priority for us, even if it's a shorter time period, but making space for prayer and reflection as a part of our normal worship service,” Cavanagh said. “When I speak in chapel, I always like to offer that space at the end. You know, oftentimes the space, whether it's application but a space for reflection prayer because even just a couple of minutes of travel can feel significant.”
