Nearly 40 gathered at Holston Baptist Association office for “Learning to Pray With Abandon” training event led by Tennessee Baptist Mission Board prayer catalyst Nancy Duggin (at podium). – Submitted photo
JOHNSON CITY — Pastor Pete Tackett of Antioch Baptist Church attended the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s “Learning to Pray With Abandon” event held at the Holston Baptist Association, bringing 10 members of his church’s prayer team with him.
He said the event’s core message was simple but clarifying.
“It was more about seeking the face of God than seeking the hand of God,” Tackett said.
Will Scott, bivocational pastor of Warrensburg Baptist Church, attended the same event alongside his wife and a member of his church’s women’s prayer group.
He said the training came at a critical time for his congregation, which is working to revive its Wednesday night prayer meeting.
“We call it prayer meeting, but it’s really a time of request and somebody praying,” Scott said. “My vision for the church is to have everybody going to a time of prayer.”
The “Learning to Pray With Abandon” events are a series of six half-day prayer training sessions hosted by the TBMB across Tennessee in March and April. The sessions grew out of listening sessions conducted by TBMB prayer catalyst Nancy Duggin last summer, in which pastors, ministers, and laypersons identified a shared struggle: They wanted to pray more effectively but were unsure how.
The training aims to move participants away from prayer request driven gatherings and toward a more intentional focus on God.
Each session runs from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and walks attendees through the core components of prayer — adoration, confession, thanksgiving, petitions, intercession, and praying Scripture.
Mary Mastraccio, a member of the prayer team at Heritage Baptist Church in Johnson City, said she attended eager to grow regardless of her existing experience with prayer.
“We can all learn more about earnest praying,” Mastraccio said.
For her, the most practical takeaway was a framework for approaching Scripture through three lenses: identifying something to praise or thank God for, something to confess and repent of, and something to petition God for.
“It is a very worthwhile time spent looking at Scripture and thinking about how we can enrich our prayers,” she said.
Both pastors said one of the event’s most clarifying takeaways was that congregations often have prayer backwards — spending the bulk of their time on requests rather than on God himself.
“We focus on our supplication or requests before focusing on God,” Scott said. “We’ve got it backwards.”
Scott said the event also helped ease concerns about praying publicly, a barrier he sees in his own congregation.
“When we prayed at the event, it was momentum,” he said. “People realized, ‘I can do this. I can speak up and say I praise the Lord for creation or I praise him for my salvation.’ It’s a simple one-line prayer from your heart.”
At Antioch Baptist, Tackett said the church works toward having at least 10% of its adult population engaged in a hands-on prayer assignment, including teams that intercede for marriages in crisis, prodigal children, and long-term hardships.
The Holston event reinforced for him that prayer is less about working through a list and more about encountering God.
“We meet God in His word, and that’s how he reveals to us how we pray,” he said. “We pray in his will when we pray according to His word.”
Scott said he plans to take what he learned directly back to his congregation. He framed the work ahead plainly.
“We will not see a move of God until God’s people learn to pray God’s way,” he said.
There are two remaining sessions:
- April 7 at Hamilton County Baptist Association, 4062 S Access Rd, Chattanooga; and
- April 14 at Madison-Chester Baptist Association, 2035 North Parkway, Jackson.
Information on future events are available at tnbaptist.org/events. B&R
