WS Chronicle

With everyone on the go nowadays, many individuals may not have the time to attend a full church service. To help aid individuals with their time concerns, while also feeding their spirits, Union Baptist Church, 1200 Trade St. NW, has introduced at drive-thru prayer line on Thursdays from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

The idea for the prayer line came from Bishop Tim Jackson, who said his former church in Detroit, Michigan, used to do the same thing. He thought it would be interesting to see if the idea could work here in Winston-Salem.

“We just transferred it down here, because the weather is so much better, we can do it longer,” said Jackson.

Rev. Dr. Kia Hood-Scott is one of the coordinators of the drive-thru. A big reason for wanting to bring the idea to light was that senior pastor, Bishop Sir Walter Mack Jr., is a “very big man of prayer.”

When a car pulls up to the church, they are greeted by one of the members of the ministry who will pray with them. The person is asked if there is something specific they would like to pray about, followed by a short one- to three-minute prayer.

“Our target is to pray for families, to pray for our community, to pray for our schools, marriages and individuals,” said Hood. “We want to just cover people in prayer. Our goal is when people leave here, they leave here with hope.

“We live in a world where a million things happen every day, we hear it every day on the news, even right here in our own city. One of the things that is for certain, if people have something to hold onto and people that care for them, it allows us to connect people back to God and hope.”

Hood-Scott and Jackson echoed they know what prayer can do, but sometimes people just need to be reminded that “prayer has not gone out of style.”  

The plan for the ministry is to hold the event every Thursday until August. The group wanted to emphasize that people do not have to get out of their cars to pray, all they have to do is roll down the window and hold their hands out.

“You really don’t even have to give your situation; we are not concerned about that. We are concerned that we connect you with God, because at the end of the day we are concerned about your situation, but we don’t have to know it. We know the person that can handle your situation.”

Following the short prayer, the ministry member does invite the person to come and attend service at Union, but that is not a requirement.

“We are not browbeating people, trying to make them come to church, but of course we invite them and give them a schedule of the service,” Jackson said.  

The church stated they are bringing this to their High Point location as well. They also encouraged other churches to follow suit with this event. They feel the more people that are touched by prayer, the better.