A pastor in Lubbock, Texas is currently raising money for an app
that he believes can change the way people participate in prayer.
Logan Fields, the 25-year-old youth pastor at Faith Baptist
Church in Lubbock, Texas, is currently in the fundraising stages
of his new smartphone application, "Prayer Button," that enables
people to pray together remotely. The user can join as many
"prayer meetings" as they wish, and the app calculates how
many minutes each user participates in a prayer. The amount of
minutes each user prays is then added to reveal a total for each
prayer group.
Fields told the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal that showing the
number of minutes spent in prayer gives the user confidence to
pray more, in a similar way that the amount of "likes" on a
Facebook status gives the user confidence to express
themselves more.
"The numbers kind of validates something happened and helps
your confidence to pray more," the pastor told the local media
outlet, pointing to his church's youth group as an example.
Fields says he has been using sticky notes to tally how many
minutes each youth group member spends in prayer, and such a
method has helped some overcome their struggles with addiction and other issues.
The pastor added that the method of tallying prayer minutes
allows users to look at prayer in a differnent, more exciting
manner and not feel constrained by time zones.
As explained on the "Prayer Button" website , "displaying the
total time prayed in a prayer meeting helps you pray because
you see an immediate result to your prayer and can set goals to
help motivate you to pray more and to pray more consistently."
"Your minutes of prayer [being added into the total prayer time]
also helps encourage others to pray more and reminds everyone
that others are praying with them." The website cites the Bible
verse 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that reads: "pray without ceasing."
According to the Prayer Button website, Fields has been
developing his Prayer Button app for the last three years,
beginning the process during his time at college. The pastor
hopes to have his app completed by the end of 2014, with Prayer
Button being available in the App Store and on Google Play.
As The Lubbock-Avalanche Journal reports, Fields needs to
raise $25,000 to have his app released by the end of 2014. He
has managed to raise almost $3,500 using the Indiegogo
fundraising site, and promises that the app will be offered free to
users.
Fields said in a Prayer Button YouTube video that praying in
groups will allow participants to "pray more earnestly."
"You can pray together, even if you're not 'together,'" Fields
adds in the video.
source: christianpost
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