Fire in West Warwick: When a Praying Church Is Ready for the Harvest
Across New England, stories are emerging of God answering prayer in surprising ways. Here’s one from my neck of the woods: Rally Point Church in West Warwick, Rhode Island. This congregation of diverse demographics has a deep hunger for God’s presence and a burning Biblical conviction about the primacy of prayer.
Rally Point is barely a year old, still meeting in a VFW hall. A few weeks earlier, they had celebrated their first baptism service—six young people baptized, several on the spot, moved by the Spirit as they watched their friends go under the water and come up again. But as often happens, some of those new believers hadn’t been back in the following weeks.
That Sunday, before service began, the leadership team gathered to pray as they always do. Betty, one of the church’s prayer leaders, carried those young people in her heart. “I was praying, ‘Lord, bring those young people back—the ones who got baptized.’”
Then it happened. The team finished praying, worship began, and suddenly the doors opened.
A young man who had given his life to Jesus just the week before walked in—followed by about thirty people: young men, a few young women, children, and even some older relatives. They filled every seat, and the team had to scramble to set up more rows.
“He came right up and asked if he could speak,” Betty said. “He shared a bit of his story, encouraged everyone, and at the end of the service, he gave out Bibles—he had brought a whole case of them to give to his friends.”
Only a week earlier, he had been invited to Rally Point by a friend and encountered Christ there. Now he was bringing his entire circle with him.
For Betty, this was no coincidence—it was the fruit of prayer. “God’s been raising up this generation,” she said. “You hear about Bible studies starting in high schools, revivals on college campuses, young people just suddenly showing up in church. God is shaking them awake.”
Betty has been part of Revive New England for several years—a beloved member of a growing network of praying saints across the region. She’s seen first-hand what happens when prayer becomes the first step in the operating system of a church. “We pray about everything,” she said. “And when a church puts prayer first, you start to see these beautiful things happen.”
Leadership Reflections
Here are a couple reflections on this hot ember of testimony - may it and they stoke the fire and longing in our own hearts as we labor in the Kingdom.
God has not been ignoring our prayers. For the past several decades, many of us have been sowing for the harvest—with our prayers, with our tears, with faithful obedience through a long winter of waiting. We may have interpreted the delay as silence, assuming God hadn’t heard or answered. But it sure seems like He’s answering now. Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? But I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields—they are ripe for harvest.” Those seeds that were sown in winter are sprouting, and we need to be ready for a season of harvest.
God can trust a praying church with the harvest. I suspect one reason God is entrusting Rally Point with harvest moments like this is because they are a praying church. They didn’t plan for this moment—they prayed their way into it. A praying church is a church that is ready to host and steward revival and awakening.
Rally Point didn’t strategize their way into revival—they prayed their way into readiness. Prayer precedes power. When a church puts prayer first, God knows He can entrust them with new believers and fresh growth.
Are we ready?
Are our churches prepared for new people to walk in, encounter Jesus, and bring thirty friends back the next week? We pray for the harvest, we watch for the harvest—but we must also be ready when it arrives.
If you haven’t yet seen it in your church, don’t lose heart. Keep praying. Keep preparing. Because the harvest is closer than you think—and God will entrust it to praying people.
With hope and hunger,
Greg