Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Ian Cole, the visionary of the World Prayer Centre

Ian Cole

On June 25th-27th a major conference will take place in Stoke-on-Trent with Argentinian church leader Ed Silvoso coming to the city as the main speaker at an event which will generate national level interest.

Ed Silvoso is a highly influential and respected leader with a particular emphasis and understanding on how the church can bring about transformation in society through engaging in the marketplace.

Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Ian Cole, the visionary of the World Prayer Centre and one of the speakers at the Transformation conference, about praying for the UK and why he's excited about this conference.

Jonathan: Tell us about the role of the World Prayer Centre in the UK and how it came about.

Ian: World Prayer Centre is a vision that I had for an actual World Prayer Centre; a building here in the heart of the nation that would encourage prayer, mission, the family and support of marginalised people. Those were the four foundation stones of the vision. We've been carrying that vision for nearly 20 years and we are waiting for God to release to us all that's necessary to see the building built. In the meantime we are getting on with the work of encouraging and developing prayer and mission across the nation and across the nations. We're delighted and thrilled and excited that we're living in a time where prayer has really come to the fore of what God is doing around the world and we've been part of seeing that happen.

Jonathan: Tell us a bit about your background Ian, before launching the World Prayer Centre. Why were you so passionate about prayer?

Ian: I was originally involved in a ministry called Cornerstone, which was a ministry involved in taking the gospel out into the community through hostels for homeless kids; through coffee shops, community projects and a farm up in Snowdonia National Park. We were exploring as a charity all kinds of ways in which we could take the good news of Jesus out into the community. It was a faith work, which actually lasted about 30 years in total. In the midst of that though, we began to realise that however much we did for people, unless people's hearts were changed there was a real struggle. We began to explore the whole area of prayer; of seeing the spiritual climate within a community change, as well as the social action. I got involved in praying for Birmingham with a group led by Revd Bob Dunnit and we were praying for Birmingham and eventually prayed for the nation and prayed for revival in the nation. In the midst of that and all that work, this vision came, to see a centre established that would be 24/7 prayer for the world and that many people could come and pray and come into the presence of God; to understand something of what God was doing around the world at this time.

Jonathan: One of the major initiatives that you hold is called Trumpet Call. It's a regular national prayer gathering in arenas like the NEC. Can you describe the purpose of these and how that has developed over the last few years?

Ian: The Trumpet Call journey was an amazing journey. I was reading in Numbers 10 about the blowing of trumpets and that when the enemy comes against you in your own land, blow a trumpet and the Lord will hear you and heal your land. I just thought that was an interesting verse. Two days after reading that two ladies arrived on the doorstep of my office all the way from London, completely unannounced, just to say that they had come on the coach, walked up to the office and got a message for me and that was that I should blow a trumpet in the land; which I thought was rather significant. Two days after that I'm in a leader's prayer meeting in Birmingham when somebody puts his hand on my shoulder and says, "God give Ian strength to blow a trumpet in the land". I thought, hello God must be saying something here, I'd better listen.

I phoned the NEC and they had got an available date. We put the call out and said we are going to blow a trumpet in the land. We're going to blow a trumpet that says, gather the people to pray to seek the face of God; that God will have mercy on our nation. That we would pray into issues that our nation was struggling with; that we'd left God out of; we'd told God we don't need him, but as the body of Christ we were asking God to come back and that in his wrath and his judgement on the nation that he would have great mercy. We did that seven times and felt that the seven trumpets were blown, but recently we felt we should blow the trumpets again; we felt that there was such a desperate need for God to intervene in the life of our nation and to bring his Kingdom here that we should once again call people to come to Birmingham. We're going to go to the ICC this time, which is the International Convention Centre in the heart of the city and cry to God for a day and say God will you come and have mercy on this land and bring your presence and the transformational presence of Jesus into every community? We're doing that on June 15th.

Jonathan: If people come along to it, particularly if they've not been before, what can they expect?

Ian: The expectation is very simple. It's basically a prayer day. We're not promoting anybody; we're not promoting any organisation; we're not doing any kind of personality stuff. We're simply in humility standing before God and saying, God would you come. It's a day of prayer; it's a day of worship, because we really strongly feel that the worship of Christ; the uplifting of the name of Jesus is very important in the context of spiritual warfare within the nation. Worship would be a strong element. We will declare the scriptures; we believe in declaring the word of God and speaking the truth of God's word. We want to come against the whole spirit of unbelief; for the roots of unbelief that's come out of a rejection of God and we want to come against that root of unbelief and to speak the truth and then to pray and we'll pray in all kinds of ways. It will be worship, declaration of truth of the word of God and praying and seeking God that he will have mercy right throughout our family of nations. As people come they will be involved right from the word go. It's a day when although there's some leadership from the front, everybody will be part of the day.

Jonathan: The journey you've been on praying for the nation, I expect that through that you have felt more connected to the heart of the nation, in terms of getting a sense of what God's doing; a sense of the identity of where the nation is at. Can you sum that up? Are you hopeful for the future in this nation spiritually; are you concerned? Where would you say we're at?

Ian: I truly believe that God has not given up on our nation. I think we deserve that he gives up on us, but I don't think he has. I do believe that there are signs in the nation of the truth that God is at work. However, there are days I have to admit, when I do think we've gone past the point of no return, that actually there is no hope; but that's only an occasional day. I truly believe that God has not given up on the nation, but I believe strongly that the responsibility is with the body of Christ. The truth is, that if we will humble ourselves and seek him and seek first the Kingdom of God and get into true unity and to stand before God in unity as the body of Christ and seek his face, then he will have mercy and he will heal the land. I have strong evidence; I have visited a number of nations in the last few years where we have seen amazing moves of God bringing absolute transformation to a whole nation, never mind just a community, where the Christian leaders in the nation have stood together in unity; have made the main thing the main thing, which is the exaltation of Christ and the truth of the gospel and sought God together. Where that has happened we have seen some amazing things take place. That's why we're putting this call out again and will continue to put this call out, because I believe that where brethren, men and women dwell together in unity and seek God together, there he commands his blessing and when God commands blessing nothing can stop that.