CONCERTS OF PRAYER - HISTORY
History of Concerts of Prayer
In the mid 1700s, pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards coined the term “concerts
of prayer” to describe corporate gatherings of Christians for intercession and spiritual
renewal. Regular prayer meetings at the time became a spark for the First Great
Awakening in the United States.
Similarly, the Third Great Awakening was largely initiated and sustained through a
movement of prayer. In 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier started a noon prayer meeting on
Manhattan’s Fulton Street. The meeting quickly grew to several thousand business
leaders and revival spread across the country, spawning some 2 million conversions
and great works of social reform. Slavery was cut short in the United States through
the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 largely because of this
awakening. The Salvation Army, The Christian and Missionary Alliance, and other
Christian movements found their birth during this period, and the mighty Student
Volunteer Movement was launched which sent approximately 25,000 students to the
mission field in the coming decades.
Such corporate gatherings for prayer and around-the-clock Prayer Watches have
worked together through history to strengthen prayer ministry. The New York City
“Concerts of Prayer” initiative, for example, combined their Concerts of Prayer with a
Prayer Watch that united 35 churches in 1995. The combined effort continued and
over the next five years, the murder rate in New York City dropped 70%, making it one
of the safest cities in the country with over a million people.
For more information on concerts of prayer for greater New York:
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