Prayer Patriots, a concept developed by Alastair Walker, a well-known retired pastor, is something he hopes will become a national movement. The pastor emeritus of Spartanburg First Baptist Church and former state convention president believes massive participation in small prayer gatherings across the nation could be the last hope for America.
“We are suffering today in America because of the godlessness of our beloved country,” he said. “Divine intervention is the only answer, and prayer is our best recourse.”
Walker was born in Scotland, but finished his growing-up years in South Africa. He was the originator of the rice bowl offering strategy for world hunger, and says that movement raised more than $30 million over approximately 10 years through the International Mission Board.
His concern for the spiritual state of America is obvious. Prayer Patriots was chosen as the name for this idea because “my heart is broken over the direction America is heading. I don’t think a person can be more patriotic than when he or she is praying.”
“There is a burden in my heart for America,” he said, “and that burden was born through my time of prayer after reading The Courier’s issue devoted to the state of the church.” One message that resonated with him was Frank Page’s statement at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that “we are a 46,000-church convention looking for divine intervention.”
“What [Page] said should sober the heart of every person who has a deep love for our denomination,” Walker said.
Recently Walker met with Page and discussed his ideas. “Dr. Page accepted it very graciously,” he said. “He took it seriously. I hope the seed that was sown will bear fruit and that he will call us to prayer.”
In October 2012, Walker organized pastors across denominational lines to gather together at a small Presbyterian church in Campobello and lead all who came in a season of prayer. The group met each Thursday at 8 a.m. for several weeks. “The place was packed every time we met to pray,” he shared. “I would like, with deep respect, to challenge the leaders of our convention to call our denomination to prayer by developing a national program in which every church in our nation can join hands in a concert of prayer.”
The format he envisions is no more than five pastors gathering together to lead people in a weekly time of prayer. “It could be done through our associations,” he said. “There could be several different groups in each association. These [weekly prayer gatherings] could go on for several weeks.”
Walker said it was J. Edwin Orr’s influence that led him to America, and he recalls vividly a statement of Orr’s: “Before every great revival comes judgment.” Walker believes America may already be under the judgment of God.
“Persecution, like that in China, Sudan or Nazi Germany, may be coming to America,” he said. “We may be living in the time when pastors will be arrested and persecuted for speaking out on the great moral issues. We need prayer in the midst of persecution, and we need men of God who will remain true to God and stand firm in His Word when the persecution comes.”
He pointed out that Southern Baptists “are probably the best organized denomination in America, but we must go beyond that and humble ourselves and pray. God is bringing us to the place where He alone can bless us, but only when we are on our knees before Him.”
Walker retired as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Spartanburg after 25 years and has served 22 interim pastorates since. He currently serves as interim pastor of First Baptist Church, Columbus, N.C. He will be 88 in September.