DAVID ADAMS looks at the trend for churches, especially in the US, to offer drive-through prayer facilities…
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Fast food and coffee have long been staples of the drive-through concept but the past few years have also seen the emergence in the US of a new drive-through phenomenon, that of drive-through prayer facilities. Churches of varying denominations across the country have reportedly picked up on the idea which offers drivers the chance to connect with someone who will pray for them without leaving the comfort of their car. One Florida-based pastor, whose church has been praying for drivers every Friday evening for a number of years via a drive-through facility, told Miami TV station WSVN last year that many people who came to them were sometimes “desperate in their needs”. “Things happen in their lives during the week, and they pull in, and we pray with them that there is hope,” he said. Churches, which, unlike the 24×7 nature of some fast food drive-throughs, usually offer the services for a few hours at a time, have set up facilities in church carparks as well as in separate buildings – one church reportedly set-up in an old bank and used the bank’s deposit tube for people to send through written prayer requests (the facility is also apparently used for various meetings). The trend for drive-through prayer has its critics – some say it denigrates the value of prayer in an already increasingly narcissistic world. Yet others see it as an effective way of reaching out to people who may not be comfortable setting foot inside a church. As Arizona-based pastor Faith Cummings said in 2013: “I think sometimes people that are going through difficult circumstances just want to see that someone cares what’s going on…”
