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“This Generation is Full of World Shapers”
Children’s Prayer Leader Angie Clark—The ninetyandnine.com Interview

Interviewed By Kent d Curry
May 29, 2006

It’s been great fun observing Angie Clark trailblaze her own career / ministry path without a map. She sculpted her own professional niche when working in the Foreign Missions Division of the UPCI, creating a position within missions, then transferred to the World Network of Prayer and conjured a national Children’s Prayer movement out of faith and a dream. Now she crosses the globe teaching prayer seminars to five year-olds.

While “Children’s Prayer” isn’t among the usual topics on ninetyandnine.com, how she has created her ministries and what she’s doing to expand their effectiveness are lessons everyone with a ministry can sharpen.

Angie loves to laugh, has one of those minds that never stops, and often makes the odd, perfect connection to illustrate a point. She pursues her God, her personal growth, and her calling with equal assiduity. Best of all, she dreams big for God.

To me, she’s a ministry pioneer in an age where few abound.

This interview took place May 23-26, 2006.

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CHILDREN’S PRAYER—WHY BOTHER?
90&9: Let’s start with the basics. Why are you involved in children’s prayer?
AC: I believe it is an important part of development needed in the Body of Christ today. On a personal level, I feel it is the best use of my time, abilities, and life experiences. And, as a bonus, it’s the most exciting avenue of ministry because it gives me a front row seat to the fulfillment of prophecy.

90&9: Did you always feel like you’d be involved in children’s prayer?
AC: No. Actually, if someone had told me I’d be instrumental in raising the awareness of prayer among children when I was younger, I’d have been shocked. I’m not what most would consider a spiritual person.

90&9: What do most consider a “spiritual” person and how come you don’t qualify?
AC: Most people expect a “spiritual” person to be kind of spooky. (You know what I mean, so don’t pretend you don’t.) I don’t possess that, that aura of “spookiness” to validate what I do and say or how I live and spend my time—it just isn’t there. I recognize it in others. I even see it in some of the kids I mentor, but I’m just plain old me, in my set of circumstances and in my own little ruts and routines. I’m just someone trying to learn to use the power given to me through the Holy Spirit to bust out and do something right as often as possible.

Spookiness aside, I guess what I meant by spiritual earlier is the stereotypical image of an invincible prayer warrior who prays without ceasing . . . out loud . . . anywhere . . . at the drop of a hat. Why wouldn’t I qualify for that? It’s not my gifting and though I do get into warfare praying, it isn’t often . . . and that is what most people think would be required of a “spiritual” person who promoted prayer. I’ve been pleasantly surprised about that assumption being wrong.

90&9: Why is children’s prayer important? Shouldn’t we just wait until kids become teenagers so they can comprehend it all?
AC: My answer is two fold:

90&9: How young are the kids before they start getting the hang of praying?
AC: I’ve had kids as young as three years old plug into worship and missions prayer during some of our meetings. I’ve heard stories of babies under 20 months-old who were gifted intercessors and allowed to minister. At my home church, children as young as four and five are encouraged and invited to minister and begin receiving training at church through various kid-friendly ministries.

90&9: You’re currently teaching children how to pray around the world. I presume that didn’t happen overnight. Please tell us your basic career path to this point.
AC: In 1996 at the urging of Thetus Tenney, the (UPCI) Foreign Missions Division sent me to a national Missions Fest in Tulsa, Oklahoma for training. From that meeting, I took my first baby steps in kids prayer after hearing Esther Ilinsky in a workshop on teaching kids to pray for missions. For several years I used what she taught me in my first grade Sunday school class.

In 1998 I was asked to teach my first seminar on kids prayer at the second Summons to Sacrifice meeting sponsored by the World Network of Prayer. Thetus Tenney, who was instrumental in my getting to hear Esther, kept up with me and how I had used what I’d been taught; so she asked me to share what I’d learned with others. I did a second seminar in 2000 at the next Summons meeting.

In the summer of 2002 I attended a national prayer conference in Colorado Springs, CO. that gave me new direction for kids prayer, another level to reach for. At this meeting I received insight and information to teach kids (and myself) to pray Scripture. By fall, I started my first kids prayer group, training 4th-6th graders in prayer leadership. The curriculum I used, and still use for this group is, “Shekinah Kids” and is available from ShekinahKids.com.

Within one year the kids grew in spiritual maturity and faith. In the meantime, word got out about what I was doing so I made a few stops at churches here and there to gain practice, honing my skills, and sharing what I’d learned. During this time a second group called, Kids Prayer Force met on Saturday nights. This group was open to five through twelve year olds.

In late 2003 I made a career change. For nearly ten years my primary focus had been (foreign) missions with prayer as a sub-title, but it wasn’t enough. I believe so much in this ministry that I took a pay cut and began working for the World Network of Prayer as their Kids Prayer Coordinator. At the next Because of the Times meeting in Alexandria, Louisiana (2004), one announcement was made about my being available to come and train kids and teachers. Suddenly, my boring, stay-at-home schedule was history.

90&9: You lead a local children’s church prayer group. Tell us about that.
AC: I actually oversee two prayer groups. One is a training and leadership class for volunteer 4th-6th graders, called “Shekinah Kids.” I started this group in the fall of 2002. The second group is called “Kids Prayer Force” and it was started in January of 2003. We meet on Saturday nights while the adult prayer meeting is going on and on Sunday nights 15 minutes prior to the evening service. The ages for this group are five through twelve.

90&9: How were you able to build this ministry into its present state?
AC: The first year the Shekinah Kids met on Wednesday nights during the first 30 minutes of Children’s Church. We would rush through our time together then rush out to the kids group to pray over the offering and join the crowd for the sermon. After a year of this, the leader (the world-renowned King’s Klown), asked me to keep the Shekinah Kids for the entire Wednesday night service because the gap in their spiritual maturity was too difficult to bridge. He had seen a drastic difference in their behavior, knowledge, and expectations. So Shekinah Kids have been meeting for three and a half years now. Two or three groups of kids have been passed on to the youth group at this point.

90&9: Do you have a favorite moment where you went, “Yes! This is what I’m supposed to be doing!”
AC: I think my first “Yes!” moment came for me as I was doing “repeat-after-me-prayers” for the fourth week straight in my first grade class. Lanae Leaman interrupted me and said, “I have my own prayer today.” She prayed for a homeless man she’d seen on the way to church—a completely new idea.

Where to start on the local church victories? A Sunday school teacher’s deaf ear was opened during class. Intercession broke out for African AIDs orphans during a regular Shekinah Kids class. Larissa Hunt’s premeditated prayers have made the “big time.” Jared Hunt’s double portion has been poured on him and he’s only 10. Six miracles took place in one night as children prayed for adults with specific needs. Kids are hearing specific words from God and they’re learning how to obey. A kid’s ministry team has been formed called GLOW, and a large part of their practice time is devoted to . . . you guessed it, prayer.

90&9: What’s the coolest part of children’s prayer?
AC: I like watching kids connect the dots in those “Ah-ha!” moments. And, besides all the good it does the kids, it does me a lot of good, too, especially when I look around and see those “Ah-ha!” moments register on the faces of their parents and adults in their vicinity. As a bonus, I get to learn all kinds of exciting things, techniques, and meet some of the coolest people on the planet. Right now, the coolest part is that others are starting to help carry the load.

90&9: What’s the most frustrating part of children’s prayer?
AC: I’m too busy is my first answer. My second answer is that most adults think kids are “cute” so they often aren’t taken seriously.

90&9: Why aren’t more people involved in this ministry? I mean, it seems so obvious.
AC: Two thoughts on this. First, what I’ve found is that most people feel it should be left up to prayer warriors or Sunday school teachers and/or children’s pastors. We want the kids to be so filled with information that we neglect getting them filled with the Holy Spirit.

What I mean by that last sentence is this. We don’t have time in our Sunday school class structures or children’s church meetings for prayer. We want kids to know their books of the Bible, know their memory verses, and know a million Bible stories. Why is that? Because it makes the teacher look good—which makes the teacher feel good. But how well are we expressing our desire for our kids to know Jesus, personally?

When this becomes important, the focus comes off the teacher and onto the kids. And that’s a paradigm shift for most adults. Recently, one Sunday school teacher tried to center her class around prayer and was told by her superintendent that doing so was a bad idea and that she needed to stick with the curriculum. Another teacher changed her class completely to focus on spiritual training, and the first week three children were filled with the Holy Spirit.

The second thing that keeps people from getting involved in this kind of ministry is lack of information. Like that superintendent I mentioned earlier, so many people are either uninformed or misinformed. There is only a small minority of curriculum written by Spirit-filled believers that train kids in spiritual things such as prayer. However, these curricula have found a market on the internet and are doing quite well. An excellent resource is KidsInMinistry.com.

90&9: Are churches catching the vision?
AC: Yes! When they see what is possible, they want it. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words and pictures with sounds must be worth even more.

 

PROGRAM / RESOURCES

90&9: What’s the basic format when you meet locally?
AC: In Shekinah Kids, we do 30 to 40 minutes of Scripture card memorization—that’s where kids learn to pray content of Scripture, and earn points doing so. Then we follow up the remainder of the class time with drills or activities to expand their training, including praying in the microphone (how and where to hold the mic and how to speak slowly and clearly). We also pepper our class with times of intercession, missions videos to build empathy and compassion, as well as plan for projects, etc.

In Kids Prayer Force, our schedule is a little more static. We begin with about 15 minutes of worship (to get them worn down), then 20 minutes of teaching and sharing. Then we do about 8 minutes of quietly listening for God to speak, and 12-15 minutes of praying for each other, one at a time. We also invite one adult to each meeting to help expose members of the church to what’s going on in kids prayer.

90&9: Give us a typical prayer exercise you give to children. Why is it effective?
AC: One of the first lessons I usually teach has to do with worship, because it’s the first order of business we do with kids. It helps to clear the air, bring unity, and uses up lots of pent-up energy—which leaves kids manageable during the rest of our time together.

The spiritual dimension of this exercise is quite powerful. Psalm 8:2 says that when children and nursing infants give God praise, His enemies are silenced. So, I remind kids or explain this verse to them, then select a volunteer to wear a set of horns I have (representing an enemy), and as the kids worship, they are given tape to put over the “enemy’s” mouth. It’s effective because it reinforces visually what is happening in the spirit. Anytime I can do a visual to reinforce a spiritual reality, I latch onto it.

90&9: What are your primary resources and what do you recommend?
AC:

Missions: Missions prayer tools (globe, flags, books, prayer spinners, and M&Ms).

Worship: Praise banners, CDs (Hillsong Kids I & II: Super Hero and Super Strong God; the group Go Fish., Shout Kids Praise Gospel, Matt Redman), “bongaloons”

Websites: KidsInMinistry.com, PrayKids.com, KidsPrayer.com, PPT.org

Prayer Meeting Ideas: “Kids Prayer Activites and Lessons”—new from Landmark Tabernacle’s prayer ministry (Denver, CO). This is excellent material. Available by emailing Nancy Anderson at: nanderson@landmarktabernacle.org.

 

BASIC APPLICATION

90&9: What would you suggest to parents to teach their kids to pray?
AC: Take what your kids love to do and turn everything possible into prayer opportunities. If nothing they do lends itself to prayer, then you need to start helping them clean up their life. Also, set a time for prayer daily. There are books on the listing at the KidsPrayer.com website that can help you.

90&9: What can individuals do to jumpstart kid’s prayer in their churches?
AC: Take a poll among kids and just ask them a few simple questions like:

Take your cues for involvement by their response. If they’re not interested, pray for there to be a hunger for prayer born in them; then take your poll again later.

Don’t try to know all the answers or become a prayer warrior before doing anything about prayerlessness in your kids. Just begin walking with them through the process=growing together in Christ.

 

AROUND THE WORLD

90&9: What countries have you visited teaching children’s prayer?
AC: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Ghana, Bangladesh, and Nicaragua. Coming up is the European Conference in Amsterdam, Bangladesh and India this fall, then Guatemala with a former Shekinah Kid right before Thanksgiving.

90&9: What are some special challenges of teaching children overseas? Do the different regions of the world differ greatly?
AC: Language and customs are probably the biggest barriers. However, the same seven principles of kids prayer apply overseas as here in North America. Exactly the same. It’s surprising, really.

The other challenge is that in many developing nations children are not considered much at all, and not thought of very respectfully; so getting adults to buy into training children takes demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

90&9: Do children overseas respond the same, or differently, to these teachings?
AC: The same way. Children are hungry everywhere to be loved and to have power over their situations in life. These basic universal needs are answered when they learn about the love of Jesus and His trusting them enough with His Holy Spirit and power. And when they find out they can talk to Him normally or cry out to Him when in pain, it comforts them. And when they know from experience that He will speak to them in quiet moments, they reach for Him with faith.

90&9: How have the adults responded to your teaching the children—are they threatened? supportive?
AC: Adults have sometimes been skeptical until they see a demonstration. Often they are shocked at the simplicity of the message and implementation. Then they are usually grateful and are happy to tell others about what they’ve seen. This is one of the reasons I love teaching kids to pray and minister. It’s the best use of my time. Give me 20 minutes with a group of kids and they will use whatever tool I put in their hands. Most adults would take two months of constant nagging to do the same.

90&9: Any international experiences stick out in particular?
AC: In the summer of 2005 I spent two weeks in Ghana. During a very long national teacher training session that spanned two days, three children were forced to sit and listen to every part of the Seven Essentials of Kids Prayer, which is the title of a little book I’ve written and was being used as a comprehensive seminar. At the end of the first day, I had just finished teaching the adults about training children to pray for healing. A pastor’s wife living on the compound had stayed home during the meetings because of a fractured knee that was swollen and giving her much pain. The three children went to her home and prayed using the method I’d taught the adults to use, and the next morning that lady came to our seminar as proof that their simple prayers had worked. She led worship that day, and the crowd was like putty in my hands the rest of the seminar because they had seen proof from someone they respected.

In Nicaragua I was one of the speakers at a regional meeting. Leaders and teachers from six nations gathered to learn the Seven Essentials. Thirteen miracles happened at the end of the first day, after a young girl prayed for a missionary who was in severe pain who received a complete healing. As a result of that meeting, I’ve heard many positive things about children and teachers crying out before God wanting more.

I just received pictures from Panama showing how they took the message of the “Seven Essentials” (now translated into Spanish) into the countryside churches and how the message was received with excitement. It’s sooo cool.

90&9: What do you see on the horizon of children’s prayer internationally?
AC: I’m not sure what’s out there. I just envision more and more churches plugging in and more and more children getting into prayer and ministry. This generation is full of world shapers and they are being released at young ages. I’m going to an International Children in Prayer Consultation in Malaysia this fall, so perhaps I’ll have a better view of what’s taking place after that meeting.

 

PERSONAL / THE FUTURE

90&9: You’ve been able to cross some denominational lines with this haven’t you?
AC: Yes. Some of the people who are the most outspoken about kids being Spirit-filled and active in the Body are non-UPCI teachers and speakers. I have met with them personally and am building friendships that benefit both sides. Last summer I ended up filling in for Esther Ilinsky during the School of Prayer—what an incredible honor (she’s the one who got me started in kids prayer) to be trusted with such a great responsibility.

90&9: How do you feed yourself spiritually? What does your personal devotion consist of?
AC: I read my One Year Bible and do studying on the side when I have time. I’ve been blessed this year to attend a few women’s conferences that I’m still feasting on spiritually.

I read a lot of spiritually focused books (some of my favorite authors are John Ortberg, Beth Moore, and Stasi Eldridge) to make sure that my growth continues and I pray daily. Right now I’m committed to a season of early morning prayer . . . I’m not a morning person, but I felt Jesus ask me to spend some quality time with Him a few Saturday nights ago during the Kids Prayer Force meeting. I believe I’m able to keep my commitment level because the kids in my group pray for me.

90&9: What does your reading list consist of?
AC: Glad you asked! I love books! Let’s see:

90&9: Any overseas travel coming up that you haven’t already mentioned?
AC: I’m planning to make a move to Asia within the next year in order to bring kids prayer to Asia in a new dimension. By doing so, I also hope to make a place of ministry available overseas for the maturing children I’ve been training to come and work after high school if they want to (they can get paid to teach English out of high school with no additional college).

 

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© 2006, Kent d Curry

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Kent d Curry is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com.