Campus Renewal, a national Christian ministry group with a branch at UT, came up with a big idea: having campus ministries work together to create a daily prayer book.
“People loved the idea. The response has been overwhelming,” said Gary Peacock, director of Campus Renewal Ministries’ Campus House of Prayer at UT, who had seen similar projects at other campuses around the country. Peacock reached out to UT’s campus ministries and asked each to submit information for one day.
Pray UT is thirty-one days long, although it’s not dated so it can be used any time.
Each day features a prayer, a scripture passage, a description of the organization that submitted it, and a group of people at the university to specifically pray for. The groups range from faculty and staff to transfer students and students with disabilities, to support staff and the Board of Regents.
Campus Renewal formatted each entry and designed hard-copy and PDF versions. They also hope to turn the book into a mobile app.
The book has been distributed to the participating campus ministries and they are using it this month. Several churches in the Knoxville area are also using the book, and Campus Renewal continues to receive requests for copies.
Peacock said he was amazed by how the idea took off.
“It happened really fast,” and the contributing organizations are “across the board, from Roman Catholics to Baptists,” Peacock said. Within two weeks, the book was put together and enough money was raised to publish it.
“It’s groundbreaking,” Peacock said. “It’s the largest collaborative faith project we’ve done at UT.”
Anyone who would like a free copy can e-mail utk@campusrenewal.org or stop by the Campus House of Prayer, 1915 Lake Avenue, to pick up a hard copy.
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C O N T A C T :
Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)