Louisiana Church Offering Drive-Thru Good Friday Prayers
A congregation in Louisiana is going to offer drive-thru prayers for commuters as part of the holy day of Good Friday.
For the third year in a row, Louisiana Avenue United Methodist Church of Lafayette will pray over commuters who drive to their property this Friday.
Louisiana Avenue UMC Senior Pastor Robert E. Johnson, Sr. told The Christian Post that the goal of the drive-thru prayers is to reach the unchurched.
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"We started offering drive thru prayers because there is a low percent of people who go to church in the Lafayette area. Our church is located next to a busy highway," explained Johnson.
"So having people and their entire families come to drive-thru for prayers will give us an opportunity to introduce Christ to someone."
More than 100 drivers showed up last year, Johnson explained, and the goal is to have that number doubled via increased promotion of the event.
"We started advertising early and scheduled interviews on local television and radio stations to discuss our event this year," said Johnson.
"We used this event to help those who are trying to get a loved one back into church through a short prayer."
Louisiana Avenue UMC is not the only congregation in the United States to offer drive-thru prayers for spiritually hungry commuters.
Snellville United Methodist Church, a congregation not far from Atlanta, Georgia, that is also located near a highway, holds a drive-thru prayer station a couple times a year.
In an interview with CP from 2011, Snellville UMC lay minister Kay Cribbs explained that the drive-thru prayers were well-received, with commuters coming with various prayer requests.
"One mother came through [and] wanted us to pray for her dealing with her middle school son. He had turned from a perfect straight-A student and was rebelling," recalled Cribbs in 2011.
Cribbs also told CP that she was "kind of surprised [at] how open people were to strangers" and how many drivers saw it as a "moment of comfort."
Regarding their Good Friday drive-thru event, Johnson of Louisana Avenue UMC told CP that he hoped to eventually expand the observance to more Fridays, focusing on the needs of "those who may have had a bad week at work."
