Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of Ogilville Christian Church in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
Members of Ogilville Christian Church’s Prayer Team are planning the church’s first Drive-Thru Prayer event on July 26, allowing individuals to have their prayers heard while in their car.
According Prayer Team Captain Bobbi Harris, the team helps to grow the congregation in their prayer life by providing different prayer opportunities, such as classes and events. The team is made up of eight members, fellow member Carol Brownfield said, and they meet once a month.
While driving through the Starlight area several years ago, Harris said she saw a church advertising weekly drive-thru prayer event. Through her research, she found that many other churches do these events to connect with people who are hurting, and so she introduced her team to the idea of holding one at Ogilville Christian Church.
“We all thought it was just a cool idea and so that’s what we decided to do,” Brownfield said. “We’ve done other things in the past… we’ve had a 24-hour prayer vigil and we’re going to pray for the children when school starts back up and we do prayer walks, a lot of things, but this is our first drive-thru prayer.”
From 8 a.m. to noon on July 26, people are welcome to drive through the church’s parking lot and share their prayer needs with members of the prayer team. In addition to praying for and with them, Brownfield said they will share relevant scriptures and invite them to church, whether that is the Ogilville Christian Church or another church.
If the team finds that someone needs more help than just their prayers, a counselor will also be on site during the event that they can be directed to, Harris said.
“They don’t have to get out of the car, they just drive in and we pray for them…,” Harris said.
Harris said the drive-thru prayer event will give team members an opportunity to pray in a different way than before, and she hopes the event serves as a way to connect with the community and help others. As this is their first drive-thru prayer event, Brownfield said they do not know what to expect, but she hopes to see a lot of people come by.
“I think people need to be heard. There’s a lot of suffering, you can just look at the news, I think of the tragedy that just happened in Texas and a lot of people would question and wonder ‘where is God,’ when things like that happen,” Brownfield said. “But everybody’s going through something. This life, either you just went through something, you’re in something or something’s right around the corner, because that’s just the state of the world that we live in. And I think people need hope and encouragement and they need to be heard and have someone listen to them.”
