I love to collect seashells. I don't know why. We bring them home and pile them in old styrofoam coolers where they serve as nesting spaces for spiders. Nonetheless, I go to the beach, walk a bit, and before I know it, I'm gathering shells that simply seem to cry out for me to have them.

This afternoon I decided to collect some articles online that talk about prayer. I hope you enjoy reading them. Just click on the titles to go straight to the articles.

Great Things Happen When You Pray

by Norman Vincent Peale

Here are some of his quotable bits:

Often a person will complain, “I’ve prayed and prayed and didn’t get what I wanted.” Well who said you are supposed to get what you want? Prayer isn’t a device to get what you want.

Prayer is a means of bringing you to the point where you will accept what God wants. If you’re using prayer just for getting what you want, your engaging in an improper use of prayer.

To live a full and happy life is to learn...

I love summer! It's a great time to not only eat watermelon, but also to catch up on some great bucket list items.

Things like:

• Take an online course to strengthen my prayer life.
• Read fiction that will grow my faith.
• Listen to podcasts that equip me to share my faith.
• Grow my prayerlife with the classics

And if your bucket list looks like mine, you're going to love what I'm about to do. I'm going to give you links to some of my favorite books, podcasts and online courses in hopes that you might soak them in as you enjoy this season.

Take an online course: The Prayer Course 

We did this course together with our Prayer Clinic team during 2020 when we were separated from each other due to Covid. It was SO good! And, it's FREE!! Here's the link: 

The Prayer Course

Read Fiction that Will Grow Your Faith:

I love fiction but I'm picky about the books I read. I need characters that are unpredictable, and those that are both good and bad. I long for narratives that are set in...

 I've written 19 books, and most of them are on the subject of prayer. I could write a book a week between now and the day I die and I'd never exhaust the subject, nor would I reveal the entire mystery of prayer. (That's not going to stop me from trying, though!) 

But perhaps the most useful tool I've had the opportunity to create is this 4-session study called, Teach My Heart to Pray. If you haven't already done so, take a minute to watch the attached video.

Teach My Heart to Pray is designed to teach anyone and everyone what prayer is; how prayer works; what answers you can expect to your prayers; what barriers there are to our prayers' answers; and how to pray through to a break through. The study is designed to be taught in a Sunday morning, Sunday evening or Wednesday night church setting. It could also be used in home groups.

The material can be taught by me (on video) with a facilitator who is good at turning the video on and off, and leading discussion. Or, it can...

It's back to school time and if you're like me, you are eager to get those precious little people scrubbed clean and loaded up with new school supplies, hugged and kissed, and out the door, and off to school. The return to a "normal routine" is welcome this time of the year.

But as you send your people back to school, you do so with a bit of sadness over the fact that they are another year older, there are less marbles in your jar (have you seen the marble and parenting illustration?), and other people are about to be pouring into the minds and lives of your cherished offspring.

Unless you're homeschooling. If you're homeschooling you are giving yourself pep talks as you gear up for another year of pouring out and in to the children who call you "Mom" and/or "Dad." 

I've written on this topic before and decided today to simply give you links to the blogs and podcasts that provide you encouragement as you commit to pray your students through this upcoming year in school.

I don't usually use this blog page to promote events, but today I'm doing just that because I believe that the

ABSOLUTE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR CHURCH THIS YEAR IS TO OPEN A PRAYER CLINIC!

There are a few things we can do that make a really big difference in LOTS of things we can do. And one of those is this...

Come to a Prayer Clinic Open House 

In fact, come to our next one! We are hosting a special Open House for people who serve on Sundays. That would include pastors, prayer leaders, associational missions directors, pastors' wives, women's ministry leaders and any one else who believes that God responds in power when His people pray.

The next Open House for the Prayer Clinic will be held at Thompson Station Church in Thompson Station, TN on Wednesday, August 3 from 10:30-1PM. 

The day includes: Teach My Heart to Pray book, meeting with the highly trained and amazing Prayer Clinic team at Thompson Station Church, some extra surprises, lunch and time with me...

This is a quick update for my personal community, but this one time you are welcome to read on...

Throughout my years of ministry I've had one agenda and this is it:

I want to teach you to pray in such a way that you experience God's presence and His power in your life daily.

And, I want to do that same thing for your church.

To do this, I'm relaunching my leighannmccoy.com website SOON... (like hours and minutes not days and months soon). When the website is up and running you will be the first to know! 

I'm also podcasting this month on a subject that is not discussed enough. I'm going to address the crisis of faith in our young adult children who are declaring their freedom from the bondage of their Christian upbringing as they "deconstruct their faith."

This is a subject that is raw for me. If you've got kids you'd like to give a piece of your mind for Christmas, you can let me do it for you by simply sharing the podcast with them. We will send you an email each week when...