LONGECITY

Following is a list of functioning prayer lines where someone will pray with you. Not all advertised prayer lines exist. Some are just a voicemail; others are less than that. Organizations seem to be fairly careless about claiming to have a prayer line when they don't. There's room for improvement there.

Some of these prayer lines ask pointed questions about your religious beliefs, the state of your soul and your relationship with Jesus before they pray with you. Jesus didn't ask any such questions when people came up to him to be healed. John Hagee ministries in particular was asking too many pointed questions. Unity, and Hillsong have not done this. LeSea and CBN were asking too many questions for a while but have been better lately.

Silent Unity Prayer Line
800-669-7729
24/7
Contrary to the name, this line isn't silent. The only liberal prayer line that I know of. I think it may be maintained by Unity Church.

Hillsong
1-800-895-6816
located in Sydney Australia
Friendly, doesn't ask about your religious beliefs. Doesn't pray with you on the phone but will take your prayer request down. Prayers seem to be effective. Part of what seems to be a Protestant TV ministry and congregation
open about 8:00 a.m. -- 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, Sydney time

Place for Miracles Prayer Line
Billy Graham Oral Roberts
918-495-7777
Long waits on hold but the recordings you hear are inspiring. Good prayers.

The Active Word Prayer Line in Florida
877-888-9673
8:00-5:00 M-F Eastern time?

LeSea Prayer Line
800-365-3732
24/7 ?
This is their general number too. Ask the person to pray with you

CBN Prayer Line
800-759-07000
24/7 ?
This is their general number too. Ask the person to pray with you
On Air Showline
757-226-2179
I guess to use this as a prayerline you would have to call at the right time and get through

Ohio Breakthough Prayer Line
Rod Parsley
800-424-8644
They may have changed the number for their prayer line since I posted this. You could probably get the new number from this one, if needed.

Joel Osteen Prayer Line in Texas
800-565-0772
This is their general number. Follow the prompts to get the prayer line.

International Life Outreach
1-800-947-LIFE
24/7
This appears to be their number. Ask the person there to pray with you. Located in Fort Worth, Texas, interdenominational. They also seem to have a Christian TV show hosted by James Robinson (Robison?) where they say they install water wells in third world countries.

ON MY FIRST CALL, THEY PRAYED WITH ME. ON THE SECOND, NOT SO MUCH.

On the first call, they didn't ask about my religious beliefs, and the prayer was good. They did add a bit to the prayer hoping that it would make me go out and witness. A high expectation for a phone call I thought, but still I was grateful. On the second call, they said, "I see you are a return caller. I have to handle this call differently. Let me put you on the prayer list. Is this prayer for you? What is your principle prayer request?" This seemed cold and officious to me. Not what Jesus would do.

All of the above are functioning prayer lines as of February 2013. (Not all advertised prayer lines exist. Some are just a voicemail.) Some of the above lines are open 24/7. Some aren't. Some serve other purposes; some don't. Most of these lines are run by evangelical Christians. Silent Unity is an exception. I haven't found any non-Christian prayer lines. There are a lot of good people volunteering on these lines. Some have a gift. Like anything, at times you run into someone you regret talking to. At CBN (or LeSea?) an occasional person is sharp-tongued, or too intent on extracting your contact info. At other times you may have a wonderful experience on that same line.

A few tips.

1) Expect a good experience, but if you get something else, say, "Oh, excuse me, there's someone at the door. I'm sorry, I have to go."

2) Soliciting your contact info would generally be for the purposes of sending a letter asking for donations. If you don't want that, graciously stick to your first name and city. Decline the letter saying, the prayer is enough, thank you. At the end of the call Silent Unity asks for your contact info to send you a letter of encouragement. I'm grateful to Silent Unity for running this prayer line but this interrupts the flow of the call. I always graciously say that the prayer is enough, thank you. I don't know if a purpose of the letter would have been to ask for funds, but perhaps the address to send donations could be shared while the caller is on hold in a low key way, or on a website.

3) Except for Silent Unity, most of these churches have conservative social agendas. Think before you send them a check.

4) A few of these lines (CBN, LeSea?) occasionally ask about your relationship with Jesus Christ. If you give an answer they don't like, they can become quite distracted.

My experiences of these prayer lines has been mostly good. I think that prayer is worthwhile. I don't feel that you have to believe exactly what your prayer partner believes to get the benefit of a prayer.

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If you know of a non-Christian prayer line, I'd love to hear about it. Feel free to share any other Christian prayer lines that you recommend. It's good to call the line first and see if you can get through to a person.