Seek the welfare of the city and pray to the Lord on its behalf.” One of the encouraging prayer developments in my home city of Stoke-on-Trent over the last few years has been the monthly united prayer gatherings. They began in 2001 with hundreds of Christians uniting to cry out to God together using 2 Chronicles 7 v14 as a basis for our praying and, as a consequence, the meetings received the nickname ‘2C7’.

We have sought to make sure that the focus of our praying has been the needs of the city rather than just the needs of the Church. At these city-wide prayer gatherings we regularly invite leaders from secular agencies to join us. Over the years, leaders from politics, business, education, health, and the emergency services have been our guests. As part of the regular interview process we ask them for three specific topics that local Christians can pray about. The responses to this question have provided an intriguing list including: continued inward investment from the Government, the appearance of [building] cranes on the city-centre skyline, impact on drug-related crime and improvements in school educational attainment.

In July 2007, the editor of our regional newspaper was a 2C7 guest and he listed an altogether different trio of prayer topics: visible visionary leadership in the city, a change in the local ‘victim mentality’ and premiership football. When the first two prayer requests were mentioned they were greeted with much serious thought and reflection. However, as you might imagine, the third request resulted in many smiles and even some laughter. But the request was not a flippant one. The editor explained that it often requires something like premiership football to help lift the general morale of the local population. So, we prayed. Of course, we were careful to point out that such prayers weren’t suggesting to God which of our two local football teams (Stoke City or Port Vale) might achieve this or how long it ought to take!

So, last year whilst many people both inside and outside Stoke-on-Trent doubted the possibility of ever seeing Premiership football in their lifetime, many Christians prayed that such a blessing on the city would be seen quicker than many might expect. And, for those of you who don’t follow football, the amazing news was that in May this year Stoke City were promoted to the Premiership.

In the Old Testament, God used the prophet Jeremiah to encourage believers to “seek the welfare of the city and pray to the Lord on its behalf”, explaining that when the city is blessed so, too, would be God’s people.

Of course, there are much more important things to pray about than football. However, too often Christians fail to heed the Holy Spirit’s whisper to ‘stand in the gap’ for any of the needs of their village, town or city.

This summer, the City Council’s chief executive was another 2C7 guest. He also included football amongst his three requests, explaining that this season he wanted to see Stoke City retain their premiership status and Port Vale be promoted. So, as Christians across the city are continuing to pray for the ‘welfare of the city’, seeing Stoke City retain their Premiership status may for some people be the biggest miracle yet!