Catch The Wind Nights

Launch Phase Report

Overview

Catch The Wind Nights launched on November 9, 2025, quickly becoming a rally point for the devoted and desperate. The November and December nights served as rapid prototypes, creating opportunities to tune our collective ear to the Spirit's voice and exercise creativity in building workflows and volunteer structures. In alignment with 21 Days of church-wide Prayer & Fasting, January brought three consecutive gatherings. This run required clear, repeatable SOPs and high volunteer engagement.

The fruit of these nights has been made clear through a handful of indicators:

Stories submitted by the congregation and by Prayer Team members
Number of people individually prayed for by the Prayer Team
Consistent attendance/engagement with the service + equipping time

What we've witnessed is an altar of praise that overflows into one at a time ministry. This note from Meagan, a prayer team volunteer, summarizes exactly what this looks like:

The women I prayed with last night included:

— a woman who lives with a family member who worships crystals and she was feeling the effects of spiritual warfare and darkness in her home (Matt's equipping was so well-timed to pray over her!)
— a woman overwhelmed by the time with her foster children coming to an end and unsure if their biological parents were fit to care for them
— a woman lonely and struggling to find community within the church and considering leaving the church. After praying with her we talked for almost 20 minutes and she is planning to try a new group and get plugged in with women's ministry.
— a woman convicted that she had a heart of stone toward her sister after hearing Ezekiel 36:26 and asked for prayer for God to give her new heart.
— a woman so overwhelmed with anxiety to the point of being unable to sleep. — Meagan, Prayer Team

Develop a reproducible model for altar-building that catalyzes believers to listen to the Holy Spirit's voice.

Event Structure

Each Catch The Wind Night includes 90 minutes of equipping, 30 minutes of volunteer-powered room setup, and 2 hours of prayer and worship. The purpose of this pre-program equipping is to identify and activate lay leaders who can carry the work of prayer into their weekly ministry. Elders, deacons, staff, and volunteers from various campus ministries are present. For example, several High School Ministry group leaders attend the equipping time, and some bring students with them to experience it together.

The crew who shows up to this equipping is referred to as the Towel Team (honoring Jesus' example in John 13). After the equipping, they get divided into three sub-teams: Hospitality, Setup, and Prayer. Each team has been assigned "volunteer leads" (lay-people) who give direction and invest relationally.

The Towel Team Room is consistently multi-generational and provides space for spiritual mothers and fathers to invest in the next generation during group discussion and fellowship time.

Last night I brought an 8th-grade daughter of a friend to serve. She's on fire for the Lord, and while I ended up in a prayer appointment most of the night, she boldly prayed over 10 people [by herself]. It was so encouraging to see the boldness and hunger the Lord is stirring in this next generation. — Rebecca, Towel Team Volunteer

Event Schedule

2:45PM – 4:30PMProduction Setup + Band Rehearsal

4PM – 5PMTowel Team Equipping

5PM – 5:30PMMeal

5:30PM – 6PMRoom Setup / Prayer / Consecration

6PM – 6:30PMGreeting + Prayer

6:30PM – 8:30PMPrayer & Worship

8:30PM – 9PMRoom Cleanup

Equipping

140+ individuals have been equipped since the first Catch The Wind Night. Each new person who shows up receives a booklet called How To Pray for Others that outlines a five-step framework to help them intentionally pray over friends, family and colleagues. Every equipping session builds on that foundation, empowering individuals to pray for one another.

Topics have included:

How to Pray for Others
Tabernacle Symbolism
Jesus is our Model 101
Spiritual Conflict 101
Spiritual Gifts 101

Consecration

The consecration process begins prior to Sunday evening. Chris Jackson meets with the worship team the week prior to begin listening in prayer and leads them in a 72 hour fast. Matt, Lucas, and others, pray ahead, listening for specific Scripture to anchor each night. At 6:45PM, there is a programming walk-through that serves as a time of consecration prayer and communal discernment.

Common questions asked in this environment are:

"Does anyone have a sense for specific groups who need to be welcomed/shepherded tonight?"

"Does anyone have a specific Scripture that's especially on your mind for tonight?"

Elder Engagement

Elder Engagement has been layered and intentional at all Catch The Wind Nights. Elders regularly attend Towel Team equipping, read Scripture during the program, participate in the worship team, contribute to consecration time, pray over individuals, and offer anointing and transformational prayer when individual prayer escalates.

AT 106/109, located just to the side of The Atrium, has become a quiet space where individuals who require extended conversation can meet with Elders and prayer team leads. It's crucial to have elders deeply engaged in that space due to the Spiritual authority and covering they provide. Prayer Team members are trained to invite individuals into this space if escalation is required.

Catch the wind nights have been a beautiful extension of the work the Lord has been doing in our people on the weekends, in prayer gatherings, and in our small groups.

Offering our people space to pray, space to worship, time and freedom to move as the Holy Spirit is leading us, will continue to bear fruit as we seek the Lord together with all of our hearts.

This is a prayer meeting. We should desire to be a praying people, and I'm so grateful for the team, the staff, the volunteers, all the work that goes into making space for prayer, and equipping people to go deeper with the Lord. — Michael Holland, Elder

Praying for our church family, new believers, seekers, prodigals, the lost, broken and hurting has allowed me to serve and love others. Witnessing and hearing the authenticity and vulnerability of both young and old and to watch the Holy Spirit work and lead in ways that are truly amazing has been transformative. Also, love seeing the expressions of relief as burdens are lifted which has encouraged, strengthened, stretched and impacted me tremendously. — Don Harris, Elder

Prayer Team

30+ Prayer Team members are given lanyards to wear during the program and assigned zones where they camp out for the duration. Each zone has a volunteer lead who can assist with connection and escalation. The lanyards help the congregation identify who is offering prayer in their area. Anyone with a lanyard has been through How To Pray for Others training. They are also prepared to operate in pairs, and invite someone of the opposite gender to tag-in if appropriate.

We're moving towards creating personalized lanyards with printed names to specifically identify trained/cleared/committed volunteers.

My favorite moment of the night was praying with a man probably in his 50s. He said that he felt like his faith has gone cold and he sees what is happening in the next generation and wants that to happen in him too. I got to sit with him while he brought that to the Father. — Nate, Prayer Team

Feedback Loop

Feedback is collected in a variety of ways following Catch The Wind Nights. The primary method is a table full of notepads where the congregation can write notes on their way out. Instruction and signage prompt them with the question, "Did you hear from the Lord tonight?" This allows us to get a pulse on what is happening in the room and any common patterns that are represented across multiple interactions.

Follow-up emails are also sent to the Towel Team, requesting stories, highlights, and recommendations. Asking the Prayer Team how many people each volunteer prayed for helped us understand that the average Prayer Team member prays for about 4 people per night (some reach significantly more, others less). Pre-event emails are also sent asking if the Towel Team has heard anything in prayer that might help inform the night.

The core team working on Catch The Wind Nights also meets regularly to debrief and iterate on processes to pursue constant improvement. Maintaining an ongoing feedback loop helps us listen well, in community, rather than guessing what's on the Lord's agenda.

Resources

It's vital to provide handlebars from Scripture to anyone who is discovering, wrestling, or processing at the altar. With this in mind, a collection of resources were developed that can be used during the program or referenced in the days after. This collection is accessible via QR code around the room.

These resources are housed at catchthewind.space and topics include:

Altars Throughout Scripture
Names of God
A Guide to Psalm 23
Teach Us How To Pray (Matthew 6)

Activity kits were developed for families attending with kids. Kits include themed activity books with coloring pages, word searches, etc. and a build-your-own sailboat kit. The program host always acknowledges children during the welcome and makes it clear they are welcome and wanted.

Innovation

Each prayer volunteer has an NFC sticker on their lanyard that allows them to tap the lanyard against someone's phone to instantly share the resource page URL.

Innovation

Build-your-own sailboat kits keep kids engaged, helping families participate together.

1X Stories

I have had some really amazing conversations and prayers at each of the nights. On the first night I really felt led to pray for these two middle/high school girls that I saw. Matt asked anyone to raise their hands for prayer and they both did. I went over and prayed with them for a long time and they opened up about a lot of hard things going on in their families and own lives. Both of them asked for prayer for depression and one of them asked for prayer for her brother since he walked away from the faith.

This last Sunday, I saw them again and they said they were looking for me since they had an update. The one girl's brother ended up coming to a Christmas Eve service at Southeast and loved it and wants to come back and find a community here. The girls said they have felt so much lighter and feel they have power over depression through Jesus. They said that even if their feelings are heavy, they know that they can surrender it to the Lord. It has been so much fun seeing the answered prayers in these girls' lives and the way they keep coming back to receive from the Lord since they don't get many examples or wisdom at home. — Janae, Prayer Team

Chrissy Bramer was praying for Madi. Chrissy came to get me. Madi, single-mom, had lost her apartment and for a couple of weeks had been living with her ex-husband and 2-year-old son as she navigated the way forward. Late last week Madi's ex-husband let her know that he was selling his house, packing all belongings up within days, moving to Montana, would be driving to Montana on Sunday.

This past Saturday, Madi packed all her belongings in her car, stayed Saturday night at the home, Sunday morning came to church, learned of the Catch The Wind service. Sunday night she came to the service because she "Didn't have anywhere to go and it's cold outside" — had planned to be in her car for the evening and sleep in her car. I engaged, connected with Lucas, took Madi to the Holiday Inn Express by 9:30pm — I/we are in daily contact with her and engaging temporary needs as the Father brings more stabilizing support and way forward. We're engaging what we know of her community, Brooke Lancaster is assisting. Madi started coming to church 1 year ago, baptized in August, recently joined a Women's Bible Study. Madi has a job and is working downtown. Lucas did a great job in triage noting "don't make any big decisions tonight…let's take care of the next couple of days/weeks and see how the way forward unfolds" Madi was originally going to start driving to Montana/sleeping in her car along the way because she didn't have anywhere to go — Lucas noted her church, church community, full-time job and noting there is a support here for her encouraged her to not make any big decisions in crisis. — Carley, Southeast Staff

I approached three different ladies with a word and a verse I felt like God gave me for them. Here is the cliff note version.

Psalms 147:3 — God wants her to know Him as the good Father that heals
2 Corinthians 2:15 — Her worship was sweet smell to God
Isaiah 40:29-31 — Life had beat her down but now God is drawing her to Him to not do life alone and live in strength

All these ladies cried and thanked me so much. — Reba, Prayer Team

I was wearing a blue lanyard last night. I prayed over three people who were present and one who texted me. Of the three who were present, one raised her hand, one was sitting alone and I asked if she would like prayer.

The third person came over to me. She said that she heard the Holy Spirit tell her that the person who prayed for her would be someone who had walked the same journey that she is now walking. She has my first name as her middle name and my middle name as her first name, which we thought was interesting enough, but then she told me that her father has dementia.

My mother fought a 15-year battle with dementia. The last year of her life was marked by the Covid shutdown, so I went to the window and sang and prayed and read Scripture to her twice a week. I actually have setlists that I made back then, and I shared my mom's final setlist with Rebecca as I encouraged her to keep strong and to keep pouring into her father, reminding her that even though he is nonverbal now, he still hears her. He apparently led the family and possibly a church in praise and worship many years ago. — Liz, Prayer Team