Bethel students create Prayer Tent, creating a place for the community to come together and seek the Holy Spirit. 

By Sarah Nelson

Prayer is foundational to the Christian lifestyle, and starting March 30, students will have a unique place to engage in what many consider to be a vital aspect of their faith. Kresge courtyard will be home to a prayer tent, a camping tent in which students will have 24-hour access to the opportunity to pray with others.

Lars Anderson, Max Anderson, Hannah Johnson and Mike Bond, all current students, toyed with the idea for months, but the idea begins with a Bethel grad who said the idea came during a time of prayer. Nick Kruse, a 2015 graduate, contacted said students to initiate the startup process. Complete with journals, music and a lamp for the night shift, the tent will be a space for students to pray in community for Bethel or other issues.

In prior years, students could sign up for time slots outside Campus Ministries to stay in the prayer tent in a period of 40 days. It was a huge success, with dorms, teams and groups of people signing up until the slots were filled. According to assistant campus pastor Donna Johnson, the campus truly rallied around the tent.

“It was an incredible time (on campus),” Johnson said “Students were coming together under one thing, to pray,”

The following year, the idea was tried once more, only without the same impact. Now, students are looking to revive the plan. The fact the project is entirely student-led is important, Johnson said.

This time around, instead of sign-up papers, all students will have access to a spreadsheet on Google Drive to reserve slots in the tent.  

For Lars Anderson, there is hope that students’ faith will be enhanced and given the chance to pray for others. He acknowledges there are spiritual forces working against the group’s effort to complete the project, but is firm that the tent will be established in Kresge courtyard by the end of this month

“(My vision would be) for the Holy Spirit to be working through people at the school and for there to be an awareness for God,” Anderson said.

A recap of Bethel Universities Tent of Meeting. 40 days of continual prayer and praise on the center of the campus, 2011.