Ask for prayer online

Ask for prayer online, without an account

Yes, you can ask Christians to pray for you online, free, without creating an account or giving an email. Write what you are facing, and the family at The Living Bread offers your request to believers who agreed to pray for strangers. You get a private page that shows honestly whether anyone has taken it.

The ways people ask for prayer online, and what each is good for

Many churches keep a prayer request form on their website. These are warm when you belong to that church, and slow or silent when you do not, because the request goes to a small team that already has a long list.

Social media is quick and public. A post asking for prayer reaches the people who already follow you, and it stays visible long after you wanted it to. Some people do not want their friends, their family or their employer to see it.

A prayer chain by text or email is personal, but it depends on knowing someone who runs one.

A prayer hotline gives you a voice in real time, which is precious, but many close at night, charge nothing but cap the call, and are staffed by volunteers who may not share your language.

The Open Chair was built for the gap between these. It is private by default, open at any hour, and not tied to a church you do not attend. It is not better than a friend who will sit with you. It is for the hour when you do not have one.

What to write when you do not know what to say

You do not need religious words. Prayer, in the Christian understanding, is turning toward God honestly, and the believers who pray for you will bring the words. What helps them most is a plain description of what is happening and what you are afraid of or hoping for.

• What is happening, in a sentence. A diagnosis, a conflict, a loss, a decision, a season you cannot name.
• What you are afraid of, or what you hope for. One or the other is enough.
• Whether the matter has a date, such as a surgery, a court day or a funeral, so they know when to remember you.
• If you want it, a name for the person you are asking on behalf of. Use a first name only. Do not write full names, phone numbers, addresses or links; the form refuses links and long numbers on purpose.

What happens after you press the button

1. A chair opens. The family offers it to up to six believers who chose, in their settings, to pray for a stranger this week. The first three who say "I will pray" take it. If it is not taken within 45 minutes it is offered to six more, and never beyond that.
2. You get a private link. It is the only key to your page. It is stored only as a one way hash, so we cannot read it back to you, and nobody else has it. Keep it, or save the page.
3. Your page tells you the truth. It says waiting, or it says how many are praying (first names only if each believer allowed theirs), and it shows any short line they left. If nobody has taken your chair in 20 minutes, a person who looks after this is told, and your page says so.
4. We come back to ask how you are. On day 3 and on day 7 your page holds one gentle question. If you gave an account or an email and letters are switched on, we tell you it is waiting. It never asks more than twice, and then it is silent.

What it costs, and what it does not

It costs nothing. There are no ads, and no one is told to subscribe. You are never asked to join a church or to believe anything in order to ask. The Open Chair does not sell your words or use them to tailor advertising, because there is no advertising.

It will not promise you an outcome, and it will not pretend that more people are praying than are. If one believer takes your chair, your page says one person.

How this differs from asking the watch

The Living Bread also keeps a watch: believers who keep an hour in their own time zone and answer a request one to one. If you want a single person to talk to and write back, ask the watch at living-bread.org/a-person. If you want several believers to carry a request and then to be asked how you are in a few days, use the Open Chair. Some people do both, and that is fine.

Questions people ask

Do I need an account to ask?

No. You can ask with no account and no email. You are given a private link, and the page at that link is where you see who is praying and where the two gentle questions wait for you.

Is it free?

Yes. It is free to ask and free to pray, and there are no ads. The Living Bread does not sell your words or your attention.

Who reads my words?

The believers a chair is offered to (up to six, then up to six more if nobody takes it) and the stewards who keep the house safe if a request is held or reported. Nobody else. Your words never appear in a link, a notification or a public page.

What if nobody takes my chair?

Your page says that it is waiting, and does not pretend otherwise. After 20 minutes a person who looks after the Open Chair is told, and your page says so only when that really happened. After about two weeks an untaken chair closes, and your page says so and offers to ask again. If you need a person now, the watch at living-bread.org/a-person finds one.

Can I ask for prayer for someone else?

Yes, as long as you are 18 or older and you write in your own words what you are asking. Use first names only. It is best to ask the person first when you can, and a request about someone else is read by believers as a request from you.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes. This page works in any browser, and the private page you are given works the same way. The app adds notifications if you have an account.