Background

Pray For the City was started by Kevin McStay in 1993 and among other things, was intended to bring the Pentecostal/charismatic and non-charismatic churches and leaders together as one. In the early 1990's in Carlisle this was not the case.

The first PFTC prayer meetings came into being and were initially well supported by a number of leaders and members from various churches. Prayer walking became popular, involving up to 19 churches, with every street of the city being prayed through. However, numbers at main gatherings dwindled and it was evident that there was a need to ‘build the vision'. Three years later a group of church leaders began meeting regularly for breakfast and prayer, on a Saturday morning.

This practice has continued ever since on the 2nd Saturday of the month - and became the foundation for relationships of openness and trust that exist today among a number of the churches and its leaders across the city. It was during this time that both of the above leadership gatherings - ‘conservative' and ‘charismatic' - folded to become one, and adopted the Evangelical Alliance basis of faith as its basic doctrinal position.