Today we’d like to introduce you to Leighann McCoy.
Hi Leighann, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My husband, Tom and I moved here from Fort Worth, TX where we’d recently graduated from seminary. We came to pastor what was then a “mission church” called Thompson Station Baptist Chapel. We had the simple goal of establishing a healthy church and then most likely moving to another church in another part of Tennessee
God had a better idea. He let us sink our roots deep in southern Williamson county and now, 33 years later, we are still here serving a thriving congregation and reaching thousands of people both here and around the world from our central campus that sits on the corner of Thompson Station Road and Highway 31 in the heart of Thompson Station, TN.
In our early years of ministry I worked first at Lifeway Christian Resources and then at the TN Baptist Mission Board in the areas of preschool and children’s ministries. Through those positions I became a curriculum writer and got to participate in many fun brainstorming sessions that resulted in great Vacation Bible School materials.
At the same time, I worked alongside my husband growing our church. My passion for writing, and conference leading have resulted in 19 books, countless articles, radio and television interviews, and speaking engagements that have given me the opportunity to travel across the nation and around the world.
I knew prayer was important, but as a pastor’s wife, it didn’t take me long to realize that prayer was absolutely essential to our success (and survival). At the same time, I had to face the stark reality that our church didn’t pray nearly enough. Perhaps it was because we didn’t know how to pray; perhaps it was because we didn’t realize how much more God works in and through our ministries when we do pray. It became my passion to create a culture of prayer at Thompson Station Church.
We wanted to be a “prayer-powered church” and one of our favorite sayings became this; “When we work, we work. But when we pray, God works!”
As an example of how God has responded to our commitment to prayer; in 2021, in spite of the Covid pandemic, we baptized more people in that one year than we have in the history of our church. But the number of people baptized is just one indicator of the activity of God. Unity in the body, answered prayers, increased compassion for others are all evidence of God’s work in our congregation.
That is why I am passionate about the Prayer Clinic ministry. With the Prayer Clinic I’ve pulled from my experience as a curriculum developer, and have taken the practical tools we use for age-graded ministries, and translated them to the dynamic ministry of prayer.
The Prayer Clinic ministry seeks to mobilize churches to pray. It’s a simple concept: Put together a team of people who believe that God answers us when we pray; equip them with tools to pray God’s Word into peoples’ lives and circumstances; stay in touch with the people you’re praying with, and celebrate God’s answers when they come.
God will hear and answer us when we pray. And when He does, we will pray more! The more we pray, the more God’s going to work and the more God works, the more people will see and understand how worthy He is of worship and why we love Him so much!
The Prayer Clinic ministry provides the tools a church needs to recruit, train, equip and release strong and confident prayer warriors to serve the congregation and community.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not at all!
We started the Prayer Clinic at Thompson Station Church in 2008. But in 2010, I was diagnosed with colon cancer, our church was flooded, and our daughter left us to live with the boyfriend we didn’t approve of. She ended up having our two precious granddaughters, returned home and today she works for the Prayer Clinic ministry as our Director of Sales and Operations. That might have just been the quickest NOT telling of a very big story! But it’s all true and has God all over every painful part of it.
In 2012, the cancer returned. This time I had half my liver removed and endured 6 months of chemotherapy. The liver surgeon at Vanderbilt hospital told my husband and me that I only had a 35% chance of being alive in 5 years. Now, 10 years later, Dr. Caudill reminds me, every time I return for a colonoscopy, that I am a walking talking stage 4 colon cancer survivor. TN Oncology and Dr. Ruth Lamar took the lead in the battle for my life, and I will be forever grateful for their kind and compassionate treatment of me (and thousands of others in our community who’ve had to battle cancer).
Because of these interruptions in our lives, both our church, and the ministry of the Prayer Clinic suffered. The Prayer Clinic we started in 2008 closed in 2012. But stage 4 cancer has a way of making your purpose on earth crystal clear, so in 2017 when we reopened the Prayer Clinic ministry at Thompson Station Church we did so with the intent to create a ministry of prayer that could be easily replicated in any church of any size anywhere. Today the Prayer Clinic ministry includes resources that provide churches with a strategic path of recruiting, equipping, and training and releasing team members to mobilize their churches to pray.
The team of 29 people who make up the Prayer Clinic team at Thompson Station Church serve to encourage prayer leaders from other churches who join us quarterly at our Prayer Clinic Open Houses (the next one is April 24, 2022). As of today our team has prayed with 323 people and are keeping track with 417 prayers. Every person who comes to the Prayer Clinic has a team member praying for them, and tracking with them, so that we can see how God is working in response to our prayers.
Our challenge now is getting this amazing secret out to the churches! We have cracked the code on mobilizing your people to pray! We pray, we track our prayers, we encourage people, and we watch God do what only He can do because we are doing what He has invited us to do!
We are praying!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
When a church joins the Prayer Clinic community their clinic directors connect with others across the nation in monthly zoom meetings where we network together to discover creative ways to engage people in powerful prayer experiences. Our sole purpose is to mobilize the church to pray. As part of the Prayer Clinic community, churches have access to many other prayer ministry resources including online courses, special emphasis prayer campaigns, prayer retreats, and many more clever ways to get our people praying.
When you have a Prayer Clinic in your church you have a place where the people in your church can pray with people who know that God hears and answers us when we pray. They will receive both the resources to pray powerfully into their situations, and the encouragement needed to pray to believe that “God’s Got This!” no matter what “this” might be.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My friend and prayer partner, Karen Philpott, was with me when we birthed the Prayer Clinic ministry concept. When Tom asked us to come up with a plan to get our people praying, Karen remembered how a couple of elderly men at Christ Church (where she was previously a member) were so powerful in their prayers that the people made appointments to pray with them. We both thought how cool it would be if we could create a place where people could pray with people and be assured that God really does hear and answer us when we pray. It was out of this conversation that the Prayer Clinic was birthed.
Of course, my good husband, Tom, the senior pastor of Thompson Station Church also deserves credit. He has promoted, encouraged, and supported the Prayer Clinic ministry at TSC and been 100% for us being the launching pad for this ministry to other churches.
Heather Smith (whose husband Jeremy manages Let It Shine gymnastics) is our TSC Prayer Clinic Director. She and every member of the Prayer Clinic team at TSC are vital to the success of this ministry. Their prayers, along with the support of our church are crucial.
I would be remiss not to mention my friend, Ron Smith who was key in helping me get my books published and in encouraging me to expand the Prayer Clinic ministry beyond the walls of our church.
Nathan Moore of Anthology Creative is the mastermind behind our online tracking system.
And my greatest key to success this year is my daughter, Mikel McCoy who is serving as our Director of Sales and Operations.
Contact Info:
- Email: www.leighannmccoy.com
- Website: www.prayerclinic.com
- Instagram: @theprayerclinic
- Facebook: The Prayer Clinic
- Twitter: @Leighann_McCoy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/channel/UC9fMNOF58_ 5LAAIqkCKo26w
Image Credits
Summer Knight Photography and Rachel Ansley
