Thy Kingdom Come: In gratitude for Kirk and his many prayers

Kirk at one of the "on the hill"
gatherings we have hosted

“My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought 

in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.” 

Psalm 139:15, 16 (NASB)

Rev. “Kirk” Petterson spoke a lot about prayer. In fact, you could say that after serving a congregation in Shell Lake for ten years and then moving to Chetek to serve here it's about all he ever spoke about. But more than just talking about it he actually did it and demonstrated with his life that among his other loves – such as his wife, LeAnn, and their children and grandchildren as well as the efficacy of certain barbecued meats – communion with the Father and intercession for God's people was one of the top priorities of his life.

Some of the membership of the Breakfast Club.
Kirk's spot was usually at the head of the table

We met at a Pastor's Prayer Summit held at Luther Park back in the mid-90s but after he moved to town a few years later he quickly became a regular compadre of our circle of intercessors and assorted prayer warriors here. In fact, Kirk was a significant catalyst for a prayer movement that began in the mid-2000s when a number of us began to gather at what was then Bob's Grill (now Chetek Cafe) every Tuesday morning. The format was simple: breakfast, coffee and conversation followed by a time of prayer. We dubbed ourselves “the Breakfast Club” and with the exception of when Christmas and New Years fall on a Tuesday, have been meeting there ever since throughout the calendar year. We pray for each other, for our community and for God's Church in our area.

"Around-the-Grounds '15"

Kirk was a founding member of our club and that regular meeting and eating and praying together naturally fostered love and trust. And out of love and trust, as all of us should know, so many good things happened and continue to happen. In order to give us some kind of cache with those outside our group we created what we called the Chetek Area Prayer Initiative. On top of our weekly breakfast meetings we continue to sponsor so many corporate prayer events including “Around-the-Grounds” (an annual prayer walk around and through our schools prior to the beginning of the new school year), “See You on the Hill” (a prayer meeting for our city on top of the only hill in town), “A Day Away to Pray” (an informal pastor's prayer gathering that occurs every so often), “A Progressive Prayer Meeting” (just like a progressive dinner we moved from church to church), not to mention the annual “See You At the Pole!”, “National Day of Prayer” and “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday” gatherings. Over the years participation in these events has ebbed and flowed according to people's interest and schedule but Kirk was always there. He agreed that we God's people needed to be about the business of intercession and he lived it.

When Pastor Norm, another founding member of the Breakfast Club, owned a pontoon one Tuesday morning in the summer we loaded up the boat and puttered around the lake praying for our city from that floating platform. As much as the Chetek Hydroflites regularly pack out their ski show and just as the lawn between Advent Christian and their parsonage is always full on the night of the fireworks we asked God (among many other things) that His house would be just as full of people seeking Him. For a few years running five of us drew the names of participating fellowships out of the proverbial hat and whatever church we drew that was where we preached that Sunday. Yes, love and trust can move mountains where organizational meetings only seem to grow them.

Kirk praying on the pontoon

When George Otis, Jr began producing his Transformations documentaries, it was Kirk who got us watching them and the watching fueled our imaginations what might be here in our city and area if we redoubled our efforts to pray for not just revival but wholesale transformation. When The Elk River Story: Transforming the Spiritual Climate of a City came out it was Kirk who gave us all complimentary copies. When a group of intercessors from our community felt compelled to begin a House of Prayer right here in town, Kirk and LeAnn not only frequented the weekly gatherings held there they supported it financially every month. When his own church decided to take one of their Sunday School rooms and turn it into a prayer room, it was Kirk who designed and outfitted it. Yup, prayer was very much what he was all about.

This is the book he gifted us all with
this past Christmas

He prayed long. In fact, he once laughingly told me that someone from his fellowship called him a “prayer hog” as once he started into praying he wouldn't stop until he was prayed out. (I won't speak for the other guys but I know that on more than a few occasions I struggled to hang in there with him and secretly hoped for the meter to run out!) But regardless of the length of his intercession, his prayer generally included a cry for God to send “a Holy Ghost, heaven-sent revival”, a prayer that we who remain will continue to pray from this side of eternity.

Praying at the HOP

He prayed continually. Tuesday mornings and Thursday nights (at the House of Prayer), Wednesday nights (at Northside Christian, the fellowship he was a member of), and once a month on Friday nights (at The Well in Barron, a ministry focused on the local Somali population there). And that's only the gatherings I'm aware of. I'm sure there were others. I am grateful for his example of persistent prayer. Jesus Himself, the Captain of the Host, exhorted his First Century disciples and also exhorts us his Twenty-First Century ones the same: we “should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). As far as I see it, Kirk was faithful in that. He liked his meat rare and his preference in pancakes was always “gooey” (regardless of the cook who was on he always offered to demonstrate just what that was but for the record he never sent any back). But he prayed on regardless of the consistency of his cake.

Praying at The Well 2010

In recent years he had been struggling with various health issues. In fact, three years ago he nearly died while attending the international convention of the College of Prayer International in Atlanta. He recovered and returned to his normal routine of prayer around our community. Psalm 139:15-16 became one of his verses claiming that since every day of his life was already recorded in God's book he planned to live every one of them. During the last year he liked to quote some African brother he heard at a COP gathering who said, “If God has ordained for you to die on Friday you cannot die on Thursday.” To him it gave purpose to each day he was given. How ironic that he actually died on a Friday.

A Concert of Prayer held at Northside 2016

Some people serve their community by volunteering at a local food shelf or at the school. Others serve as an alderman or as a member of a non-profit organization. Kirk served us here in Chetek by praying persistently and consistently for all of us. I will miss his presence at the Breakfast Club and every other prayer event that we usually host in the course of a calendar year. I will miss his prayers, long though they could be, but now the rest of us will just have to pray on a little longer now that his voice has been silenced. Of course, his prayers that he raised in this life, especially the ones that have not been realized with regardless to that 'heaven-sent, Holy Ghost revival' he asked so persistently for remain continually as incense in God's presence (Revelation 5:8). And for that I am grateful because it seems like we need that more now than ever before.

May the Lord bless and keep him and may there be stacks of gooey pancakes cooked to perfection in the presence of the Lord he loved so dearly in this life.

At our most recent "Day Away to Pray" gathering in January 2019