What is a prayer host?

If you are looking for information concerning how to do a prayer vigil, this might be helpful. We used prayer hosts for our vigil. A prayer host is someone who would volunteer to be at the church during its open hours (Friday, 3pm to 9pm and Saturday, 7am to 9pm). I described the prayer host position to the volunteers as follows:

• To make sure that the person who is praying at the church can get into the building.
  
• Be a presence in the building, so that the prayer person doesn't feel alone (the church is creepy when you are in it by yourself).
  
• Be a silent, unobstrusive presence. In other words, (how do I say this nicely?) leave the participant alone. This hour is for the praying volunteer to have alone with his/her God.
  
• If it is dark, you may want to offer to walk the partipant to her car.

I had snack foods available for the hosts in the kitchen off the parlor. Each person could volunteer to serve any amount of time he/she liked and could sign up to pray during his/her hosting time.

Once the prayer vigil schedule was complete, I was able to tell the hosts who, if anyone, would be at the church for his/her shift. If no one is planned to be in the church praying, then the host could go home.