“My house will be called a house of prayer.” Jesus’ words from the New Testament is painted in gold letters on the new white sanctuary wall of Peace Church in northern Durham (NC). There are three more Scripture verses painted directly on the sanctuary walls at the newly constructed church, the first permanent home for the Evangelical Presbyterian congregation. But the verse about prayer, stenciled outside the prayer room that flanks the altar, perhaps best describes the church itself.

While prayer is integral to any religious service, prayer at Peace is everywhere. There are weekly prayer meetings and special prayer meetings. The children’s moment during the service is a time of prayer. A bulletin insert asks worshippers to pray for the service during the service. A new Sunday school class will discuss prayer.

A Prayer Path is in the works on the church’s eight wooded acres. A stained-glass window from an 1880s church will soon be installed that shows a man and woman praying as they look up to Jesus. Under the drywall, prayers were written on the building studs as it was being constructed. And Pastor James Banks has written a new book, “Rekindling Passion for Prayer: The Lost Art of Praying Together.”

Prayer, Banks said, shows what God alone can do. He wonders if church has lost its influence on culture because churchgoers have stepped away from a focus on prayer, especially united prayer. There’s an emphasis on presentation rather than letting God make things happen, he said.

Banks said it takes slowing down to pray, and he has to make the time, too. In his day planner is a bookmark listing people and situations that he prays for daily. He wrote “The Lost Art of Praying Together” to “simply encourage people to pray, and especially pray together however God directs them.”

A book signing for this new book will be held on February 13 from 1-4PM at the Family Christian Store in Crossroads Shopping Center in Cary.