Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is reporting 36 million conversions to Christ in the past 40 years. The network says those reports have come through TBN’s prayer ministry, which has been hard at work alongside founders Paul and Jan Crouch from day one.
“Right from the start we understood that a committed team of men and women praying for this ministry and for the needs of our viewers would be crucial to TBN’s success,” says Paul Crouch, “and we set that ministry in place immediately.”
Over the past 40 years, TBN’s prayer department has fielded millions of calls from individuals in need of prayer for salvation, healing, broken relationships and countless other needs. In February of this year alone, TBN says its prayer partners received nearly 80,000 individual prayer requests and led more than 850 people in prayer for salvation or to renew their commitments to Christ. In addition, the network estimates it has received nearly 550 contacts from men, women, young people—and even children—praising God for answered prayer.
Donna Recinos, who has worked in TBN’s prayer department for several years, says no effort is more important to the mission of TBN. “The prayer center represents the heart of this network. TBN reaches many people who may not even go to church, but they know they have a place to call for prayer 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she says.
For many viewers, Recinos says, TBN’s prayer center serves as a lifeline in times of desperate need. “One of our prayer partners might take a call from a teen contemplating suicide, while another prays for someone battling cancer. Or it might be a parent needing prayer for a child,” she says. “So many contact us later to express their gratefulness for the kindness, encouragement and compassion they received. And we receive many confirmations of answered prayer.”
Recently one viewer wrote to say what a blessing TBN’s prayer line has been to her and her family through some hard times they have been facing. “I don’t know what I would do without it,” she said.
Paul Crouch says that while there are many milestones TBN will celebrate as it looks back on 40 years of Christian broadcasting, none is more satisfying than the network’s commitment to unbroken prayer during that time.
“To know that untold millions will spend eternity with Jesus, that lives and relationships have been healed and restored because of the faithfulness of our prayer partners—nothing equals that,” he says. “May God grant us many more years of the same.”
