Written by Jayna Baas

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Question: What’s one benefit you’ll never see offered by secular editing organizations like Editorial Freelancers Association or ACES?

Answer: Prayer support from fellow Christians.

A couple of months ago, this blog post discussed the benefits of the PEN Loop, which is The Christian PEN’s thriving email community. But if you’re a PEN member—no matter what level—you also have access to the Prayer Loop, PEN’s private email loop for sharing prayer requests.

What is the Prayer Loop?

The Prayer Loop is a dedicated place for PEN members to ask for prayer support for any difficulty in their lives, whether it’s related to editing or not.

Over the summer, we briefly experimented with combining the Prayer Loop and PEN Loop, creating just one email loop for both editing questions and personal prayer requests. PEN members quickly let us know they wanted the Prayer Loop back!

The close-knit community of this prayer request loop results in a sense of knowing one another more personally. This creates a safe place to share private requests that you might hesitate to post to a larger email loop.

Are requests confidential?

Each prayer request posted in the Prayer Loop is emailed to each member of the loop, with the understanding that members won’t share your request unless it’s with a trusted friend or family member who will join them in prayer.

Unlike the posts in the PEN Loop, prayer requests aren’t permanently archived on the internet. If you want to refer to a previously posted request, you’ll need to archive the email in your own inbox.

What about disagreements?

Although all PEN members have indicated agreement with Christian Editors Association’s statement of faith, not every member of the Prayer Loop sees eye to eye on specific points of doctrine. We ask members to be thoughtful and respectful in their replies to one another.

Focus on encouraging other members with simple prayer support rather than bringing up your own experiences or favorite beliefs. When you post a prayer request, read the replies through a lens of grace, recognizing that other members truly want the best for you.

If you have a concern about the Prayer Loop or something that was posted there, you can privately email the PEN Director or the Prayer Loop Coordinator at any time.

Who can join the Prayer Loop?

All PEN members at any level have access to join the Prayer Loop. New members aren’t automatically added to the Prayer Loop, so if you’re a PEN member and would like to join the Prayer Loop, you’ll need to submit your name and email address here and wait for approval.

A spirit of encouragement is one of many things that can set Christian organizations apart from secular ones. We would love to see you in the Prayer Loop and support you as you live out God’s design for your life and business.

Thank you for reading the PEN Tips blog and for striving to give your clients the best expertise you can. We hope you’ll always keep your fellow editors in prayer as we work together to help authors and fulfill God’s purpose in our lives.

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