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Take advantage of the experiences of the
Prayer Journeys to expand or create a thorough prayer strategy in your church. A strategy
is an overall plan of action. In this case it is an overall plan for prayer in the
congregation. A prayer strategy is completed by planning specific prayer tasks and events.
Prayer Journeys is one event in an overall prayer strategy.
These next sessions provide some practical suggestions to reclaim the church as a house of
prayer with a passion for the lost.
It is very easy for any event or tactic to
become the end in itself instead of a means to complete the strategy. For example, in some
places the church building becomes the end in itself instead of the means for biblical
prayer and evangelism. Imagine that! This probably never happens in your church but some
believers actually become more concerned about the building than about the lost! It is
very important to keep faithful to the strategy Christ gave us in the Great Commission (Matt.
28:17-20). There are several things that can be done to create an overall Great
Commission Prayer Strategy.
A. It begins with an individual.
A
church-wide prayer strategy usually begins in the heart of an individual. This individual
can become a prayer coordinator or help enlist a prayer coordinator for the church. One of
the goals of this material is for each congregation in North America to have a prayer
coordinator. A job description for a church prayer coordinator is in Appendix A. The
prayer coordinator also serves on the On Mission Team (missions committee).
A postal worker in North Carolina attended
a Prayer Journeys seminar and found new meaning in her work. "It’s not
surprising to me that the new phrase ‘going postal’ describes someone who has
gone crazy. Our work is so precise and so repetitive that is very stressful. I now see
that I can pray for every person on my route." She has since led other believers in
her church and in her post office to pray for the community.
God is raising up people all around the
world with a passion for personal prayer. These prayer movements have a common goal to
reclaim the congregation as a house of prayer with a passion for the lost. Individual-led
prayer movements have sprung up prior to every Great Spiritual Awakening. The growing
number of prayer groups are raising hopes that the twenty-first century will see the next
Great Spiritual Awakening.
B. It grows to include a core group.
The core group for the prayer strategy can be the church staff, On Mission Team, deacons,
elders, a Sunday School class, a youth group, or senior adults. Any of these groups can
help cover the congregation in prayer. Each of these groups can plan events, like a Prayer
Journey, as part of the overall strategy. This core group may include a prayer council to
help focus the entire congregation on biblical prayer.
One group of mothers began to drive and
walk around all of the schools in their small town. They prayed for teachers,
administrators and students by name. They reported a radical decrease in drug use and
noticeably improved morale among the teachers. A prayer meeting even began among the
teachers.
C. It includes a Season of prayer.
Seasons of prayer may last 40 days, 90 days, or even years. There is nothing magical in
the length of time. There is power in persistent, intentional, righteous prayer (James
5:16). Ask the Lord to reveal the length of time He wants you to pray for a chosen
geographical area. You may create many different prayer groups and have dozens of Prayer
Journeys during that time.
One church that was called to 40 days of
prayer and fasting set up a schedule to involve as many church members as possible.
Members signed up for a day they would pray and fast within the forty day time period. The
church created a small prayer guide to help members pray for believers, unbelievers and
personal spiritual or physical needs. Miraculous changes occurred in their church and
their community.
D. It expands throughout the church.
Include the existing prayer ministries in the overall strategy. Reclaim your midweek
prayer meeting to be a time of prayer. Focus the prayer room on praying for every visitor,
church member and person in the community. Begin prayer groups in businesses, homes and
classes. One 79 year-old prayer leader in Kentucky said it this way "We have some
wonderful meetings but we don’t pray. We seem to do a lot of talking but no one is
listening to God. That makes us go out on our own instead of what God wants for us. We
read the Bible and don’t get anything out of it. Conversation is two ways. We need to
hear from God and let Him tell us what to do."
Pastor Jim Cymbala records in Fresh
Wind, Fresh Fire, how prayer became foundational to everything in the church. He
wrote, "... the prayer meeting will become the barometer of the church. What happens
[there] will be the gauge by which we will judge success or failure because that will be
the measure by which God blesses us…Prayer will be the engine that drives the
church."
E. It targets every part of the
community. An overall prayer strategy will pray for everyone in the community.
Prayer
Journeys are only one of many ways to be active in every cultural and geographic area.
Field teams often comment on the similarities they see by asking for God to touch the rich
"up-and-outs," the poor "down-and-outs," and everyone in between.
As churches begin praying for cultural
communities they develop a heart for reaching them. Many ethnic congregations and
evangelistic ministries have begun when churches began looking at their communities with
Christ’s eyes.
A congregation in Southern California was
led to cover their community in prayer. They chose to drive through a large subdivision.
Every home received a card telling them the day and time. The people were encouraged to
write or email the church with prayer requests or to stop one of the field teams to give
them a prayer request. The morning of the Prayer Journey some members backed out. "No
one will care we are there," they thought. The first car load was surprised to find
an overwhelming response. People were waiting near the road in lawn chairs. Many of them
had written down their prayer requests. Even a Buddhist family wanted the Christians to
pray for a sick family member. The follow up found many new converts to Jesus Christ.
Prayer is a wonderful way to show a community we care for them.
F. It includes Prayer Evangelism. Many
believers are beginning to use the term prayer evangelism for "being on mission with
Christ through prayer. It involves a life of prayer-saturated witness, where
biblically-based prayer permeates the entire process of evangelism." Prayer must
precede, undergird and follow up on evangelistic witness and events.
II. Response Time: Pause for a time
of prayer. Pray for an individual to serve as prayer coordinator. Pray for a prayer
council to form or for the encouragement of the current prayer council. Pray for the core
groups to awaken with a desire to reclaim a passion to pray unceasingly. Begin praying for
neighbors, friends and whoever the Spirit brings to mind.
"The angel fetched Peter out of
prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel."
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