Four Ways to help people pray for missions

Almost every evangelical Christian would affirm a commitment to the importance of prayer in their life and in the ministry arenas in which they work or volunteer. Missions is no exception. Do you really pray for missions? What do you pray for missions? How do you encourage others to pray for missions. Here are four concrete ways to elevate the status of prayer as it relates to missions.

1. Make prayer the missions priority for your missions team and your congregation.
       a. Set a personal example by praying for one or more missionaries daily.
      b. Set a team example by praying first in every missions team meeting.
      c. Program prayer into every missions activity.
      d. Include prayer for missions and missionaries in every corporate prayer meeting.

2. Recognize that people are motivated to pray for people they love.
       a. Develop personal prayer for missionaries based on relationships.
      b. Set a goal for the number of people who will commit to pray for a missionary.
      c. Use the missions conference to inspire individuals to pray for a missionary.
      d. Ask individuals to commit to pray faithfully for one year for a specific missionary.
      e. Ask them to write the name of the missionary on the conference commitment card.
      f. Provide the names of those who sign up to the missionaries they will pray for.
      g. Ask the missionaries to send their prayer letters to those individuals.
      h. Remind the individuals of the commitment they made.
      i. Renew prayer sign-ups annually.

3. Facilitate ongoing relationship development
      a. Encourage the missionaries and prayer partners to develop relationships.
      b. When your missionaries visit your church, facilitate their meeting with their prayer partners.
      c. Communicate success stories.

4. Pray corporately for the world, countries and people groups.
      a. Use resources such as the Global Prayer Digest, Operation World, etc.
      b. Participate in the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, Day of Prayer for the Unreached and other           special prayer events.
      c. Personalize where possible by identifying countries and peoples with missionaries you support.