Missions Catalyst 06.08.05 – Practical Mobilization

In This Issue: World Christians through Business, Global Pryaer

  • CONFERENCE: World Christians through Business
  • Readers Write Regarding Global Prayer Challenges

Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!

Practical Mobilization by Shane Bennett is published once a month.

CONFERENCE: World Christians through Business

From: World Christians through Business via Steve Shadrach

The “World Christians through Business” conference will be held Saturday, June 18, 2005 in Austin, Texas, USA. The conference is intended to explore the marketplace mission movement, consider models for business as mission, examine principles of Great Commission companies, and relay practical applications where God is at work through businesses across the globe. Through a combination of speakers, business case studies, and peer fellowship, participants will gain a deeper perspective on the meaning and ramifications of following Christ in the domestic and international marketplaces, whether as an employee, executive manager, or owner of a business. This conference will not simply attempt to educate, but will inspire, challenge, and lay the groundwork for mobilizing and equipping those who realize God’s call to America and all nations of the world for his glory! We invite you to join us as we join God in his “business” of missions … why not us, why not here, why not now?

For more information and to register, go to the web site.

Readers Write Regarding Global Prayer Challenges

From: Shane Bennett

If you read last month’s Practical Mobilization article, “Hindrances and Tips Regarding Global Prayer,” you know that I started off by confessing that it’s tough for me to pray consistently for the world. Several people wrote back in response to that article and now I wonder if I should also confess that I’m probably overly thrilled and motivated by feedback to my writing. Could be. On the positive side, such response as you’ll read below serves to move this publication back toward its foundations as an interactive forum in which mobilizers serve each other by offering help and asking relevant questions.

Here’s a two-sentence synopsis of last month’s article: It’s hard for me, and, I suspect, many others to pray for the world because my life is full, the “world” is far away, and there is a lack of great information to guide my prayers. To help pray for the world, I suggested finding or forming groups to pray with, finding ways to frequently remind folks to pray for the world, and taking advantage of the resources that are available to us (and spreading them to others) so that we can pray with maximum insight.

Thanks to all who responded with thoughts and ideas about praying for the world. Here’s a selection:

Getting Grouped

Paul in Colorado: “I long for a group of people who will make time weekly to get together to pray passionately for unreached people groups like the Haystack type of folks. I’ve been a part of groups like this in the past, and would like it now. Suffice it to say that my immediate family is that group, at least for the moment, even with our diverse interests and our age-adjusted understanding of passion.”

Tom in Kenya: “We encourage local churches to start a prayer meeting for the unreached. Kenya has some unique people and churches. They have lunch-hour meetings in one church and they pray for Asians once a week. As I am speaking in Bible colleges, we encourage students to start a prayer group for the unreached and use some of the booklets we provide.”

Getting Info for Prayer

Ed in Arkansas: “I like to have a world globe beside me as I engage in global praying. It may seem a little carnal, but it helps me to look at the country and sort of ‘aim’ my prayers.”

Dave at Turkish World Outreach (TWO): “I’d advise people to seek out those informative newsletters to make their prayer for unreached peoples meaningful to them and to God. (If anyone feels burdened to pray for Turkic peoples, you can receive the ‘Call to Prayer’ by registering on TWO’s web site.)

“Another idea is to use Google Alerts to inform you of articles written about the country or people for whom you are burdened. You can receive a summary of articles from various newspapers, where the headline includes the words that you have registered with Google Alerts on its news page.”

Rick in Michigan: “My first choice, the one that works best for me, is praying in response to the news. For those who read the paper or listen to the news on the radio, I think it is such a good discipline to respond in prayer to the story as I am listening to it. Programs like the BBC or ‘All Things Considered‘ on NPR are just great for this … I feel like this practice also keeps me from becoming numb to the misery of the world and just a passive consumer of media.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: World news from a Christian perspective is broadcast on radio by Mission Network News.

What to Pray for –

Wade in China: “For years I’ve encouraged people to pray daily for one missionary AND the unreached people group they are focused on. And each month send them an e-mail to let them know you’re praying. I think that’s actually easier to pray daily than to pray for them weekly.”

Fred in Pennsylvania, Colorado, or Central Asia: “I found that when I can ‘set myself up’ with prayer items of particular interest or energy I can be more consistent in my prayer. God has given each of us particular passions, so I try to avoid disagreeing with what God has given me and just pray about those things.

“My passion is business in general and efficiency in particular. I understand (and almost appreciate, although it’s difficult for me) that other people will see God working in different ways than business and productive efficiency. But for me, from God’s creation of us to his daily care for us, and learning about God and his revealed will, what I should be doing and praying about is wrapped up in production efficiency and the business applications and the profit results that measure how well God seems to be pleased with my work and faith in the prayers that he has answered toward this mundane passion.

“How does all this play into mobilizing the Church to reach the unreached? Well, I know that I will be more consistent to pray for those with whom I have mutual interests. And, I’ll be more consistent to pray about their spiritual condition as well as our mutual interests because I am interested in their welfare.”

An Exhortation to Biblical Prayer

Neal Pirolo of Emmaus Road International: “What revolutionized my prayer life was something my friend, Jo Shetler, wrote to me. Two years after she had successfully translated the Balangao New Testament, the church leadership called her back to participate in a Balangao Pastors Conference. They gave her the subject of prayer. How would she handle this? She thought, ‘I’ll just look up a couple of prayers in the Bible and use them as a springboard on the subject.’ She wrote me a letter: ‘Neal, when I started reading and studying the prayers of the Bible, it became painfully clear to me that the prayers I had been praying and the prayers I had been asking people to pray for me (she had been a missionary for 25+ years at that time), didn’t sound much like the prayers in the Bible! A total revolution took place in my prayer life.’

“And, because I respect Jo, I took a fresh look at my prayer life, trying to parallel it with the prayers of the Bible. Busted! This is NOT parroting by rote the prayers, but using them as models for our prayers. There are wild prayers of PRAISE and THANKSGIVING; there are prayers of PENITENCE and CONFESSION; there are prayers of PERSONAL PETITION (but, oh, how different they sound than our ‘gimme’ prayers!); and there are prayers of INTERCESSION – even to the intensity of the prayer God was asking for in Ezekiel 22, and that Moses prayed often in Exodus.

“Well, I think you have the idea. This has helped my prayer life.”

Conclusion

Thanks again for the great responses. May God give us wonderful grace to be the people of prayer he desires, and to gather and facilitate those he’s calling but who’ve not yet raised their eyes and voices to pray for the world.

Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.

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