{"id":4457,"date":"2014-04-09T07:15:43","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T14:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=4457"},"modified":"2014-04-08T16:28:59","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T23:28:59","slug":"a-primer-for-passing-on-prayer-practical-ideas-on-praying-for-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=4457","title":{"rendered":"Passing on Prayer: Practical Ideas on Praying for the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Practical Ideas to Help You, Your Friends, and Your Church Pray for the World\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

By Shane Bennett<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the deal: Most Christians don\u2019t pray for the world. No big surprise there. This \u201cworld\u201d thing is most of my life and I still struggle to pray for it! Christians who don\u2019t pray for the world don\u2019t do so because they\u2019re bad or carnal or somehow inferior to big-time missions people. We don\u2019t pray for the world because we\u2019ve got a whole lot of world right up in our faces, pulling on our pant leg, texting us after we\u2019ve gone to bed.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s tough to remember to pray for people you don\u2019t know, whose names you can\u2019t pronounce and whose cities you\u2019ll never visit. (To be honest, there\u2019s also the possibility we don\u2019t believe prayer matters. That\u2019s a subject for another article, maybe even another author!)<\/p>\n

My hunch is still that many Christians, maybe most, would pray for the world if they were equipped and reminded. And you and I can do that.<\/p>\n

Andrew Murray said, \u201cThe man (or woman) who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.\u201d Do you want to make a great contribution? Here are tools and ideas in six categories designed to facilitate global intercession. Dive in.<\/p>\n

1. Deck the Halls<\/b><\/p>\n

When our family lived in Holland, our neighborhood was haunted by a small, furtive band of shifty-eyed malcontents who got paid (perhaps in narcotics?) to slap up posters on every flat, semi-stable surface in the city center. They always seemed to be just one step ahead of the law, and neither their dog nor baby looked to be eating well.<\/p>\n

Your church has walls and you have a message to get across. But don\u2019t be like the malcontents; go above board on it. Ask permission. And ask early. Prime bulletin board space was reserved months in advance in one church I worked for!<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve secured permission, make it big and beautiful (like this<\/a>) and readable from half the distance to the opposite wall! Offer clear, bold prayer requests and flyers people can take with them.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve got the digital chops to maintain it, consider leapfrogging technologies to a couple of flat-screen TVs with scrolling prayer info from the ministries your church supports. I\u2019ve got friends who pull this off well, and they’re in a church that isn\u2019t big. Maybe you can do it too.<\/p>\n

2. Use the Newsletter Better<\/b><\/p>\n

Does your church publish a monthly newsletter or a weekly bulletin? Does it ever include questionable clip art of a sunset with a scripture on it or overly large, swirly font headlines in the kids\u2019 section? Those are your clues that they might need more worthy content. You could kindly offer to provide that content in the form of winsome, well-written global prayer requests.<\/p>\n

But where are you going to get that content? Glad you asked:<\/p>\n