Praying For Unchurched People

By Martha Grace ("Gay") Reese
President
www.GraceNet.info

For the last four years I've had the incredible experience of being able to talk with over 1000 people about faith-sharing, evangelism. I soon realized that the most powerful evangelism in the mainline churches I was studying was steeped in prayer. Churches that are passing on a vibrant faith are praying churches. These churches are filled with Christians who love Christ and who have rich and lively individual prayer lives. And these Christians really are praying for unchurched people!

How? Lots of ways, but let's focus on one way of praying for unchurched people here. You can do this prayer by yourself, but let's describe it for your small group at church. This can be done in your Sunday School class, Bible study group, CWF circle, or a few friends from your neighborhood or at work. Promise that you'll do this for at least 10 minutes of your time together each of the next 4 weeks. Then see where the Spirit leads you to go next. Have a pen and paper nearby, then sit together comfortably.

The leader for that day could say something like, "Oh, Lord, let us know you are here and help us feel your presence." Then sit quietly for at least 2 minutes and just be with God - no agenda.

Then the leader can pray out loud, "God, will you show us the faces of anyone you want us to pray for who doesn't know about you, or who doesn't have a church home?" Sit quietly again. You may have a glimpse of your neighbor, your mother, the cashier at the grocery. You may think of your son's Little league game - all the kids on both teams. You may get some feeling to pray for people you've never seen in a place you've never been, yet get a sense they live in a prison, a university, in Nevada or North Korea or Botswana. Say the names out loud, leaving space between. After each name, or picture is mentioned, all of you pray for them. Imagine the person named in the center of your circle, getting exactly from Christ what s/he needs right now.

At the end of your prayer time, the leader could close with this prayer, "Thank you, Holy God, for these people you have given us. Please help us be trustworthy - help us pray for them as you show us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen."

At the end of the prayer time, make a list of each of the people/groups you were directed by the Spirit to pray for. Then name the names aloud so that everyone in the group can get each of the names on their list. Take the list home and pray for each of the people all week.

As you keep praying, you may find that you'll talk differently with the people you know. You may be more sensitive to how they really are. You might be led to invite them out for coffee, over for dinner, or to church with you. The Spirit will let you know if you're to do something. At the end of your weeks of praying together like this, talk together about what God may have done with this time of prayer. How has it changed you? Your church? The people you were led to pray for? Where should you go from here?

Martha Grace ("Gay") Reese, JD, MDiv, is an ordained Disciples pastor and President of GraceNet, Inc. She directed the Mainline Evangelism Study, a four-year study of excellent evangelism in seven denominations, funded by the Lilly Endowment and has written a fun, practical book for groups of church people and pastors. Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism has lots more about prayer and faith sharing. To read about it (and see a sample chapter), to go www.GraceNet.info.