Prayer Leader OnLine
February 2006
Vol. 3, No. 2

Introduction

Our conference season will be fast upon us. A conference is a great way to fuel a person's passion for growing in his or her prayer life. Encourage your people to join you--especially your pastor. Nothing will help him or her catch a vision for more prayer than attending Prayer Quake or one of our other conferences. We hope that you will avail youself of the opportunity to attend one or more of our conferences this year. Click here to find out more information on locations and themes.

And while you are at it, why not checkout the possibility of your church hosting a conference-- either one featuring a CPLN speaker, or a CPLN regional event. Click here for mkore information.

Prayer Quake/Empowered

The 6th Annual Convention of the Church Prayer Leaders Network

There is still time to register at the lowest rates for the 2006 CPLN convention. The price for CPLN members is only $69 until March 1st. This year's theme is "Igniting Transformational Prayer."

Our evening speakers are Dr. Henry Blackaby, Rev. Jackson Senyonga, and Rev. Dutch Sheets. Plus there will be powerful worship, led by Daniel Brymer and his team. And of course, you will be able to choose from dozen of workshop topics, presented by such leaders as Jon Graf, David and Kim Butts, Cheryl Sacks and Sue Curran, to name a few.

Dates: June 14-16
Location: Word of Grace Church, Mesa, AZ
Cost: CPLN Member $69 until March 1st; after that date it is $80 until May 1st, and $99 after that point.

For More Information: www.prayerquake.org

It Seems to Me . . .

. . . that what often inspires us can also intimidate us into non-action.

200 million praying on Global Day of Prayer. Thousands gather in ____ city to commemorate the National Day of Prayer. Hundreds lined-up hours ahead of the weekly prayer meeting just to get a seat.

"200 million? Thousands? Standing room only at prayer meeting? "I can't get two dozen people to an event!" is what I hear some of you saying. Reading reports on massive amounts of Christians gathered in stadiums across Africa inspires us! Hearing about citywide events that outdraw secular concerts give us encouragement.

But then we begin to compare our situation with those statistics; we try and match the resources at our disposal with those fueling and funding these amazing initiatives and activities. The disparity suddenly intimidates us into non-action.

Seeing the throngs lined-up on a cold evening waiting to get into a two or three hour prayer meeting gives us hope. Until we get home and face apathy, sometimes even among our leadership. The take-it-or-leave-it indifference can quickly drain our surge of spiritual energy. But please don't let that numerical disparity keep you from doing something!

Two or three or more gathered together in His name, under His authority, praying for His purposes, is NEVER a waste of time. The time to organize. The time to promote. The time to pray it into existence. The time you actually devote to praying together for our nation or the nations of the world. Or your community.

Remember that prayer meeting that birthed the Church? One hundred and twenty. In what must have been an overcrowded upstairs room. No Jerusalem Times reporters. No Upper Room Sure-Fire Prayer Workshop Tour. Just a few serious souls seeking Christ.

It seems to me that was good enough for the Holy Spirit. What do you think?

Phil

Change Your Focus 

By Jonathan Graf

I’m often struck by something odd in the prayers of Old Testament intercessors. Many times, when faced with a difficult situation, when they went to prayer they didn’t pray much about the problem. Their focus was upward rather than outward.

We never see Nehemiah pray about the wall, Jeremiah only in passing mentions the Babylonian onslaught, and David often changes his attitude mid-pray. Why? In many of their prayers, they simply focused on who God was, what He had done in the past. As they did this, everything around them faded away into unimportance. God would be faithful as He always had been.

While they couldn’t articulate this, I am positive one of the primary reasons most people do not participate in all-church prayer meetings is because they do not sense a connection to God while there. They are bored with praying for needs and situations that they will never know the outcome of. At most prayer meetings the focus of the prayer is on circumstances not on God.

A number of churches today are finding that providing a more dynamic, God-focused prayer meeting will bring people. The Brooklyn Tabernacle has known this for years—it’s one of the reasons it draws 2,000 plus to its Tuesday night prayer meeting. Grace Church in Eden Prairie, MN, has just completed a year under its new pastor, Dr. Daniel Henderson—a man who lives and breathes the importance of corporate prayer. Their Sunday night “Fresh Encounter” prayer meeting, which focuses on worship and the attributes of God, is largely responsible for changing the entire atmosphere of the church. People are flocking to it—from area-wide churches, not just Grace—because they sense the presence of God there.

King of Kings Church in Manahawkin, NJ believes one of the reasons God is blessing it with life, is its vibrant, God-focused, Thursday night prayer meeting.

Of course you shouldn’t stop praying for needs in the life of the church. But find ways to do that so it doesn’t stay the focus of your corporate prayer meeting (if you have one). Find ways to encourage more people to pray through a list of needs (offered in the bulletin, or emailed to church members each week). Make sure small group praying for each other and prayer chains are functioning well. Offer a time for leaders and trained prayer teams to pray for people’s needs during a Sunday morning worship service. Positioning teams around the sanctuary at a set time in your musical worship part of the service works well; or at the end of the service.

Then change the focus of your prayer meeting! Weave worship—with songs that are all focused on exalting Jesus Christ or on God’s attributes—throughout the prayer meeting. Have set times of prayer in groups, but around a theme that a leader gives to the people—no prayer requests! Then, when you have had a few prayer meetings under your belts, try something bold to get people to come. Without warning people that it’s coming, turn one Sunday morning worship service into a God-focused, worship-based prayer meeting. At the end, tell people that they have just experienced the new format of our Wednesday (Thursday or whatever) night prayer meeting. If they want to keep meeting God in that way, come to the weekly prayer meeting.

For help on how to develop this kind of prayer meeting, purchase Henderson’s book, Fresh Encounters: Experiencing Transformation through United Worship-Based Prayer (NavPress 2004). You can purchase it through your local Christian bookstore or go to https://store.prayerleader.com to receive your CPLN discount.

--Jonathan Graf is the president of CPLN. He is available to put on a prayer conference at your church. Contact him at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

National Day of Prayer Information

Be sure to encourage your church to participate in the National Day of Prayer events in your community. Due to national media spots, many people in your congregation are aware of the day, and their hearts are naturally turned toward prayer. Use this to promote prayer. While doing things with other churches is the prime objective, if you cannot find an event to promote, hold a prayer meeting at your church. Invite other churches. Pray for the nation. Go to www.nationaldayorprayer.org for more information and promotional materials.

Join More Than 100 Million Praying for a New Pentecost

June 6th is Pentecost Sunday . . . and the second annual Global Day of Prayer. Last year saw more than 100 million join gatherings around the word to pray for a fresh outpouring of Pentecost on the Church and SPiritual Awakening around the globe. Get involved. Information and prayer guides are available www.gdopusa.org.

Prayer and Kids

Growing Prayer Evangelists

By Kim Butts

It's a known fact about prayer: often we become the answers to our prayers. As prayer leaders and church leaders we would love to see our church families begin to pray more and begin to be more global believers. The two go hand-in-hand. Providing some practical ideas for families to teach their kids to pray globably can go a long wa to see people become world Christians. Here are just a few practical, creative ways to involve families in reaching the lost as prayer missionaries–-right where they are!

1. Make a 10 Most-Wanted list. 
Put pictures of family members and friends who need to know Christ on a large poster where only your immediate family will see it. Let every member of the family select at least one person to go on the list. If you have a large family, you may need to increase the number of wanted people. Make a commitment as a family to pray each day for the salvation of each of these people. Watch and see God move in their lives as your family gets serious about praying. Whenever one of your most-wanted comes to Christ, have a celebration and write “FOUND” next to his or her picture!

2. Make a missionary prayer notebook.
Gather prayer cards and pictures for the missionaries which your church and /or family support. Put them on colorful paper in a three-ring binder. Our family uses plastic page protectors to keep the pictures from getting worn-out or torn. Put a map of the country near the picture, with a way to mark where the missionaries are. Their address and e-mail information is included so that we can let them know we are praying. This is also a good way to obtain more specific prayer requests from them. We also keep their newsletters and any other correspondence in the notebook using pockets. Whenever we see articles in the newspapers about an area where these missionaries are, we clip them out and include them in our prayers. This is a wonderful project and is encouraging to missionaries as well as to your family as you watch and see God answer prayers. If you would like a brochure about how to pray specific, scriptural prayers for missionaries, go to www.prayershop.org and order Praying Biblical Prayers for Missionaries.

3. Pray for those in authority. 
Here is another good passage to memorize as a family: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests,prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1-4). What is on God’s heart in this passage? He wants us to pray for everyone–and He specifically mentions those in authority. He also “wants all men to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Find out names of government officials in your city, state and nation. Adopt one or more to pray for specifically as the Lord leads. Let them know that you are praying for them. Ask them to let you know if they have anything that they’d like you to pray about. Most of all, pray that their hearts will be turned to Christ and that their leadership will be based upon His guidance.

4. Adopt-a-country or people group.
Psalm 2:8 says, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” When the Lord tells us to do something, it’s a good idea to take Him up on it! Ask the Lord to lay upon your heart a particular country or group of people to pray for. Find out everything you can about your adopted people so that you can pray more specifically and strategically for them. (A people group is a group of people who have a similar culture and language even though they may not all live close to one another.) Remember to pray that God will send workers to them–missionaries who can present the gospel in a clear, understandable way.

5. Become global Christians.
Put maps up in your home–lay hands on and pray for the nations! Try praying for one continent each day!  Young children can pray for all of the children in these nations!

6. Sponsor a child through World Vision or Compassion International.
Not only can you provide for the financial needs of a child this way, you can pray specifically for his or her physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs. You can also pray for your sponsor child’s family, city, and nation.

7. Start Prayerwalking.
Prayerwalking is praying on site with insight. Take a walk together around your neighborhood praying for your neighbors and their needs. Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourselves and by all means keep your eyes open so that the Lord can draw your attention to needs as you walk.  

8. Become a Lighthouse of Prayer.
Lighthouses of Prayer are sweeping the United States and other nations as well! A lighthouse is a family or small group of people who join together to pray for, care about, and share the gospel with their neighbors. A simple way to start is to choose five neighbors. Pray for them five minutes a day, five days a week for five weeks. Pray the five blessings based on the word BLESS: Body–-pray for their physical bodies-–their health and safety; Labor–-pray for their work and school; Emotions–-pray for their emotional needs; Social–-pray for their relationships; Spiritual–-pray for their spiritual needs and that they will come to know Christ as Savior and Lord! As you do this, you will find that you begin to care about your neighbors more than you ever have before. Eventually, let them know you are praying for them, and ask for prayer requests.  Most will be happy to give them to you. Begin to look for ways to care for your neighbors. Take a meal to a family with a new baby, mow the lawn for an elderly couple, etc. As you care for your neighbors, their hearts begin to be more open too. Your prayers will open the way for opportunities to share the gospel.

9. Pray the News!
As you read newspapers and watch TV, be aware of people and nations to pray for. 

10. Practice on-the-go prayer.
As you are driving around town or traveling, learn to be aware of the people around you. For example, pray for homeless people you see, or if you come across an accident, pray for those involved, etc. 

11. Cover schools in prayer.
Pray for each school attended by one of your family members. Of course, you can pray for other schools too! Pray for administrators, school board members, teachers, classmates, secretaries, janitors, etc. Ask the Lord to draw these people to Himself so that they might come to know Him!

12. Look for prayer assignments.
Prayer assignments are people God puts into your path each day. As a family you can learn to become more in tune about praying for the people God lays upon your heart. It might even be a server at the McDonalds or a checker at the grocery store.

The entire world, as well as everyone around you is your mission field when you are a prayer missionary. You can go places in prayer that you could never physically go! In one prayer time you can be in Sri Lanka or the Dominican Republic, or anywhere! You can even pray for astronauts in the space station–ask God to reveal Himself and His amazing creation to them as they study His universe! The possibilities are endless.

--Kim Butts is the author of The Praying Family from which much of these ideas are taken. You can order the book at https://store.prayerleader.com.

Featured Resource

By Kim Butts, Moody Publishing, 2002

$12--Special CPLN Member Price $8.00

One of the best long range ways to grow a praying church is to help families learn to pray. Mothers of young children are often looking for ideas on how to connect better as a family. The Praying Family is an excellent resource that will both bind a family together and develop kids into powerful prayer warriers. As prayer leaders, we recommend buying a copy for your church library, or buy a number of copies for interested parents.

The Praying Family is a valuable resource for developing and keeping a scheduled family prayer life. In addition to the helpful tips and ideas, Kim Butts points out several challenges to becoming a family of prayer and how to meet them based on her personal experience including:

-Parents' feelings of inadequacy in teaching their children to pray
-Getting and keeping teenagers involved
-Finding time for a prayer journey in everyone's hectic schedules
-Persevering in prayer

Packed with creative and fun "journeys" that teach prayer concepts, this prayer tool will facilitate a day-by-day journey that will most certainly lead to a lifetime of answered prayer and a greater understanding of the heart of God.

It is also a great tool for children's Sunday school teachers and workers. Its ideas are easily adaptable for this use.

About the Author: Kim Butts is the co-founder of Harvest Prayer Ministries. A strong advocate for children and prayer, Kim serves on the advisory board of PrayKids! magazine.

Pray Forth the Kingdom: 50 Ways You Can Pray Through the Window

By Shane Bennett

The classic cleaning cliché, “I don’t do windows!” has never made much sense to me. Why make a big deal about windows? Now toilets, or maybe ovens, I could see refusing to clean them. But windows? I just don’t get it.

Unfortunately, “I don’t do windows” has been the historic, although unwitting, response of the Church to the lost-ness of two billion people who live in an area of the world that has come to be known as the “10/40 Window.” This window, located between the tenth and fortieth latitudes and extending from West Africa to Japan, is home to 97 percent of the world’s unevangelized people. Wonderfully, though, in recent months, that refrain has increasingly changed to, “Yes, we will do windows. Show us how.”

This article is designed to do just that, or at least to point the way, by enabling churches to take what is often one of the best first steps to impact the 10/40 Window: fervent, corporate prayer. Assembled here are 50 ideas for prayer, some tried and proven, others waiting for their first implementation. Some of the ideas included here involve the entire congregation in corporate prayer; some are intended for use by small groups or even by individuals. Perhaps the best contribution this collection can make is to encourage you to unleash the creativity
already present in your church to generate prayer strategies that are uniquely relevant to your situation. If you develop, or already have, ideas that you would like to share, please e-mail them to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it with “Prayer Idea” in the subject area of your message. We will collect ideas and make them available in later resource lists or post them on the Caleb Project website. Employ these suggestions as your church joins the burgeoning movement of prayer God is raising up around the globe for the 10/40 Window.

1. Much Ado about Missionaries
For a specified time, maybe a month or a quarter, focus your church’s prayer efforts on a missionary family supported by your church who works in the 10/40 Window. Familiarize your church with the family’s hopes and dreams for the people group they work among. Highlight their ministry and personal needs. Describe their city and the
families they are reaching out to. Encourage corporate and personal prayer for the missionary family. If your church doesn’t support anyone working in the 10/40 Window, contact one of the mission agencies in the Resource Directory at the end of this article.

2. Virtual Prayer
The “infobahn” can be cruised for Christ! Minding issues of cost and security, obtain e-mail addresses for missionaries working in the 10/40 Window and distribute them to online members of your church. E-mail can be a great way to obtain and distribute prayer requests quickly. Imitate Paul by sending to your missionaries your written prayers for them. Check out Ephesians 1 and 2 for examples and check the Resource Directory for additional ways the Internet is being used to pray forth the kingdom.

3. Flags A-Flying
Adorn your sanctuary with flags of 10/40 Window countries. Use them as a general reminder to pray for these lands or pray for specific ones at specific times. Suitably sized flags can be ordered from All The King’s Flags (www.allkingsflags.com). It might be helpful to make a key available so people know which flag corresponds to which country.

4. 24 Hours of Power
Organize an around-the-clock prayer vigil for 10/40 Window peoples. Choose a day, a weekend, a week, even a whole month. Then prepare a roster with hourly slots and encourage people to commit to praying by signing up for one or more hours. The prayer time could happen at an individual’s home or people could be encouraged to come to a central location where 10/40 Window materials and a prayer log would be made available.

5. Prayer Feasts and Famines
Use food to focus your prayers on the 10/40 Window. Whole congregations could gather for a feast of dishes characteristic of 10/40 Window countries. Small groups could focus both their palates and their prayers on a specific people group or region learning about their people while they eat, then bringing them before God after the meal. Given that 80 percent of the world’s poorest people live in the 10/40 Window, you may want to tune your hearts and minds to prayer for them by sharing a meal consisting only of a cup of rice or a couple of tortillas.

6. Eating Out Through the 10/40 Window
If your idea of “on-the-edge” ethnic eating is choosing the “hot” instead of “mild” sauce at Taco Bell, this idea may stretch your comfort zone. Take it from someone who rates the shortterm missions trips he’s been on by the caliber of food eaten: God has blessed many unreached peoples with fine cuisine. Plus for some cultures, and the restaurants that represent them, it is appropriate to eat with your hands. (Take a moment right now and imagine your pastor eating with his hands. That should be enough to cause you to implement this idea!)

Here is how it might work: On Saturday look through the restaurant section of the Yellow Pages and pick a couple of establishments whose food comes from a place in the 10/40 Window. Many larger cities have restaurants featuring Chinese, Thai, Cambodian, Turkish, Persian, or Indian food. Call to make sure the price is in your range. Then on Sunday, when you get ready to head out for lunch with your friends after the service, pipe up and say, “How about going to Ahmed’s Schwarma Shop. I hear it is great!” It might be wise to also have a “safe” backup, say Chinese, in case your friends are timid. If everyone hates the food and decides to no longer befriend you, let me know. I will pay for your lunch! If the waiter appears to be from the same place as the food, the bold in your group may want to initiate a conversation with him. People are surprisingly willing to talk about their home, especially when they are far from it. After eating, spend at least five minutes together, in the car if you have to, praying for the people whose food you have just enjoyed. If you have come prepared with specific information from which to pray, all the better.

7. Portion out the Peoples
As a church, you could cover the whole 10/40 Window in prayer by apportioning regions, countries, or peoples to different groups within the congregation. Display a map with pictures of the pray-ers adorning their designated prayer targets. No one need be left without an assignment: From the children through the youth and Young Marrieds to the Super Seniors, every group could lift their part of the prayer burden.

8. Reach out and Touch Someone with Prayer
The next best thing to flying home a 10/40 Window missionary to lead your church in prayer may be to have one do it over the phone. During a regular service establish a connection with the forewarned missionary. After brief words of welcome, ask the missionary to describe his ministry and then lead the congregation in prayer for it. Follow this with mention of personal requests for the congregation to lift up individually. Perhaps one or two could pray at a microphone, allowing the missionary to hear the prayers offered on his behalf. Given the restrictive nature of many 10/40 Window countries, guidelines regarding what can be talked about should be discussed with the missionary before the actual link-up.

9. Oh No! Not a Slide-show!
Everyone has seen a missionary slide-show that didn’t exactly captivate the audience. How about one where each member of the congregation narrates the slide-show with prayer? One church in Denver was led on a “virtual prayer walk” through Bombay by a prayer team that had just returned from there. After a brief introduction, one team member slowly advanced through a series of slides depicting a walk through a number of Bombay neighborhoods. As penetrating images of families and children, merchants and street people filled the screen, the congregation silently lifted up prayers for the people of Bombay. One church member described the experience this way,
“Seeing the slides of India and praying as if we were walking the streets ourselves helped me understand what it must have been like for those we had sent overseas from our church. I realized that my prayers are sharper and more heart-felt when I can see the needs with my own eyes.”

10. The Oscar for Best Prayer Leader Goes to . . .
Add a touch of realism and interest to your church’s prayers for the 10/40 Window by recruiting individuals to lead prayer while assuming the identity of someone who lives there. Costumed and accented prayer leaders could briefly describe the culture and life of their focus people, then guide the congregation in praying for them. Such a presentation will be even more effective if delivered in the first person, “My name is . . . and I come from . . . Please pray for me and my people.” Members of the youth group or a drama team will be the most likely candidates to undertake this idea.

11. More Than Just Announcements
Your bulletin can be used to build interest in your church to pray for the 10/40 Window. Include a curiosity-building question in the bulletin for several weeks before beginning 10/40 Window prayer in your service. Little bits of information and provocative questions like “The 10/40 Window: Strategic missions target or new tax form for people who live in glass houses?” will build a sense of anticipation. When the church begins to pray corporately for the 10/40 Window people will have a sense of, “Ah, so this is it.”

12. Window Coverings
The cover of your bulletin can be used to further your 10/40 Window prayer efforts. Maps and photographs of unreached nations and peoples will generate interest and empathy. Using the bulletin cover to convey such information will also build a sense that the church is embarking on a significant mission.

13. Bulletin Inserts
Many churches suffer from chronic “Bulletinitis,” that is inflammation, or overstuffing, of the weekly bulletin. If yours is not one of them, consider creating a flyer containing 10/40 Window information and prayer requests. By enlisting the aid of a competent desktop publisher (and there are most likely a few in your church!), you can design high-quality flyers that are customized for your church. A page from your favorite prayer guide could be photocopied for this purpose, after necessary permission is secured, of course.

14. Posters
Bulletin boards and blank walls were made for posters. And your congregation can be encouraged and equipped to pray for the 10/40 Window by unreached peoples posters. With a few in-focus pictures, some current information, and some insightful prayer requests you can construct an attractive, eye-catching poster. If poster design is not up your alley, or you just don’t know where to start, contact the US Center for World Mission and ask about their Unreached Peoples Posters. See the Resource Directory for contact information.

15. Prayer Triplets
When most American churches have Sunday morning prayer, only the pastor prays or perhaps members of the congregation join him individually and silently. In contrast, a Korean service will often have everyone praying out loud at the same time. While that may be too great a stretch for most of us, perhaps a slight shift in that
direction would increase the 10/40 Window prayer a church raises, even while it increases the confidence of those who pray. Prayer triplets are a good first step. After a clear and informative introduction, people can be instructed to turn to two other people and quietly, but audibly, pray for the requests that were brought before the church. A group song can bring the prayers to a close.

16. Pray for the Window in the Window
As much as I expect the ideas in this book to fire your prayers for the 10/40 Window, nothing will capture your heart like actually going to, and praying in, an unreached city. Consider taking a group from your church on a two-week prayer journey. Walk through the neighborhoods and market places allowing God to impress on your hearts his desires for the city. Ask for his kingdom to come there in a mighty way. In addition to powerful prayers, a prayer journey can also produce amazing long-term effects on your church. According to a pastor who recently went on a prayer journey to India, “It is hard to forget when you have met people and want to stay in contact. It is not just sending checks and forgetting.”

Read Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick’s book Prayerwalking to learn to “pray onsite with insight.” Then pick up Caleb Project’s book on prayer journeys for help in organizing one for your church.

17. Prayerwalks Close to Home
Here’s some bad news and some good news: The bad news is that probably not everyone in your church can go on a prayer journey (see previous idea). The good news is that most of the 10/40 Window world has come to our cities, maybe even your neighborhood. To take advantage of this trend, organize a prayer walk through an ethnic neighborhood near your church. If ethnic diversity in your town consists entirely of a family who recently moved in from California, you may have to go to a nearby city. Wherever you end up, topping off your prayer walk with a meal at an authentic restaurant in the neighborhood will likely increase participation the next time.

18. Hotline to Heaven
Generate 10/40 Window prayer by organizing church members to call one another during the week and pray over the phone. If participants have the same prayer guide, they can follow along with each other through a predetermined section. Praying over the phone may feel weird and uncomfortable at first. But those who push through the discomfort just may find themselves praying on the phone for much more than the 10/40 Window.

19. 10/40 Window Sunday School Class
Sunday school is a prime time to educate people about the 10/40 Window and help them broaden the scope of their prayers. An established class could dedicate one month, a quarter, or even longer for such study. An elective class could be set up which would run for a limited time. A church in Arizona suggests the class time be used
like this:

1. Ten minutes of instruction on prayer,
2. Fifteen minutes spent sharing information about an unreached people, city, or region,
3. Thirty minutes devoted to actually praying.

The prayer skills learned and the confidence gained in this class yield fruit throughout the church.

20. Put the Youth Group to Work
Put them to work, but not on a car wash or bake sale. Have the youth cooperate to develop a prayer guide for the rest of the church. Each person could take one people group, city, or country in the 10/40 Window, research their background and needs, and briefly list some prayer requests for them. Throw in an introduction, get an artistic kid to produce an eye-catching cover and First Church will have their own prayer guide produced by their own kids. Even if the books are only prayed through once, they won’t be forgotten. Who’s going to throw away something their own son or daughter helped write?

21. 10/40 Window Prayer Rally
Almost every church has relationships with other churches, connections based on denominational ties, similar vision, or at least common enemies! Exploit these relationships to increase 10/40 Window prayer by inviting the churches to a prayer rally your church will host. Send invitations well in advance of the event, keeping in mind that pastor-to-pastor communication might be the most effective. You could develop your own plan for prayer or use a standard concert of prayer format: Pray for the fullness of God’s presence among believers
and the fulfillment of his purposes to the ends of the earth. Make sure you communicate a specific ending time and stick to it. Perhaps another church would step forward to host the next 10/40 Window prayer rally.

22. “Live from the 10/40 Window, This Is Joe Missionary.”
For $500 your church could pick up a decent camcorder for one of your missionaries in the 10/40 Window. Another thousand will pay for a box of tapes and a plane ticket for your pastor to deliver the camera. (Of course, there are other ways to get it there!) Once he has the camera, ask your missionary to send the church quarterly or
semi-annual video reports on his family, work, and people group. Projected before the whole congregation or viewed by a dozen people in a home group, these video prayer guides will provide “live-from-the-scene” material for your 10/40 Window prayer efforts.

23. “Open ‘Round the Clock”
Consider if God might lead your church to set aside space in your facility for a 24-hour prayer room. The room could be stocked with 10/40 Window prayer material and made available for private and group prayer. Pictures of the church’s staff and missionaries could be posted. Logs of prayers prayed and answered could be compiled and left for perusal and additions. Security is a legitimate concern for any building or room left accessible all day and night. A church in Indiana leaves the outside door to the prayer room unlocked, but locks the door from the prayer room to the church. Another church in Arizona locks their prayer room door, but makes the combination available to church members who call the office.

24. Information for the Asking
Many people don’t pray for the 10/40 Window because they simply don’t know who is there and how to pray for them. Responding to this problem, many mission agencies with personnel in the 10/40 Window publish monthly or quarterly newsletters and magazines highlighting their missionaries and the work they do, and which provides fodder for 10/40 Window prayer. Subscriptions to some of these periodicals can be procured for as little as a request on a postcard. Others carry a nominal subscription fee. With permission, excerpts could be reprinted in your church’s bulletin to educate and inspire the entire congregation. Check the Resource Directory for quality mission agency periodicals.

25. Study the Great Prayers of the Bible
One way to grow in your ability to pray for the 10/40 Window and in your faith that God will answer is to study some of the prayers recorded in Scripture. Such a study could be undertaken individually or in a small group. Perhaps your pastor would consider a series of sermons on biblical prayers which would correspond to a church-wide 10/40 Window prayer emphasis. Biblical prayers could be studied on their own or with the help of a written guide. John White’s Daring to Draw Near (InterVarsity Press) is particularly good.

26. City Sermon Series
A pastor in Denver preached a series of sermons on cities of the Bible during his church’s month-long focus on 10/40 Window prayer. As the church turned their eyes and hearts to the unreached cities of today’s world, they also learned lessons from biblical cities. Seeing God’s interactions with cities thousands of years ago gave the church faith to pray with boldness and confidence that God would move in unreached cities today.

27. Sharing Prayer with an Ethnic Church
Your church can add intensity and insight to your prayers for the 10/40 Window by teaming up for a prayer and fellowship night with an ethnic church that represents a country from the unreached world. Imagine praying for a mighty move of God in an unreached nation while sitting next to a person whom God has already saved from that
same land! You and your church will gain insights into the people you are praying for from the people you are praying with. In turn, your concern and prayers will encourage, and perhaps challenge, those who have joined you for the evening. According to Hal Sacks of El Shaddai Ministries, the oppression and prejudice between people groups in the 10/40 Window are present in nearly every large city. “God is reconciling formerly estranged believers from various backgrounds and praying together can be a good step in that direction.”

28. Window-Focused Concerts of Prayer
Some churches have regularly scheduled “concerts of prayer” in which everyone gathers to pray for God’s fullness in the Church and the fulfillment of his plans in the world. In some places several churches gather on a monthly or quarterly basis to join in a concert of prayer. Perhaps one of these regularly scheduled times could be devoted to prayer for the 10/40 Window. Prayers of fullness could be prayed for the historic churches that still have a presence in many 10/40 Window nations. God could be petitioned to send out laborers into the white harvest. Great faithfilled prayers could be lifted to God for the fulfillment of His purposes, the establishment of His church, among unreached peoples.

29. Fast for the Window
Throughout the Bible and history, God has called His people to put aside food for a time in order to focus their attention on Him and His purposes. Perhaps God would lead your church to fast for a time in order to pray for the 10/40 Window. Such a fast could take many forms and be undertaken by the entire church or a group within the church. If your church has a specific focus on a 10/40 Window people group or country, you could take a day as a whole congregation to fast and pray for them. If you don’t have a focus like that, perhaps you could lay off one meal a week to pray for a particular city. Many of the world’s hungriest people inhabit the cities of the 10/40 Window, so fasting will also, in a small way, help you to empathize with those you for whom you pray.

30. “Has Everyone Been Served?”
After the bread and juice had been passed throughout the congregation at a communion service recently, the official serving the communion asked his standard question, “Has everyone been served?” Pre-selected spokesmen for unreached people groups began to stand at their places around the meeting room. One by one they lifted their voices to proclaim, “No, 60 million Turks have yet to be served.” “No, 800 million Hindus in India have yet to be served.” “No, 21 million Malay Muslims have yet to be served.” The reality of these statements settled on the congregation with a palpable soberness. Other less dramatic, but equally potent means can also be employed to transform your normal communion service into a powerful time of prayer for the 10/40 Window. As you remember the Lord’s death and proclaim it until his coming, ask for that proclamation to extend to the ends of the earth.

31. Window-Focused Worship
Your Sunday morning worship service provides an excellent opportunity to focus the church’s attention on the needs in the 10/40 Window and the awesome power of God to meet those needs. Even more importantly, it can remind the church of the great worth of God who deserves honor and praise from the 2000 people groups who have yet to have a church planted in their midst. In proper perspective, God’s great glory is, after all, both the reason for, and the result of, our work in missions. Worship should precede and permeate all of our prayers for the 10/40 Window.

While many of our hymns and praise choruses focus on how God has blessed us (an appropriate reality to elebrate!), a little digging will uncover songs declaring God’s greatness and His plan to demonstrate that greatness to all peoples. Such God-oriented songs could be interspersed with Scriptures, like Psalm 67, which reaffirm that
theme, with prayers for the 10/40 Window, and testimonies of God’s work there.

32. “Not Another Meeting?!”
Few churches want for meetings and times of corporate gathering. Rather, the question often should be, “How can parishioners expect to minister to the lost when they spend all of their waking hours with the found?” This reality makes some people cringe when thinking about something new, such as prayer for the 10/40 Window, being added to the church’s agenda. The church’s mission zealot might respond to such hesitance with, “Prayer for the 10/40 Window is the most important thing we can do. In fact, it is the only thing God is really concerned about!”

Knowing that to be untrue, a more appropriate response might be to dedicate one month of an already established church meeting to learning about and praying for the 10/40 Window. Many churches have regular Sunday night ervices or Wednesday night prayer meetings. Perhaps four of these meetings could be used to learn about and pray for, four regions in the 10/40 Window.

33. “Been There, Done That.”
Few things are as powerful as first-hand reports of amazing stories. Take advantage of that fact by inviting a convert from a 10/40 Window city to speak to your church and lead in prayer for his city. The words of someone who has followed Christ in the 10/40 Window, whose family may still be there, and who has tasted some of the sufferings of Christ will markedly affect your church. You may find it difficult to locate a good candidate. Check with some of the mission agencies listed in the Resource Directory. If you are concerned about time in your service, you may want to conduct an interview with your guest in front of the congregation. This will also help insure that the congregation is given specific prayer requests. Humility may otherwise prevent your guest from asking a church full of people to embrace his burdens and concerns.

34. Your Next Missions Conference
Next time the missions committee gathers to agonize over a theme for the upcoming year’s missions conference, ease their pain by suggesting they focus the event on prayer for the 10/40 Window. Under the broad guidelines of a 10/40 Window focused conference, many of the other ideas in this book can be implemented. Missionaries can be invited home from the Window to share, international potlucks can be feasted upon, and, of course, much time could be spent in fervent prayer for the unreached world. Using such a theme may result in a greater advance of the kingdom than the last five conferences put together.

35. Reverse Offering
Thrill your congregation by giving them an opportunity to take something out of the offering plate. No, not change for a twenty, but rather an opportunity to pray for change among an unreached people. Send around offering plates that are filled with brief profiles of peoples or countries in the 10/40 Window. As the plate goes by people could take out two or three cards. The peoples on them would then be “theirs” for a week or a month of focused prayer.

36. “If I Had a Hammer . . .”
Help your congregation visualize the effects of your 10/40 Window prayer by placing a multipaned window at the front of the sanctuary. After a corporate time of prayer, take a hammer and break out one of the panes, illustrating how prayer breaks down demonic strongholds and allows light to flow into unreached cities. To help church members carry the vision with them through the week, distribute pocket-sized hammers or laminated cards with a hammer and the 10/40 Window graphically displayed on them.

37. Pray through the Newspaper
With a little preparation by a small group leader, an interesting and effective prayer time can be conducted around the world news section of the daily paper. Briefly highlight events taking place in 10/40 Window nations, consider their impact on the advance of God’s kingdom, and then pray for his hand to move in those situations.

38. The Power of Drama
Perhaps someone in your church writes dramas and would work with you to develop one on prayer. If that kind of talent is unavailable, look to Caleb Project for several time-tested and heart-wrenching dramas on prayer. Rather than putting your congregation on a collective guilt trip, these dramas will thoughtfully remind them of the Godpromised impact of prayer and give them hope for the effects of their prayers on unreached people. A couple of hours of practice will prepare the four to eight people needed for most dramas. Plus, they are only seven or so minutes long, which might qualify them for a slot on Sunday morning! Order the complete set of fifteen scripts, which includes those on prayer as well as several others. See the Resource Directory for ordering information.

39. “A View from on High”
Jay Randall, director of a humanitarian organization serving the peoples along the Caspian Sea, has developed an exciting Sunday morning program that gives your church a view of God’s work in the world from the vantage point of an angel. Seeing the unfolding drama of global events from an “on high” perspective will give your church increased faith to pray great prayers for the 10/40 Window. A missions director from a church in California commented, “We wanted to present this drama to encourage our people to ‘pray through the window.’ There was much excitement for many people as they realized the need to reach the unreached.” This drama, "A View from on High," can be ordered from Caleb Project.

40. A Sunday to Change the World
In a similar vein as "A View from on High," Bill and Amy Stearns of World Christian magazine have made available a one Sunday curriculum that will draw your congregation into the reality of God’s global purposes. A Sunday to Change the World has been designed to be relevant to all age groups in your church. It is a wonderful opportunity to dedicate a single Sunday to the 10/40 Window that will have long-term results both on your church and the unreached world.

41. Ramadan Prayer
Conducting special times of prayer concurrent with religious celebrations in the 10/40 Window is a good way to focus and intensify your prayers. Challenge your church to pray specifically for Muslims during Ramadan, their month of fasting. Many Christians even fast during part or all of the celebration. Because this is a spiritually intense period for the world’s nearly one billion Muslims, our prayers are particularly important during this time: not only for Muslims, but also for the missionaries who are laboring among them. Like many non-Western holidays, Ramadan is scheduled according to the lunar calendar so the dates vary each year. Contact a local mosque, Islamic Center, or public library to find the current year’s dates. Look for a copy of the 30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World prayer guide for help praying during this time.

42. Around the World in Five Rooms
Create an enlightening and exciting evening of prayer, by transforming the Sunday School portion of your facility into five stations on a trip throughout the 10/40 Window. The rooms could represent five cities in which your church supports work. They could represent five regions of the 10/40 Window. Or one room could be given to each of the major blocks of unreached peoples: Tribal, Hindu, Unreligious, Muslim, and Buddhist. Recruit five sharp people to staff the rooms, maybe in costume and character. Divide the congregation into five groups and give them a schedule of rotation. If each group spends 15 minutes in each room learning about the people there and praying for them, a full circuit would take an hour and a half. With a bit of introduction and some time to report back at the end, a powerful two-hour evening of prayer will result.

43. Focus In and Follow Through
A missions activist in Arizona suggests focusing your prayers for the 10/40 Window on a specific city that the church chooses. After determining the city to focus on, many of the other ideas in this book could be used to lift prayers for that city. The key then is to monitor the resulting work of God in your city. Through contacts with a mission agency involved in the city, a specific missionary who you know there, or perhaps even the newspaper, keep abreast of what is happening in your city. Use both good reports and crises to inspire your congregation to pray.

44. Get the Global Prayer Digest!
The Global Prayer Digest is one of the best resources for up-to-date prayer information for the 10/40 Window. Produced monthly, this daily devotional prayer guide does not focus exclusively on the 10/40 Window, but contains much in the way of helpful information and inspirational accounts of God’s work throughout the unreached world. Your church may want to purchase several subscriptions to have on hand. Even better, deliver a strong push from the pulpit for individuals to subscribe. If you are online, you can have it delivered daily to your e-mail address. Check the Resource Directory for subscription information.

45. The 10/40 Window in Print
In addition to the Global Prayer Digest, a small, but high quality body of material is in print which will help your prayers for the 10/40 Window be more sophisticated than, “God bless the missionaries.” Caleb Project’s research teams have produced “straight from the streets” prayer guides for a number of 10/40 Window peoples.

Often designed to provide a month of daily prayer insight, these guides are inexpensive, informative, and full of photos. Two other helpful guides are Praying Through the Window: The 100 Gateway Cities and Praying Through the Window III:The Unreached Peoples. These powerful volumes were designed for the October 1995 and 1997 Praying Through the Window initiatives, but will remain effective for years. Look to the Resource Directory for information on obtaining these books.

46. “The Most Copied Sheet of Paper in History”
For mass distribution, get your hands on the one-page, month-long calendar of the “100 gateway cities.” Free of reproduction restrictions, this calendar may be the most copied piece of paper ever. It lists several key people groups to pray for each day along with the country of their greatest concentration. Start with a clear master and make as many copies as you would like. If you are in a big hurry, it could even be faxed to you!

47. The 10/40 Window on the Screen
A popular maxim states, “Leaders are readers.” While this is certainly true, savvy leaders are also aware of the power of video. Several high-quality programs on the 10/40 Window are available. Here are two that are excellent: To the Ends of the Earth, by Christian Broadcasting Network, introduces believers to the 10/40 Window and the
great impact prayer is having on God’s work there. With both 12- and 28-minute versions, it is flexible for different groups and opportunities. To help your church or small group pray for a specific people group, many videos are available. See the Resource Directory for sources and titles.

48. “But Does It Really Work?”
“Does it really work?” is a good question when you are deciding which laundry detergent to buy, but it might not be the best question when raised in regard to prayer. Unfortunately, such doubt can sometime shadow all but the stoutest of intercessors’ hearts, especially when you are praying for people you don’t know who live a long way away. Remembering Jesus’ assurances that God hears and delights to answer our prayers helps. Your church will also be encouraged and invigorated in its prayers for the 10/40 Window by stories of the kingdom’s advance there. A little research will unearth a variety of sources full of first-hand accounts of God’s work in the unreached world. Recounting these stories for the congregation will build faith and hope for intercession. WindoWatchman I and II, published by the Information Network (now Window International Network), recount ways God worked through teams that focused their prayers on the countries and cities of the 10/40 Window.

49. What about the Church Newsletter?
That classic of intra-church communication: from the lowly one-pager to the exalted, multi-departmental mini-magazine, the church newsletter has stood the test of time. It has endured. It has grown. And maybe, just maybe, it has been worth the cost of the bulk mail stamp necessary to send it out. Seriously, because many church newsletters have become familiar information vehicles, they can be great tools to inspire prayer for the 10/40 Window. Some ideas: Brief profiles of unreached peoples, fresh reports of God’s work in the 10/40 Window, or a prayerful look at a current events situation unfolding in the 10/40 Window. Some nice line drawings with a missions emphasis might be good, too!

50. “Don’t Know Nothin’ ‘Bout Geography”
Many people are hindered in their prayers because they find it difficult to visualize the 10/40 Window. A concise verbal explanation may not paint a clear picture, and while the brave among us may try drawing a map on an overhead transparency, that might only further muddy the waters! However, the geography whizzes at Global
Mapping International in Colorado Springs have created a set of transparency maps specifically designed to clarify the concept of the 10/40 Window. The set features maps highlighting: the countries of the 10/40 Window, the four religious blocks of the 10/40 Window, the hundred gateway cities, and five other topics. The original versions of these maps are even available in Spanish and French! Go to www.gmi.org for more information.

Bonus: A Dozen Ideas for Kids!
We would be silly not to purposely include children in the great rally of intercession that God is calling around the globe. When parents and teachers allow kids’ prayers to stop at, “God bless Mommy, and Daddy, and Ruff, the dog,” they deny children the chance to express awesome, and often convicting, faith. We also betray our underlying feeling that real intercession is only for the spiritually mature believer. Hogwash. Let us eagerly cultivate the seeds of faith present in our kids. We all know there will be plenty of efforts to trample, peck, and strangle them. Many of the ideas already discussed can be modified to be relevant to kids. The following, however, are tailor-made for the up-and-coming champions of intercession.

1. “Pin the Prayer on the People”
Jill Harris, a veritable treasure house of information on building missions into kids, suggests a variation on “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” You have seen it before: Blindfold, spin, yell, and pin. This time the “pin-on” is a light bulb or candle shape, and when the child sticks it into a 10/40 Window nation, he prays for the light of God’s glory to shine there.

2. Musical Chairs Prayers
Have kids sit in a circle and sing along with a tape of “Shine, Jesus, Shine.” While they sing, they pass an inflatable globe around the circle. When the music stops, whoever has the globe prays for the day’s 10/40 Window missionary or people group.

3. Kids Pray
Julie Brown of Kids Pray, a ministry of Ameritribes, suggests collecting missionary prayer cards–-and what missionary isn’t willing to pass along a prayer card? Put the cards in a hat and, as a prize for a game or event, allow someone to pull a card out and pray for the family represented.

4. Innocents Abroad
This simulation activity walks kids through the steps necessary to become a missionary in a 10/40 Window nation. Leaders can design passports that are stamped when various activities are completed. Kids could learn geographic and cultural facts about an unreached people, sample some of the local food, and find out how to pray for the people group.

5. You Can Change The World
A children’s version of Operation World called You Can Change The World is proving to be great way to equip youngsters to pray for the world.

6. I Say . . . You Say!
Advocating for the use of call and response prayers for kids, Jan Bell, suggests, “Children are eager to pray, but they depend on modeling. When left on their own, most of them tend to hold back. So I say a line and have them repeat it. They like this.” For example, the following prayer can be used as kids march around a map or picture of a particular 10/40 Window nation. “Among the gods there’s none like You. No deeds can compare with Yours. All the nations You have made Will come and worship before You. They will bring . . . glory. They will bring . . . glory to Your name.” Connect to Jan’s excellent KidsCan resource network for other great ideas.

7. Window-Focused Children’s Sermon
If your church has a brief children’s sermon time on Sunday morning, use that time to unfold one small aspect of the 10/40 Window. For example, ask the kids if they wanted to come to church this morning, then describe how many kids in the world don’t have a church to attend even if they want to. An added bonus: Because it is not directed at them, many adults pay more attention to this time than to the grown-up’s sermon!

8. Guests
Have guests dress up like representatives from 10/40 Window nations and tell about their countries. Perhaps kids who are a couple of years older could learn about a people group and then act as these guests for the littler ones.

9. THUMB
Help kids remember the five major blocks of unreached peoples by the mnemonic: THUMB. T = Tribals, H = Hindus, U = Unreligious, M = Muslims, B = Buddhists!

10. Map Scramble
Write the names of cities and countries in the 10/40 Window on card-stock, cut them out, and throw them in a hat. Invite kids in groups of four to each pull one out. Instruct them, at your signal, to dash to a large map of the world and find their city or country. After a few rounds, pass the names out and ask kids to pray for the places they have.

11. Rolling Globe Prayer
For the little ones, say four to six years old, outline the 10/40 Window on an inflatable globe. With the kids sitting in a circle on the floor, have someone roll the globe across the circle to another kid. When he catches the globe, help him to pray for the place his finger is touching.

12. Prayer and Post
Profile a missionary family who lives in the 10/40 Window. After telling their story, with pictures if possible, ask the kids how they might like to pray for the family. Write the responses on the board, and then lead the kids in praying for them. To emphasize the time, have the kids write brief letters to members of the family they just learned about and prayed for. Ask them to tell the missionaries what they prayed. Refer the kids to board for reminders. Be sure to drop the letters in the mail right away.

Resource Directory
Many people and organizations can help you put all this into practice; those listed below can also tell you about many others!

Ameritribes (especially KidsPray ministry)
PO Box 3717
Flagstaff, AZ 86003 USA
Tel: 520.670.9400
www.ameritribes.org

Caleb Project
10 West Dry Creek Circle
Littleton, CO 80120 USA
Tel: 303.730.4170
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
www.calebproject.org

Window International Network
PO Box 7287
Colorado Springs, CO 80933 USA
Tel: 719.522.1040 USA
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
www.win1040.com

Frontiers
325 N Stapley Road
Mesa, AZ 85203 USA
Tel: 800.GO.2.THEM
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
www.frontiers.org

Global Mapping International
15435 Gleneagle Drive, Suite 100
Colorado Springs, CO 80921 USA
Tel: 719-531-3599
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
www.gmi.org

Kids Can Make A Difference
4445 Webster Drive
York, PA 17402 USA
Tel: 717.757.6793
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

OMF International
10 W Dry Creek Circle
Littleton, CO 80120
Tel: 303.730.4167
www.omf.org

Pioneers
12343 Narcoossee Road
Orlando, FL 32827 USA
Tel: 800.755.7284
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
www.pioneers.org

US Center For World Mission
1605 Elizabeth Street
Pasadena, CA 91104
Tel: 818.797.1111
www.uscwm.org

Wycliffe Bible Translators
PO Box 2727
Huntington Beach CA 92647
Tel: 714.969.4600
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
www.wycliffe.org

Youth With A Mission
International Communications Network
PO Box 26479
Colorado Springs, CO 80936 USA
Tel: 719.380.0936
www.ywam.org
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Notes Related to Specific Items
14. See the USCWM contact information above.

24. Quality mission agency periodicals include: East Asia’s Millions (OMF’s), Mission Frontiers (USCWM’s), and In Other Words (Wycliffe’s).

38. A video featuring several of the skits performed with instructions for putting them on is also available from Caleb Project.

41. Contact WorldChristian News through YWAM, above, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , www.ywam.org.

44. Order Global Prayer Digest by writing Subscription Manager Frontier Fellowship at the US Center for World Mission, listed above.

45. Available from Caleb Project.

47. Get the Countdown2000 series from the US Center for World Mission or the Unreached Peoples videos from Caleb Project.

Kid’s Ideas 5. Order You Can Change the World through your local Christian bookstore or check with YWAM (see above).

This entire article is reprinted from Praying Through the Countries of the 10/40 Window (Littleton, CO: Caleb Project, 1997).

Copyright © Caleb Project 2001 all rights reserved. Used by permission. For more materials related to this article please contact Caleb Project www.calebproject.org, 1-877 662-1040.

Jesus Our Prayer Champion
March Teleseminar