Something is happening in Mooresville, Indiana, a beautiful medium-sized suburb a few miles outside of Indianapolis. Several years ago pastor Jim Taylor of Grace Missionary Church, while on a sabbatical—was touched by what he was learning about community transformation. Upon coming home, he became a catalyst to bring pastors and churches in Mooresville together to pray for their community.

After a few years, the community started noticing this unity. Its school system came to the pastors’ group and asked for help with an issue it was experiencing. One particular school in a section of town was having a huge delinquency problem—way beyond the delinquency rates of its other schools. Would the churches help?

Help they did! They prayed for that school. They rallied their people to volunteer at the school. And they established an after school care program that included mentoring and tutoring, plus fun things for the kids to do. They got out of their seats and into the streets! The result—last year that school had no serious delinquency problems!

That story is starting to multiply itself over and over in cities around the country—and the world. The Global Day of Prayer’s challenge to do acts of kindness for 90 days following the day of prayer is seeing churches do tremendous things in their communities. In Dallas, churches are cleaning up neighborhoods and parks, repairing houses. As a result, their opportunities to share the gospel are multiplying. The fact is churches that are coupling prayer with community involvement are seeing God open amazing doors in their cities.

In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah challenges the people who are in exile in Babylon to “get out of their seats and into the streets.” If ever there was a time to hunker down and stay out of sight of the outside world, it would be that situation. But he says, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.” He tells them to build and buy homes, have your sons and daughters marry there, do commerce. In other words live life in a way that benefits your community. Don’t stay a in a little enclave.

If you want to see your church do more to influence your community, start praying for community transformation. Then don’t be surprised if like Uptown Baptist in Chicago, God starts to move your people to “get out of their seats and into the streets.” And don’t worry if you don’t have any specific things on your mind to do in your community. Start with prayer and God will reveal exactly what He wants your church to do! Jeremiah goes on in chapter 29 to talk of God’s plan to prosper His people. But he says, you will find God’s plans as you “call upon [Him] and come and pray to [Him]. . . . You will seek [Him] and find [Him] when you seek [Him] with all your heart” (Jer. 29: 12-13).

--Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network.