[1]Frank S. Page, president and "chief encouragement officer" of the SBC Executive Committee, has challenged Southern Baptists to continue praying in 2014 "like we've never prayed before."
Page views his call to prayer as a "catalyst, a weekly reminder of the urgency and primacy of prayer." Citing the example of Jesus in Hebrews 12, he said, "Considering what Jesus endured for us, we must not grow weary and lose heart; we must strengthen our tired hands and our weakened knees before the throne of grace.
"Jesus wanted His churches to be called 'houses of prayer,'" Page said. "Let us not disappoint our Lord."
PrayerLink members prayerwalk through downtown Nashville during the group's October 10-12 meeting. PrayerLink met to plan their 2014 strategy to mobilize Southern Baptists in prayer for spiritual renewal. Photo by Rebecca Wolford.
During its annual prayer retreat in October, members of PrayerLink—an organization of state convention and SBC entity prayer leaders—affirmed Page's call for continued prayer, adopting three guiding principles for 2014.
[2]Seek God—Recognizing that our only hope is a God-given spiritual awakening, we acknowledge God is calling His people to repent and seek Him through wholehearted love, righteous living, and fervent, united, Kingdom-focused prayer.
Elevate Prayer—Furthermore, recognizing that prayer is essential for personal, corporate, community, national, and global spiritual transformation, we recommend the SBC entity members of PrayerLink develop a digital resource center for churches to access the many prayer tools available from PrayerLink members.
Pledge Cooperation—In cooperation with associations, state conventions, the SBC entities, and other Great Commission partners, PrayerLink pledges itself as a colaborer to assist churches in mobilizing God-initiated, Kingdom-focused prayer.
TenTwo
January is designated as "Call to Prayer Month" on the SBC Calendar. The North American Mission Board is encouraging churches to set aside time each day throughout the month to offer focused prayer through the TenTwo Prayer Challenge.
Launched by NAMB on October 2, the TenTwo Prayer Challenge calls on individuals and churches to pray for the laborers to invade the harvest fields of North America and the world (Luke 10:2).
"Why should you consider joining Southern Baptists in praying TenTwo?" Gary Frost, vice president for the Midwest Region and national prayer strategist for NAMB, asked. He responded to his own question, "Jesus was asking His disciples, and He asks us, to pray with . . .
- Urgency—The ripeness of the harvest implies temporary opportunity.
- Fervency—Christ was moved with compassion, and effective laborers must possess His heart for the lost.
- Dependency—The harvest belongs to God. He owns it. Our plans and processes are worthless without His empowerment.
- Expectancy—We must be prepared to become the answer to our prayer."
The TenTwo prayer initiative is designed for maximum flexibility as to when to pray, but has a singular focus in mind—praying for laborers.
Jesus would have us pray for diligent workers.
Jesus would have us pray for surrendered workers.
Jesus would have us pray for faith-filled workers.
Jesus would have us pray for courageous workers.
Jesus would have us pray for humble workers.
Would Jesus have us pray that we ourselves would be counted among those workers?
TenTwo resources are available at www.namb.net/TenTwo [3].
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