SBC Call to Prayer

Frank S. Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, emphasizes the importance of state Baptist conventions in the task of the Great Commission and urges prayer for the conventions, especially as they gather for their annual meetings.

Todd Peebles, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas, says his church was caught within the bubble of isolation from the lost. Prayer is a necessary step to freedom, Peebles says.

Pastor David Platt led a Prayer for the Nations during the inauguration of Russell D. Moore as president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission on Sept. 10.

In this week's call to prayer, Roger S. Oldham encourages us to pray for our families. Oldham offers Paul's prayer in Philippians 1:9-11 as a model prayer for family, pointing to four elements of Paul's prayer that reveal a dynamic, positive illustration of how to pray for those we love the most.

In the midst of Detroit's financial bankruptcy, there is a much greater void -- a spiritual bankruptcy. Bobby Gilstrap, executive director of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan, calls on believers to pray and give financially for this city's spiritual health.

At the start of a new school year, Baptist Press editor Art Toalston recounts how middle school boys have changed his way of praying for the nation's future.

Columnist Trillia Newbell urges readers to help address the vast problem of sex trafficking by praying, getting informed and spreading the word.

Church leaders too often lack powerful prayer lives, columnist Chuck Lawless explains, offering a challenge to combat the problem by focusing on Jesus' example.

Roger S. Oldham of the SBC Executive Committee relays the threefold strategy of the North American Mission Board's "LoveLoud" evangelistic ministry emphasis: "mobilize your church to love neglected neighbors, to love neglected communities and to love neglected children."

Prayer leader Phil Miglioratti suggests five ways "to make your dog days of summer sparkle with spiritual freshness."