Southern Baptists Join to Pray in 2017
Encouraged by Steve Gaines, SBC President and pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, churches all across the convention participated in a call to prayer during January. If your church didn’t get to participate in January, it’s not too late to pray!
Gaines is quoted by SBC Today: “I am convinced that prayer should be the number one priority for every Christian. Talking with and listening to God as we read His Word are the most important things we do. Without these disciplines, we cut off the flow of the Holy Spirit’s power. We cut Him off from speaking to our hearts and giving us direction. The Southern Baptist Convention needs to be a people of prayer. Only then will God send the power we need to fulfill the Great Commission.”
Several resources are available at InAllThingsPray.net, a web page created by members of PrayerLink, a network of state convention and SBC entity prayer leaders partnering together to call and equip Southern Baptists to a renewed life of prayer to impact a lost world. A Great Commission Prayer Experience, utilizing a 10-20-30 model, follows the missions and ministry structure of Acts 1:8. (Available on the website or by contacting SteveHopkins@scbo.org)
Many have been praying and longing for another Great Awakening to sweep our land. The Father started every great harvest time in history with the concerted prayer of His people. Jeremiah Lamphier, started a noonday prayer meeting 160 years ago in New York City. Six people came to the first prayer meeting, but within six months, ten thousand businessmen gathered daily for prayer.
Revival swept the city, and the whole nation paid attention. By 1958 people were gathered every night in cities and small towns all over America for prayer. In two years one million new believers were added to churches in America, out of a population of thirty million. (J. Edwin Orr, The Light of the Nations, 103-105) Revival of the same proportion today could mean ten million new believers added to His church, in America alone! Imagine what that could mean if it also fueled our passion to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Join other Southern Baptists seeking a movement of God as we prayer together for the lost, for our nation, and for the world. (For resources on prayer visit InAllThingsPray.net and scbo.org/pray or contact SteveHopkins@scbo.org)
