By Jonathan Graf

I was recently in a church in a denomination that was voting on merging with a second denomination. The Sunday I was there was the last day members could enter their votes. I overheard the member in charge of the voting trying to collect a vote from another member. The member who hadn’t yet voted wanted to pass because she didn’t know what it was all about. But the vote collector tried to push her to vote.

I thought to myself, she obviously hasn’t prayed about the situation, and is wisely abstaining. We would all agree: Making significant decisions without much prayer is indeed foolish.

But how many decisions do we as individuals and churches make without getting a clear answer from the Holy Spirit. Probably quite a few. Oh, we all pray at the beginning of a board or elders meeting, or before a vote at a congregational meeting, but does that always give us clear direction from God? I for one do not think so.

By Lisa Flake and Dave Imboden

The US Center for World Mission’s Global Prayer Digest and Ethne are partnering together to provide a year’s worth of daily prayers for the least-reached peoples on every continent from June 2006 through May 2007. Joshua Project is teaming together with Ethne to identify the unreached people groups (UPG) and least-reached peoples of the earth within 12 geographical regions–one for each month of the year.

The launch—June 2006--of this unprecedented year-long prayer initiative for is strategically aligned with this year’s Global Day of Prayer (GDOP) on Pentecost Sunday, June 4. The GDOP is preceded by 10 days of prayer and fasting and followed by 90 days of local outreach. Similarly, the Ethne effort works to see strategic harvest outreaches to the least-reached in each region of the world for the 90 days immediately following the global day of prayer. United prayer will open doors and fuel effective outreach efforts throughout the earth.

Children and Prayer

A vast majority of people make decisions to give their hearts to Jesus Christ when they are children. But at the same time, the statistics regarding those who grew up in the church, who leave the church as young adults, are absolutely abismal. What happens? Somewhere, something falls down. I wonder if it has anything to do with the level of prayer that a church prays for its kids and teens?

Many churches are getting more and more serious about seeing their kids prayed for. One of the most popular plans is to assign adult intercessors to each child in the church. Here's a simple ideas to get you started:

When you type the word "prayer" into a google.com or ask.com search engine, you come up with hundreds of thousands of possible websites. That overwhelming number proves not to be very helpful. From time to time, we will alert you to unique sites we have found. Here's one that can encouarge you and your people on a regular basis:

http://www.prayercentral.net

This website, run by missionaries Wayne and Kathleen Dillard, has a number of unique features. You can make and send prayer encourage cards to people who are hurting, (http://www.prayitsayit.net/); you can find simple ideas to encourage others and your family with prayer. But our favorite section is "Inspire." In this section, you will find exciting, encouraging stories of faith, plus two 31-day devotionals: In His Name and The ABC's of Prayer. Each devotional has a word of instruction and encouragement, scriptures to read, and a prayer to pray related to the devotions instruction.

We recommend checking out www.prayercentral.net.

The Prayer Bible

Bar none, the most unique Bible to help someone grow in his or her prayer life is The Prayer Bible (New Living Translation) by Tyndale Publishers. More than most specialty Bibles that just include some devotional thoughts, The Prayer Bible literally teaches people how and what to pray. It is loaded with practical helps that will drive people into deeper levels of prayer. Among its many features, it includes:

• Prayer Prompts on every page of the Bible, that will inspire you to pray back the truths of Scripture to God
• Prayer Path notes will show you how to have a more intimate prayer life
• Stories of Answered prayer will encourage you that God is listening to and answering your prayers
• Prayer Programs will guide you through various topics on prayer such as intercession, praying when afraid, etc.
• A Topical Index of Prayers and who prayed them is listed at the beginning of each book in the Bible.

It is a practical resource for prayer leaders because it will give you lots of topics and ideas for teaching sessions and practical aide in putting prayer guides together. We recommend it for you or for anyone special you want to give a meaningful gift to.

We regret that we cannot offer it at a discount to our members. You can purchase The Prayer Bible at www.prayershop.org or through your local bookstore. It comes in both hardcover ($34.99) and softcover ($24.99) editions.

Prayer Leader OnLine
April 2006
Vol. 3, No. 4

Introduction

What is it about getting away from the regular routine that can bring heightened sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit? That has always been true in my life. Decisions made at a Christian summer camp, times of hearing the Spirit clearly on retreats, even times of clarity on issues while sitting in a boat fishing. . . . and times of connecting with Him at conferences.

I think we can all relate to that. Just this weekend a pastor couple stayed in their RV on our property. The wife told me and my wife--through cracking voice--how she met the Lord in our prayer chapel. There's something about getting away that makes us open to the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit.

When was the last time you got away, broke the routine? In our roles as prayer leaders, we need to break the routine often. We need times of refreshing. Times to spend with the Lord, where we don't have to worry about interruptions.

A major ministry leader I know takes a day every month and gets away--fasting and praying--to seek God for spiritual health, refreshing . . . and direction. He told me it revolutionized his life. How about you?

Jonathan Graf
President