PrayerLeader OnLine interviews Dr. Daniel Crawford, the Chair of Prayer at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the author of three books on prayer.

Dan, as Chair of Prayer at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, your position is rare at the seminary level. How vital is it for future pastors and church leaders to have at least one course on prayer and why are so few offered across North America?
I think it is absolutely essential that future pastors, chaplains, counselors, church staff members, and missionaries have a course on prayer at the seminary level. We can no longer assume that a student arrives at a seminary with all the tools and disciplines needed for ministry. In fact, many incoming seminarians are fairly new believers. To graduate a student without offering him or her a course on prayer is as unthinkable to me as sending a graduate to pastor a church without a preaching course, or to be a counselor without a course in counseling.

As to why so few seminaries offer a course on prayer, I would offer two major reasons. First, it is because we assume students already have that discipline worked into their lives. Some do. Many do not. Second, prayer is not considered by many academicians as an academic discipline. After all, it is not a classical discipline such as Greek or Systematic Theology or Philosophy of Religion. In most seminaries, the classical out votes the practical on almost every issue of curriculum.
 

By Jonathan Graf

Faith has always been a fascination with me. I have often felt that I had a spiritual gift toward faith, though it has not manifested itself in seeing miraculous healings and dynamic answers to prayer. More often my gift of faith shows itself in an excitement when praying for big things, or a desire to encourage people to trust God for a miracle. I continue to challenge churches and individuals in this arena because I think we in the western world have lost a lot of our ability to pray with faith. Why?

Perhaps skepticism has affected our faith. Or a lack of dependence has caused us to rely on our own ingenuity and resources to make things happen. More likely, I believe this lack of faith has to do with the demise of corporate prayer. The dynamic of spirit-led praying together has vanished in many circles these days. “What does that have to do with faith,” you ask?

Do you have a Prayer Guard for your Missionary?

Developing a well connected prayer team is crucial for every missionary. Communication speed has certainly increased over the years with the advent of e-mail and websites. Yet, issues of secure communication for confidential prayer needs remain a hindrance in getting vital prayer support for individual, family, and ministry needs. As a prayer leader in your church, the following information could be helpful to you in recruiting prayer for the missionaries your church supports.

PrayerCentral.net has released a new online prayer tool that helps missionaries and their prayer forces stay connected. PrayerGuard.net keeps the needs of the missionaries in front of their intercessors back home. It targets dozens of short topics with scripture and sample prayers they keep your worker’s shield up and active. And it takes almost no effort on the missionary’s part. These short topics are common areas of prayer needs for workers. No specific locations or names are given that might jeopardize their work. I found this to be an effective tool to help initiate prayer for friends working in sensitive regions of the world. 

For Lack of a Vision . . .

A lot of churches want to encourage their people to pray more for the lost. But many planned programs flop quickly. Why? Two reasons seem to come to the forefront in many situations.

1. Lack of Prayer Direction. Many people do not know what to pray beyond, "God, save them." When you plan a strategy for praying for the lost, make sure you provide some kind of prayer guide to use. There are a number of excellent ones available.

Paths of Gold (Pray! Books) by Terry Gooding is a collection of 46 scripture-based prayers to pray for a specific person. This 3.5 x 5.5 booklet retails for $2 each, but multiple copy discounts make it affordable for most churches. Remember, Pray! gives CPLN members a 30% discount on its products. Our members are supposed to be automatically entered into their online store system (go to navpress.com); the discount should appear at checkout.

"Praying for Your Unsaved Family and Friends," (Harvest Prayer Ministries) is a short guide of scripture-based prayers, available in packs of 25 for $10. You can also get it in a pdf format for $10. This format allows you to print up as many copies as you need for your church.

Houses of Prayer Everywhere also has a number of resources available to help your people pray for the lost (www.hopeministries.org).