Operation Prayer

The millennium has galvanized evangelical Christians. They're focused not on the end of the world, but on what they see as the possibility, for the first time in history, of fulfilling Christ Jesus' great commission: "Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations" and "preach the Gospel to every creature."

While globe-shrinking technology has paved the way, another development most fuels their hopes of evangelizing the world: A global prayer movement has gathered such momentum over the past decade that they feel God is moving people toward a new awakening.

This prayer movement has grown "so significantly that I would consider it to be probably the single most significant change in Christianity in the last two decades," says Glenn Sheppard, a Baptist pastor long involved in evangelism who now heads International Prayer Ministries, which gives prayer seminars worldwide.

The movement encompasses grassroots initiatives in many nations (in the United States, a goal of 3 million Lighthouses in communities, where Christians pray for their neighbors); a global strategy in which millions join in targeted prayer for specific cities and peoples; and a new World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., using the Internet to link intercessors with prayer requests and alert them to world situations calling for prayer.

Evangelical pastors from many denominations pray together regularly "to take our cities for God." Churches adopt "unreached peoples" of the world for prayer. A new perspective on spiritual warfare - and a global Spiritual Warfare Network - is gathering adherents to its focus on "breaking spiritual strongholds" that prevent receptivity to the Gospel (story coming Sept. 23).

When you look back in history before awakenings, you can find the roots in united prayer, says Jonathan Graf, editor of Pray! magazine, which was launched two years ago in response to the burgeoning movement. "Jonathan Edwards, one of the instruments in the first Great Awakening [in the US], for years before it broke out brought together churches for 'concerts of prayer.' "

"Probably the most significant impetus [for the current movement]," suggests Dr. Sheppard, "was the awareness that 'method evangelism' had not brought significant changes in the world. People were trained in the methods of evangelism but they were not necessarily anointed."

Alvin Vander Griend, director of Houses of Prayer Everywhere, says that in the past "we have failed to understand the place that God intends prayer to have. Several passages in Scriptures make it very clear that God governs the world through the prayers of His people, that prayer releases His power and grace or directs His work."

The goal of the global movement - which is linked in an informal network called AD 2000 and Beyond - is "a church for every people and the Gospel for every person by AD 2000." The tasks, as evangelicals see it, are to make the Gospel available to every individual in a culturally understandable way and to plant a church among each of the 1,600 ethnolinguistic groups that have never before been reached.

"A prime part of our mission is encouraging the galvanization of global Christians in focused, fervent, united prayer," says Luis Bush, AD 2000's international director.

One strategy is "Praying Through the Window" - for "the lost" who live in what is called the "10/40 window," the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude. This region, says Mr. Bush, contains the great majority of the world's least evangelized and 80 percent of its poorest people. It also represents areas of the world that are predominantly Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist.

Praying Through the Window began in October 1993, when some 21 million (according to AD 2000) prayed for the 62 nations in the window, and 188 prayer-journey teams took 257 journeys to pray on site, visiting each of those nations. During October 1995, some 36 million followed a prayer calendar targeting 100 "gateway cities" in the region, along with more prayer journeys. And in October 1997, prayers focused on the 1,739 unreached-people groups. The final effort is planned for October, targeting 3,000 "strategic towns."

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