This June, the Church Answers team will launch The Hope Initiative, a reproducible strategy utilizing this resource by Thom Rainer to help congregations engage their communities. I appreciate this approach because it explicitly connects prayer for evangelism with active outreach. Many tools mistakenly assume prayer is happening behind the scenes, yet without a deliberate focus, this vital foundation is often overlooked.
Establishing a consistent prayer life is essential for any effective outreach strategy for several reasons:
1. Evangelism is a spiritual battle. We seek to reach those currently blinded by the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:3-4) and held captive in the domain of darkness (Col. 1:13). Because sharing the gospel pushes directly into the enemy’s kingdom, we must anticipate spiritual opposition. Understanding the role of prayer in evangelism is critical, as prayer is a gateway to evangelism that prepares the heart for the harvest.
2. We cannot open blinded minds. We cannot, in our own power, somehow change the heart of a non-believer. We sow and water the seed, but it is God who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:7). He alone changes hearts and transfers people from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of His Son (Col. 1:13-14). Our prayer pleads with God to change those hearts even as we obediently share the gospel.
3. Evangelism is seldom easy. Some folks are hesitant to speak to others about their faith. Some are afraid of rejection. Others worry they won’t have the right answers. Some just don’t know how to share their faith. At the same time, though, even someone as evangelistic as the apostle Paul needed the prayers of others that he might speak the gospel boldly and clearly (Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:2-4). If Paul needed prayer support to be evangelistic, surely you and I do also. Prayer admits our inability to evangelize apart from the power of God.
4. Prayer is a confession that we need God in this process. In my book, The Potential and Power of Prayer, I describe prayer as “an expression of our relationship with God and a confession of our dependence on Him.” Prayer that accompanies evangelism is a cry that others will know Him and a confession that we need Him to change their lives. Serious, heartfelt prayer, on behalf of non-believers, expresses the depth of our burden for God to redeem someone.
5. Ongoing, genuine prayer should compel us to practice evangelism. That is, a relationship with God marked by prayer should overflow from our hearts that we (a) want to talk to Him and (b) want to talk to others about Him. If we truly meet with God in prayer, we will also want others to meet Him in prayer.
Pastors, make sure you’re equipping your church family to do evangelism—but equip them to pray too. Pray in such a way that they will want you to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1), lead them to the throne of God, and ask God to deepen their burden for the lost.
Then, do as the book title says: Pray & Go!
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This article originally appeared on ChurchAnswers.com and is reposted here by permission.