Prayer and Crisis Response

1. Prayer and Crisis Response ME216 Prayer & Missions

2. Crisis Response and Prayer? • “Disaster response provides a valid opportunity for a cooperative effort with other churches, religious bodies, and secular or governmental agencies while keeping our identity, purposes, and sacred obligations intact.” –Tennessee Baptist Association, “How to Organize Your Church for Disaster Relief”

3. Why prayer? • “Evangelism without prayer is like an explosive without a detonator. Prayer without evangelism is like a detonator without explosives. Put these two together and the roof of hell will cave in anywhere. Wherever there is openness to the Gospel, faithful prayer has gone before. Prayer intensifies the activity of God’s love and power.”--Brian Mills,“Developing a Prayer Strategy”

4. Receptivity to the Gospel Linked to Believing, Fervent Prayer Contrast: • Britain: • Much church activity, well-executed evangelism, well-motivated church planting but 70% claim to believe in God but only 10% attend church regularly • Borneo: • Sacrificial prayer BEFORE evangelism and God at work in an obvious way

5. Early Christians Prioritized Prayer • Ephesian Church • Pray in the Spirit, keep on praying for all the saints, pray also for me (Eph. 6:18) • Colossian Church • Devote yourselves to prayer…and pray for us too that God may open a door for our message…Pray that I may proclaim it clearly (Col. 4:2-4) • Thessalonian Church • Pray for us that the messageof the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured…pray we may be delivered from wicked and evil men (2 Thes. 3:1-2) OPEN DOORS REMOVE EVIL HINDRANCES

6. Take Prayer Seriously! In planning a worthwhile strategy that enables crisis response teams to take evangelism and church planting seriously, we must say loudly and clearly ‘TAKE PRAYER SERIOUSLY’. Do nothing without prayer; pray before you do anything. Let your plans arise out of what God says. Whether we are mobilizing a team, strategizing for a city, town, or region, or leading a response, we must seek God first for the best way of tackling crisis response, evangelism, church planting, ministry, and goal setting.

7. Prayer Must Be Integral to the Process The development of a prayer strategy must, to some extent, be dependent on the overall strategy for crisis response. It must be seen to develop from it, not be added as an extra. The prayer strategy must serve the overall strategy, not be seen as a challenge to it.

8. Focus at each Point Where It Matters • Preparation for, training, & mobilizing teams • While waiting for opportunities to deploy, for people groups & nations • During deployment of teams, survey efforts, and actual response • Throughout the entire process, updating prayers and sharing praise reports It’s ALWAYS time for prayer!

9. Bathe the Entire Effort in Prayer The objective must be to build momentum, highlighting the importance, the pleasure, and the fruits of believing prayer which is integral to the process of crisis response and ultimately to igniting transformational gospel movements in the area among the people.

10. Watchmen Needed! • Towns and cities through the ages had their watchmen whose job it was to warn when enemies approached. Others patrolled the streets at night to protect the inhabitants from thieves and intruders. They would often call as morning approached, to alert the people that the new day was dawning. Knowing the time, protecting the people, and warning of danger were their functions.

11. Today We Still Need Watchmen! • Spiritual, physical and moral dangers await, particularly in crisis situations. • Enemies (natural and spiritual) roam about seeking to kill, steal and destroy. • Many threats exist to the life and health of workers and initiatives attempting to bring good news. These watchmen pray for goodness, joy and peace in their communities and are part of the move of God to see whole nations won for Jesus Christ!

12. Prayer Coordinator Key Member of Crisis Response Leadership Team • Prayer Coordinator: • Leads prayer mobilization NOW for Crisis Response Initiative • Stimulates effective prayer by the leadership team and for the leadership team throughout the process • Contributes to developing training materials for prayer coordinators within each crisis reponse team • Facilitates overall functioning of prayer component in crisis response initiatives

13. Prayer Coordinator –Spiritual Correspondent Crisis Response Team Prayer Coordinator can: • See the process with eyes of the Spirit, focused on understanding the dynamics of the invisible realm • Interpret situations to identify critical points for intercession • Craft scripture-based strategic prayer points • Screen for security concerns • Maintain ongoing timely communication between intercessors and crisis response teams

14. Identifying Prayer Leaders • Submissive humble attitude to leadership • Able to take the lead firmly where necessary, a person of influence • Faithful in spiritual disciplines • Teachable and a good understanding of the Word of God • In good relationship with others—a team player • Emotionally well-balanced • Discreet • Experienced in prayer • Able to maintain flow of communications

15. Points to Handle with Prayer! • Workers going in • People suffering • Resources & logistics • Prioritizing requests • Gathering relevant information • Screen for security • Spiritual dynamics: “seeing” w/ God’s eyes • Permitting and forbidding in the Spirit • Unity and cooperation • Healing and deliverance • Stress factors • Hearing the Lord for direction • Collecting/assessing/disseminating information • Releasing the harvest of souls

16. Differences in Experience and Different Levels of Understanding of Prayer • Adapt prayer mobilization to target a wide range of experience levels and levels of understanding of prayer • Help people pray for things they already are burdened about and can relate to • At the same time, challenge and inform them about things that are new and unfamiliar as well

17. Prayer walking Teams • As Crisis Response Teams are ready, prayer walking teams can be an invaluable asset to further establish spiritual receptivity and increase the harvest.