Tell somebody, bring somebody

One chapter left, and it is an assignment.

You will mostly not see results

Be ready for this, because it is the thing that quietly ends prayer ministries.

You will pray for hundreds of people and learn how almost none of the stories end. Did the daughter come home? Did the surgery go well? Did that person ever say yes to opening a Bible? You will not know. There is no results page, and there was never going to be one.

Paul had the same arrangement, and did not seem to consider it a hardship:

I planted, Apollos watered, but it was God who caused the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is of significance, but only God, who brings about the growth. — 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (OTB)

Nobody in that sentence watched anything grow. They worked and God did the rest, which is exactly the arrangement you are in.

But something is happening, and you should say so

You may not know the endings, but you do know things worth telling.

You know that a person in a village asked strangers to pray, and strangers did. You know that people ask again months later, which does not happen unless the first response mattered. You know that some of them eventually say yes to opening a Bible with somebody, and that this is where discipleship begins.

Tell people that. In your church, at your table, in your small group — with no names and no details, but with the shape of it: this is happening, and I get to be part of it.

Most Christians have never heard of a prayer ministry like this. They assume prayer ministry means a list read out on Sunday. Nobody has ever told them that a person on the other side of the world wrote down their worst fear and is waiting on someone to pray.

Then hand somebody the work

Telling is half. The other half is asking.

Look around at the people you know and find the ones who are already doing this quietly — the ones who pray for people constantly and would never call it a ministry. Retired people with mornings. Homebound people with time nobody is using. Bilingual people, who are worth their weight here. Teenagers who will take it more seriously than you expect. Anybody who has ever said they wish they could do something for missions but can’t travel.

Then ask them directly. Not “we could always use more people” — nobody has ever joined anything because of that sentence. Ask the way it actually works: “There’s a woman who asked for prayer at a clinic in Honduras last week and nobody has prayed for her yet. Will you take that one?”

Jesus told his disciples the shortage was never the harvest:

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest field. — Matthew 9:37-38 (OTB)

He told them to pray for workers. Then he sent the people who were praying.

The whole class in four lines

A stranger tells the truth at an event, because a prayer request was the only honest thing to ask. You carry it to God. Your response goes back, and months later a door opens that would have stayed shut. And the only limit on how many people that happens for is how many people are praying.

Recite this

I’ll say what God is doing, and I’ll ask somebody by name.

Try it this week

Write down the name of one person who should be doing this.

I will ask ________________ to join the prayer team, by ________________.