Heads up, friends! Yes, I address you as “friends.” Friends in Christ. Friends in mission. Dear praying friends! Why the “heads up”? Well, this month I want to begin by asking you some challenging and important questions. Feel free to get a cup of coffee, put on your thinking cap, or whatever else might help give genuine consideration to these thoughts. Are you ready? Here they are. Four key questions:
Can you, with faith in God’s promises, envision a time when God is glorified and all people participate in his Kingdom?- What do you think the Prayer League can do to help create a world wherein believers and communities of believers in the Americas and elsewhere live out their roles in the great commission?
- Will you pray for God to call and send workers into the world so that populations with limited or no access to the gospel experience the love of Christ?
- How can the Prayer League best plan and pursue our work so that our majority world partner churches are equal and respected collaborators in mission?
Let these questions settle in a bit. Maybe read them through again.
In the questions you will find the newly described “ends” of the World Mission Prayer League, prayerfully crafted by board and staff members together, and adopted by our Board of Directors at their June meeting. They describe what we believe God wants to do through us; what he wants us, with him, to “aim for.” As I explained last month, they are “marching orders” for me and all Prayer League workers.
These “ends” are, in fact, well rooted in our beginnings. They are also deliberately fashioned for today’s world, and for the particular role we believe God has called the Prayer League to serve in that world. They are the “ends” for a new story.
By God’s grace, calling and provision, World Mission Prayer League has a remarkable and inspiring story! Is our Author done writing? We believe not. I am increasingly convinced that God is writing a “sequel,” a new Prayer League story for times that have changed dramatically since our founding. These ends, along with the rest of our transition to policy-based governance, are part of that. We are trusting that God will use these ends, along with the related and more detailed policies established by the board, to help us make wise choices for the new story he is beginning to craft. They describe what we are to hope for, pray for, work for, and look for. In Christ, they are what we live for!
As our partner in prayer, will you ask the Lord to grant you the faith and strength to commit to these same ends?
We want to see God glorified and all people participating in his Kingdom.
We strive to inspire and help believers in the Americas and elsewhere to live a commissioned life, to participate in God’s global mission, and to pray for the advance of the Kingdom and the sending of harvest workers.
We are eager that people with limited access to the gospel experience the love of Christ. They are to be prayed for. They are to be blessed with loving and caring relationships with followers of Jesus. We want them to hear God’s law and gospel, which alone have the power to lead them to salvation and bring them together in disciple-making communities of faith.
We want our partner churches elsewhere in the world to be equal and respected collaborators in God’s mission, praying for the Kingdom’s advance, sharing the Good News within their cultures and beyond, serving their communities, and establishing their own leadership.
As you can see, we have much to do. We have much to pray. And our God has much more to write. He is particularly good at writing sequels! (see The New Testament).
Please know this: He has already decided to write you into the story! What role has he given you? What are your ends? What are you, by God’s grace and calling, aiming for?
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19)
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15)