One of my dreams is that every Northwest child will have someone who loves them praying for them and sharing Christ with them. How tragic that a child can grow up without ever hearing the truth of Jesus and without having someone praying for their soul. Even more disturbing is that many of these children are our neighbors.
When I first expressed this dream it was more of a “wish and a prayer.” But now the dream of every child, or more correctly, every household, having someone praying for them can become reality. The Northwest Baptist Convention of churches has entered into a partnership with Pray4EveryHome that gives you access to the name and address of your hundred closest neighbors. When you register to pray for your neighbors you will receive a daily email with five names and addresses of your neighbors that you can pray for that day.
The idea is that each of our churches will register to pray for their community through Pray4EveryHome.org. And each church will encourage the members to register as a “praying neighbor” on the same website. When you do this you will receive daily prayer emails. Just imagine, if your church has ten people praying for their neighbors, you will be praying for 50 families daily. Twenty members praying means 100 families prayed for each day! Of course, there will be overlap because some of your church members live in the same neighborhood and will be praying for the same people, which is tremendous in that your neighbors will have more people praying for them!
On March 14, 2018 we will have a training event for this ministry at the Northwest Baptist Center in Vancouver, WA (10:00 AM to 5:00 PM). Also, Richland Baptist will host a training on March 9-10 (Friday evening from 6:30-9:30 and Saturday from 9:00 AM-noon). Registration information for the March 14 training can be found at http://www.nwbaptist.org. Registration for the Richland training is at Karen@richlandbaptistchurch.org.
What will it cost you to be a part of this powerful prayer and outreach ministry? Zero dollars because your faithful support of missions giving through the Cooperative Program enabled the NWBC to purchase this ministry for all of our churches (we also had a generous designated gift from a church).
Another important question concerns the frequency with which the data is updated – which is every 90 days. Every household address in the entire Northwest is updated every 90 days, keeping fresh the information on who are your neighbors.
Some of you are already thinking that you can use this information for your evangelism and outreach ministry. You can. As powerful as the prayer strategy is, it is only the beginning of how God can use you to transform your neighborhood and your town.
Friends, praying for all the households in your neighborhood may well provide the greatest spiritual impact you’ve ever had. There are roughly 5 million households in the Northwest. Fifty thousand people praying for their 100 closest neighbors equals 5 million. Amazing!
It’s a great day to serve the Lord in the Northwest!