Displaying items by tag: Evangelism

Harvest America 2017 was an evangelistic event broadcast live on the Internet with updates posted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This event, similar to a Billy Graham crusade, used the latest media platforms to give a very straightforward presentation of the gospel. At 5 pm on 11 June Pastor Greg Laurie delivered a gospel message via live satellite from the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona. Artists joining him for the free one-day event included ‘The Voice’ sensation Brennley Brown, ‘American Idol’ winner Jordin Sparks and CCM artists NEEDTOBREATHE, MercyMe, Trip Lee and Phil Wickham. There were 38,000 in the stadium, and 2,904 made decisions for Christ. Also, people across the country invited friends into their homes to watch it and then prayed with them. Last year it live-streamed to over 7,200 locations and drew 357,000 participants, with 25,000 people coming to faith.

Between 9 and 16 June, as part of a Ramadan prayer focus, approximately one million people prayed for the Domari people. There is great expectation that God will do amazing things in this season! In recent years workers have seen some breakthrough, with individuals coming to faith. But whole tribes need to be transformed to worship Jesus Christ. They are originally from Northern India, as are the Roma in Eastern Europe. Domari moved to Asia between 700 and 1000 years ago; but wherever in the world they settle, they are known for the same type of things. The enemy has corrupted all that God has created them to be, but we know that they can be so much more. Instead of sorcery, may they be called to prophecy and receiving revelation from God: instead of immorality and prostitution, may they experience deep intimacy with God. See also

Behind the facade of a ‘tropical paradise’ are tragic realities: the highest divorce rate in the world, rising crime, widespread child abuse, pervasive drug use and over 200 young people joining IS.  All citizens are required to be Muslim. There are no churches, and there is no official access to God’s Word.  The Gospel of Luke and Acts are currently available in Dhivehi, but are not permitted to enter the country. No mission work or Christian literature has ever been legally allowed within the islands. Widespread traditional beliefs in spirits combined with Islam leave many almost entirely untouched by the Gospel, trapped in fear and without access to Jesus. Pray for miraculous opportunities for Maldivians to hear the Gospel, and that the government's attempts to silence it may instead raise up a Maldivian church.

The Global Outreach Day (GOD), which started in Germany, is now a worldwide movement. Each year, on the last Saturday in May, believers are challenged to reach at least one person with the gospel, either individually or as part of an outreach day organised by the church in their local neighbourhood. It has proved to be extremely successful in extending the Kingdom of God worldwide. Please pray for many more churches to hear about and get involved in this movement across the nations between now and the end of next month. As well as praying for this day to be a success, please remember the GOD leadership team in Germany who are currently under many attacks financially and have had several serious car accidents.

‘Our International Board meeting will take place from 27 to 30 April, in the Middle East. Our board members and the directors of our national offices in the UK, Holland, Germany, Australia, and the USA will meet. Please pray for wisdom, discernment and unity in all the decisions they have to make, and for a strengthening of the vision to gain access to many unreached people groups in the countries we work. From 30 April to 6 May, all our team members will meet for our annual conference. Please pray for safe travel, and that everybody will be strengthened and encouraged and equipped afresh for our work and ministry. This is a very important time for our teams, and God always ministers to us as individuals and as an organisation. Pray also for all those who will come to speak and minister to our team members.’

The Roma people, often referred to as Gypsy, are originally from India and now live scattered all over the world, especially Europe. After attending a training workshop, Marlute works with a Roma man on a OneStory project in a Central Romani dialect in Romania. OneStory works with mother-tongue speakers to develop and record worldview-sensitive, chronological Bible story sets. The whole project will take about two years. The team has drafted several Bible stories and is testing them. New-Neighbour-Bible.org was recently launched by Wycliffe Germany. The website provides information about Scripture resources in the languages spoken by the people arriving from other nations now living in Europe. Links to Bibles, Bible stories, videos and audio recordings are listed for the languages of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Resources for other countries will be added soon. Pray that churches and Christian refugee networks will find out about and use this site.

Qatar is hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. There are thousands of migrants - from India, Nepal and the Philippines - working on the project. God is at work and many are meeting Jesus. One convert from Buddhism said, ‘I would never have expected to become a Christian in a strict Muslim country. But it happened.’ Evangelism is forbidden - but that isn't stopping the Christians. ‘We can't go to people with the gospel. But they are coming to us. I have many conversations with colleagues about Christianity, and they just keep asking questions. The only thing we have to do is answer them. There is no law against that.’

A street evangelist has been cleared after being charged with threatening and abusive behaviour for sharing his views on homosexuality. Gordon Larmour was handing out leaflets on the street in Irvine when a group of men engaged him in conversation about his faith. After he responded to a request to share his position on homosexuality, the men became angry and chased Larmour. When police officers arrived at the scene, the men told them that he had made homophobic remarks and he was arrested. The trial took place at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court earlier this week. Larmour - supported by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC) - was found not guilty, after a judge decided there was insufficient evidence against him. Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of CLC, said: ‘This is a wonderful result for Gordon and for Christian evangelists in the UK. Freedom of speech is being consistently undermined in the UK, but here is a win for common sense.’

2017 has started with a prayer upsurge across the UK with many prayer weeks and prayer events. Ian Cole brought a wonderful testimony from Germany that shows that prayer and the celebration of The Reformation has caught the attention and favour of German media already in 2017.

World Prayer Centre moved into a new season with its Prayershift prayer gatherings, which are focused on praying for God to move and bring change to our nation and the nations. A packed meeting was led in prayer by Jane Holloway, who got us to think about what God’s presence would mean for our home, community and workplace. We then started to pray for God’s goodness, His peace, His beauty, His light because His presence can and will change us.

Steve Botham focused on a clear start in 2017. He described this as a year of promise, presence and prayer. He said our key call as people of prayer is to change the spiritual soil so that the tree that is God’s church can be fruitful. At the moment it is in poor soil, and we are seeing a rapid decline in attendance and a loss of faith, and an increase in sin and rebellion. Changing the soil through attracting God’s presence, a move of the Word and Spirit and a release of prayer, will lead to great fruitfulness and abundance. Ministries like evangelism, children’s and youth work and social action will flourish as the soil becomes richer.

This is a time for significant change and we prayed for God to have mercy on our nation. We asked God to fulfil His promises for an unprecedented move of His Word and Spirit and for awakening in our nation.

The day closed with a powerful declaration from Jeremiah 33:14 “The days are coming when I will fulfil the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.”
We believe this word. These are exciting times when we expect extraordinary things in our prayer times. People of great prayer experience, and none, are coming from across the nation to pray and see things shift.

Join us for our next Prayershift on February 18th?