Prayer is essential to missions. A church with sustained, lively prayer for missions will experience growth and fruit in its evangelistic and missionary outreach.

A church with merely nominal, cursory prayer for missions will have little or no growth or fruit in evangelization or missions.

How important it is, then, for a church which desires growth and fruit in evangelistic and missionary outreach to cultivate sustained, lively prayer for such ministry.

Christian disciples, individually and in family or congregational fellowship, should be engaged in prevailing prayer for missions. From Scripture and missions history, we learn that certain traits of such prayer are to be coveted and cultivated. Effective prayer for missions will be marked by attributes such as these:

• Responsiveness. Basically, all prayer is a response to the Word of God. The whole of Scripture reveals his plan for mankind (e.g., Psalm 22:27: "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him"). The Holy Spirit activates God's Word in the hearts and minds of Christ's people and energizes them to respond to what God says concerning the mission of his church. Thus, every congregation should be noted for its living, ongoing prayer for missions as well as for all other aspects of Christian life and service.

• Belief. In prayer for missions, we express our faith that God is pleased to use us for gospel proclamation, the extending of his church, and coming of his kingdom. Prayer for the conversion of sinners and the growth of the church arises from a faith which is both confident and expectant that God will use us in answer to our believing prayers. Such prayers of faith are to be lifted up constantly to God, pleading that he will call, justify, and glorify "those he predestined" (Romans 8:30).

• Wonder. Prayer for missions expresses the Christian's highest calling: the worship of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christians who remember God's mercy in redeeming them adore God for who he is and for what he does. Their prayers are directed to God in praise and worship for his redeeming love to sinners. Such adoration is essential to prayer for missions, lest such prayer lack joy and spirit as a church prays for growth and fruit in its work and witness to Christ.

• Understanding. Christians earnestly pray for the mission of Christ's church and all who are engaged in it because they increasingly understand what is involved. Missionary work involves close combat with the forces of Satan ("our struggle is not against flesh and blood," Ephesians 6:12). Missionaries who are supported most by the intercessory prayers of fellow Christians receive the greatest strength and protection against the evil one in their witness. Many times the lack of confidence, diligence, and fruit in missionaries' lives is related directly to the weakness or scarcity of prayer support for them. Christians who pray for missionaries understand these dynamics. They understand that they must pray constantly for evangelists and the people they seek to reach on behalf of Christ.

• Continuity. Luke tells us that the early disciples in Jerusalem "devoted themselves … to prayer'' along with apostolic teaching, fellowship, and breaking of bread (Acts 2:42). They lived at the time when Christian mission was born, and prayer marked both them and those who joined them (see Acts 4:24, 6:6, 10:9, 13:3, etc.). Prayer for the spread of the gospel should mark the life of the Christian individual and family. Such prayer deserves regular, continuous place in the corporate life of the church and on its calendar. Daily and/or weekly prayer meetings for missions will be instituted, along with special services and/or seasons of prayer. Churches which have a growing and fruitful ministry of evangelizing and missions have, without fail, a core group of faithful prayer partners who pray continually for missions.

• Awareness. In order for missions praying to be relevant, those who pray must keep themselves informed on mission news from their missionaries and others around the world. Congregational, denominational, national, and global concerns must be sustained by a steady supply of information from publications, missionary letters, and personal contacts. Mission praying must not be general, nor must it be merely parochial. The greatest work in the world is the spread of the Gospel and the gathering of Christ's church. Christians have the privilege of interceding for evangelists on all continents as well as for missionaries in their own communities.

• Detail. Faithful prayer for missionaries involves careful and loving attention to detail. Prayer will be offered for specific missionaries in specific places. Their news about specific blessings and specific needs provides material for specific praise and petition. Further, those who pray for missions will ask God for growth and fruitfulness in the missionary commitment of their own congregations – for more concern, more trainees, more workers (short-term and long-term), more prayer, more sacrificial giving.

As we approach the final decade of the 20th century, the church's commitment to local and global evangelization is increasing around the world. Much prayer is required if a church and its members are to have a vital part in that mission.

Blessed is that church which knows that its missionary growth and effectiveness are possible only as they are undergirded by constant, fervent prayer.