PRAYER
For more than a year before Campus Crusade for Christ began, Bill Bright led church teams into college dormitories, fraternities, and sororities in the Los Angelas area. Yet during this time, not a single person committed their life to Christ.
After launching Campus Crusade, Dr. Bright held the first evangelistic meeting at the Kappa Alpha Theta house at UCLA. That night, more than half of the 60 girls present expressed a desire to receive Christ. In the course of the next few months, more than 250 students at UCLA, including the student body president, the newspaper editor and several top athletes committed their lives to Christ.
What made the difference?
Dr. Bright explains:
"This unprecendented demonstration of God's blessing was not an accident. God was responding to the prayers of many of His children."
"When God called this ministry into being, we immediately formed a 24 hour prayer chain, which we divided into 15 minute time periods. Scores of Christians invested 15 minutes in prayer every day on behalf of our new ministry at UCLA."
The surest way to build a movement that lasts is to build it God's way. And if we want it God's way, we must begin a movement on a living foundation of prayer.
History and God's Word make it clear that prayer is more than preparation for the work--it is the work. Unfortunately, rarely do we see instant results from our secret prayer life. We know it's vital, but we're too busy. We think we can pull off a ministry with only perfunctory prayer. It takes discipline to pray effectively, because we don't always see what prayer is accomplishing.
Have you ever heard of Epaphras? He's not too famous, but he's the one who brought the gospel to Colossae. In Colossians 4:12 he's named as the prayer warrior: "He is always wrestling in prayer for you ...""Are we prepared to be like Epaphras? Are we prepared to really pray?
Where Do We Start
There's no formula when developing a prayer strategy, and plenty of room for variety. The important thing is that you and your leaders are seeking the Lord regularly as you are involved in reaching college students.
Here are some ideas:
- Spend personal time in prayer, taking time
to develop your personal prayer life. Prayer must be a priority in your life
as a leader before you can call others to make it a priority. Consider
making a
prayer pledge.
There are lots of good books on prayer. Here are some suggestions. - Establish a Prayer Ministry - Challenge
other Christians on your campus to pray together and to make prayer a
priority in their personal lives. Invite them to join you in a
prayer
pledge. Choose a time to meet consistently and pray.(suggestions
for leading group prayer).
As you gather a leadership team, encourage your team to spend time in prayer and take time during the leadership meeting to pray. - Invite people in your church and Christians in your community to pray for the ministry on campus.
- As small groups are formed, make prayer a vital part of each meeting.
- Pray specifically. Each development phase of your campus ministry will have its own prayer needs. Bathe each event, each outreach and each person in prayer.
- Be creative. Variety is a friend of enjoyable prayer, but if you have to choose between consistency and creativity, go with consistency.