What is your church doing on Nov. 3?
On this day — International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church — thousands of Christians around the world will join to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering for their faith.
What if you took this opportunity to radically change the way your church views and prays for the universal church?
Here are three ways your Sunday School class, small group, or entire congregation can get involved this International Day of Prayer and support persecuted believers worldwide:
Learn
Persecution can look different depending on the country. The best way to pray intentionally for Christians in a persecuted nation is to learn about why they are oppressed, how their worship is restricted, and what ways you can help them.
to discover free resources that will help you learn more about how Christians are suffering in places like North Korea, Iran, China, and other spiritually dark countries.
You’ll find helpful, informational materials including a PowerPoint presentation that highlights each country and how your church can be praying for its unique needs. You can play these slides during morning announcements or as a special highlight during the service.
There’s also a fast facts sheet that you can either add to your bulletin or hand out individually to give church members a quick overview of where persecution is the worst and how they can be praying.
Pray
After learning about how Christians in each country suffer in their own way, be sure to pray for their unique needs.
Whether you do group prayers during the service or encourage church members to pray for each country with their families around the dinner table during the week, you’ll be lifting up our hurting brothers and sisters in Christ.
In the resources mentioned above, you’ll find prayer guides for every age group — kids, teens, and families — to help you as you pray for persecuted Christians around the globe. You can also find a list of Bible verses about suffering for Christ if you would like to pray the Scriptures.
Give Bibles
One thing you’ll notice from these resources is that believers around the world are begging for Bibles. Even though they can be killed or put in prison for being found with one, believers are desperate for Bibles to be secretly delivered to their countries and into their hands.
This International Day of Prayer, your church can help answer their cries for God’s Word.
Every $10 your congregation gives will provide not one but TWO Bibles thanks to a matching gift. This matching gift up to $100,000 will help send Bibles into Iran — one of the most persecuted countries in the world.
You can take up a special offering or simply encourage individuals to visit worldhelp.net/prayer on their own and give. Either way, you will be helping answer the prayers of Christians who have never owned a Bible.
Will your church join with other Christians worldwide as we pray and give to our suffering brothers and sisters this month leading up to International Day of Prayer? Click the button below to get started.