Start a World Changing Prayer Network

This guide was one of the first tools we created years ago. It catalyzed many Pray4 Network efforts just from this single post. It surprised us.

Much of this effort began with a simple tutorial published years ago called How to Start a World Changing Prayer Network. This single page tutorial helped catalyze a number of efforts like ours.

Below is the outline of this simple tutorial.

Get Started

Has God’s heart for the nations become your heart? Wishing you could do something significant in behalf of one of the 4376 unreached people groups in the world? You can. Start a prayer network to intercede on behalf of a people group. Prayer will soon result in vision and collaboration!

First Decisions

To start the network you’ll need to answer some questions. The Pray4Tunisia partnership is used as an example of how you might answer the questions.

  1. What is the objective of the prayer network?
    The Pray4Tunisia network promotes “strategic prayer for a church multiplication movement”
  2. What prayer will help accomplish those objectives?
    The Pray4Tunisia network prays about issues that David Garrison’s research indicates have been extremely strategic in past church multiplication movements
  3. What’s a short, descriptive, memorable name for the network?
    Pray4Tunisia
  4. Will you need to control content?
    Pray4Tunisia promotes prayer for an Islamic nation where Christians have been persecuted for years. Because it is virtually impossible to make sure that a large network will uniformly apply good security protocol, we decided to allow open access to the network but to rigorously control what information is shared. Details that would endanger believers are left out.

Create an Email Address

  • An option for a free email address is to sign up for an account at Gmail
  • Make the email address descriptive (perhaps [email protected]) so that it is not treated as spam

Create a MailChimp Account

  • Free up to 1000 subscribers
  • An email/marketing/automation company that allows you to send newsletters, emails, and more to a mass number of people
  • Allows subscribers to add/remove themselves from mailing lists
  • You can schedule when your emails will be sent
  • It can be configured to automatically post the content of your emails to Facebook and/or Twitter once you have all those accounts made
  • Has great/free customer service
  • Has some great templates to let you customize the looks of your emails

Here is an example of how Pray4Tunisia is currently using Mailchimp to send out daily prayer points:

Choose a Social Media Platform

There are many options out there. We recommend starting with one platform. Later, you may discover another platform works better or adding a second platform could be beneficial. Until then, try out the best platform for your context and target audience.

  • Facebook Page
    • You create a Facebook page right from your own account. No one except Facebook and your page’s admins would be able to see who is behind the page.
      • Benefits:
        • You can easily monitor your page and receive notifications right from your own Facebook account.
        • You can easily switch from your personal Facebook to your page without having to log in and out all the time.
        • You can comment, like, and reply to messages as the page.
        • You can invite other volunteers to have a role on the Facebook page with various permission levels.
      • Cons:
        • If your prayer network is focused on a high risk area and you live in that area, you may want to consider keeping your personal account completely separate. Again, only Facebook and those you invite to partner with you as admin/users on the page can see your personal account name.

Create a Website

You don’t need a website to get a network started. Some groups use their Facebook page as their main landing page. However, if you are somewhat tech-savy and/or have the desire to learn, go for it!

Organize Prayer Points

Pray4Tunisia creates 365 new prayer points throughout every year. This is because we value that our prayer requests reflect current events, stories, and prayer needs.

Here are some ideas for creating an ongoing system for creating and organizing your prayer points:

  • Brainstorming prayer point ideas
    • Create an ongoing brainstorm and content meeting for fresh ideas
    • Ask volunteers and church planters to submit prayer point ideas via an online form like Google Forms
    • Download Pray4Tunisia’s 365 example prayer points for ideas
    • Seek ideas for your content and network by studying what other networks are doing
  • Writing prayer points
    • Ensure that your prayer points will not cause anyone harm. Pray4Tunisia does not include real names and photos in any prayer points.
    • Keep your network’s objective and vision in mind when writing prayer points
    • Be concise, about 1-3 lines.
    • Vary content (pictures, maps, stats, testimonies, videos, praises, petitions)
    • Proofread! It was so tempting to publish a typo here. 🙂
  • Organizing prayer points
    • Consider using an online collaborative spreadsheet like Google Sheets to store your prayer requests
      • It automatically saves all changes to the cloud that is reflective for every user
      • You can limit viewing and editing access
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