Praying Your Neighbors to Christ Evangelism Strategy 1
Purpose Leader Guide This resource will assist a local church in the development of a strategy to saturate its community with prayer, connect with neighbors, and share Christ. Overview Each participant (intercessor) in the (PYNC) strategy will be encouraged to select five neighbors (or others) for whom they will begin to pray. Intercessors can be entire families or individuals. PYNC is designed to help any size church Equip its members in prayerwalking and personal evangelism. Engage its members in the community through prayer evangelism. Discover the needs of neighbors and actively pray for them. Revitalize its congregation and its participation in the Great Commission. Become more relevant in its community. Mobilize its members to intentionally share the gospel. Celebrate the great things God is doing in their midst. Church Preparation Create a task force Pastor Prayer Coordinator Sunday School Director Celebration Coordinator Pastor will be responsible for: o Gain support from church leadership o Select task force o Schedule and conduct first task force meeting o Prepare messages on prayer leading to enlistment of intercessors o Coordinate with worship leader to develop worship services focused on prayer o Schedule and lead prayer and evangelism training Prayer Coordinator will be responsible to: o Oversee promotion of PYNC o Coordinate the training of intercessors o Prepare and send a weekly encouragement e-mail o Send a weekly update to the pastor o Discover PYNC testimonies to be shared in worship 2
Sunday School Director will be responsible to: o Promote PYNC in Sunday School/small groups o Encourage PYNC testimonies to be shared in the Sunday School/small groups o Assist Celebration Coordinator in volunteer enlistment o Plan to start Sunday School/small groups Celebration Coordinator will be responsible to: o Work with the task force in date selection o Secure venue location o Enlist and organize workers o Involve community leaders o Encourage intercessors to invite neighbors o Promote the next event or sermon series at Celebration Getting Started/Timeline 60 Days out: o Gain support from church leaders o Select start date o Select task force o Schedule and hold first meeting o Download and print materials o Announce and explain PYNC emphasis to congregation 45 Days out: o Meet with Sunday School/small Group leadership to discuss PYNC emphasis and distribute materials o Promote emphasis through Sunday School/small groups 30 Days out: o Begin sermon series on prayer o Enlist intercessors o Provide prayer and evangelism training for intercessors 15 Days out: o Intercessors begin prayerwalking neighborhoods o Select neighbors for intercessions 5 Days out: o Intercessors share with neighbors about PYNC and gather information for prayer Launch Day o Intercessors begin praying for neighbors o Finalize PYNC Celebration details 3
Engagement Timeline Week 2-Week 5 o Encouraging e-mails o Motivational messages on prayer and evangelism o Promote PYNC Celebration o Enlist testimonies from intercessors to share in worship service o Intercessors share answers to prayer Week 5 o Intercessors invite people they have been praying for to an event in their home. o Intercessors invite people they have been praying for to the PYNC Celebration. Week 6 o Confirm with invitees their attendance at the PYNC celebration. o Continue to pray Week 7: PYNC Celebration o Pastor promotes new message series, church events o Discovery class and/or neighborhood Bible studies o Continue to pray Week 8 o Continue praying, witnessing, and following up Responsibilities of an Intercessor Each intercessor will be given a prayer guide. They will contact five neighbors/others and share their church s strong commitment to praying for the community. They should explain to each neighbor that their pastor is leading a Praying Your Neighbors to Christ emphasis and has asked church members to begin praying for the needs of their neighbors/others. Share that each prayer request will be kept in strictest of confidence. Write down the requests in their guide. Tell the neighbor/other that each day at a certain time they will be praying for their needs and would like to contact them regularly for updates, more requests, and how God has answered their prayers. Ask when would be the best time and the best way to contact them for updates. It may be a visit, phone call, or e-mail. After each contact, intercessors will fill out or update the information they have received in the prayer guide. During week 5, as relationships are created, the intercessors will invite the neighbors to a special church event. This may be a block party, a special sermon series, concert, and so on. The participants may also invite them to their home for an informal dinner or for coffee, or some other event. Participants will have been trained in personal evangelism and will be sensitive to opportunities to share Christ. 4
How to use the Guide Each participant will be given a Guide. There is important information/records to be filled out for each of the five neighbors. Contact Information is to be gathered as completely as possible. This is important for future contact/updates with the neighbor. Best Way to Contact may be an e-mail, phone call, visit, and so on. The time and date should be very convenient for the neighbor. Prayer Requests that each neighbor shared are listed, along with the date they are received. This information should be filled out as completely as possible in order to recall the specific prayer need over the course of the six weeks. How God answered prayer is a record of how God responded to the neighbor s prayer request. This is the most important section of the Prayer Guide. As God has answered prayer, the participant should celebrate with the neighbors! 5
4200 North Point Pkwy. Alpharetta, GA 30022-4176 A Southern Baptist Convention entity supported by the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering For general information, call (770) 410-6000 or visit www.namb.net. To order materials, call Customer Service Center, 1 866 407-NAMB (6262), fax, (770) 442-9742, or visit www.nambstore.com.