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Pray for the Mission

Pray for the Mission

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3:7 that “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” This means that our first and foremost work in taking Jesus’ Great Commission seriously is praying for God to show up and change lives.


We want to make praying for gospel renewal in New England a priority this year. For that reason, we invite you to join us to Pray for the Mission.

These prayer times will not be focused on praying for our own needs or problems (those are important and we want to keep praying for them in other venues). Instead they will focus explicitly on our mission as a church—praying for the lost; praying for opportunities to love, serve, and share; praying for revival here in the MetroWest.

Why Pray for the Mission?
In prayer, we recognize that God is God and we are not
. We acknowledge that God is sovereign even over the salvation of others. Yes, we have a responsibility to explain the message of Jesus. And yes, they have a responsibility to turn away from sin and trust in Jesus. But none of that will happen unless God shows up.

The way we express our dependence on God to do what only he can do is through prayer. Therefore, if we love our friends and family who do not know Jesus, if we want to share Christ with them and see them come to saving faith, if we want to be found faithful before God and his call for us to make disciples, then we must devote ourselves to prayer.

Prayer for mission begets service in mission. It’s very easy to serve somebody without praying, or to preach without praying, or to talk to others about Jesus without praying. It is much, much harder however, to pray for someone’s needs and not also serve them when given the opportunity. Or to pray for someone’s salvation and not also proclaim the gospel to them when given the chance.

Prayer aligns our hearts with God’s heart and moves our hearts in the direction of God’s will. And if it’s God’s will for us to love others and to share the gospel, as we pray, so we will find ourselves taking God at his word and doing what he calls us to do. 

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison--that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:2-6)

More about prayer at Westgate