How to Participate in Global Missions Through Prayer

This resource equips missions leaders to cultivate a culture of global prayer within their churches. It offers biblical vision, practical tools, and proven strategies to help integrate missions-focused prayer into existing rhythms of church life. Use it to inspire and organize your congregation to participate meaningfully in global missions—starting with prayer.

“The history of missions is the history of answered prayer. It is the key to the whole mission problem. All human means are secondary.” Samuel Zwemer

Samuel Zwemer, a pioneering missionary to the Muslim world, knew firsthand that missions doesn’t begin with strategies or resources—but with prayer. His words remind us that before anyone goes, gives, or mobilizes, God invites his people to pray. And through prayer, every believer—regardless of age, location, or calling—can participate in the global mission of God.

Throughout Scripture, prayer is the God-ordained means by which his people join him in his redemptive work. In Matthew 9:37–38, Jesus looks on the crowds with compassion and says to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Before telling them to go, he tells them to pray. Later in Acts 13:2–3, it is while the church in Antioch is “worshiping the Lord and fasting” that the Holy Spirit sets apart Paul and Barnabas for the work of cross-cultural mission. Global missions is birthed in prayer, sustained in prayer, and completed in prayer.

This means that prayer is not a peripheral or passive part of missions—it is a frontline activity. When we pray for the unreached, for open doors, for laborers, and for boldness, we are taking part in the very means God uses to fulfill the Great Commission.

Prayer also transforms us. It stirs our affections for the nations and aligns our hearts with God’s purposes. It opens our eyes to his work in the world and prepares us to respond—whether through deeper support, sending, or even going ourselves.

And yet, for many churches and believers, prayer for global missions can feel overwhelming. Where do we start? How do we pray with clarity and focus, rather than vague generalities?

This resource is designed to help you answer those questions. Whether your church is already sending missionaries or just beginning to cultivate a heart for the nations, you’ll find practical guidance for engaging in global missions through prayer. As you read and apply these practices, may you come to see that prayer is not only powerful—it is participation.

Prayer Resources

Thankfully, you don’t have to start from scratch when it comes to praying for the nations. There are trusted organizations that have created excellent tools to guide your prayers with focus, accuracy, and global scope. Here are some of the best:

Operation World

Operation World is one of the most well-known global prayer resources. Based on the comprehensive book of the same name, it offers daily prompts to pray for every nation in the world, along with up-to-date statistics, key challenges, and gospel needs. You can access these tools through printed guides, a mobile app, or daily email updates.

Joshua Project

Joshua Project focuses specifically on the world’s unreached people groups—those with little or no access to the gospel. Their website offers daily prayer prompts, data-rich profiles for each group, available Bible resources in their languages, and strategic insights to inform your prayers.

Prayercast

Prayercast equips believers to pray for the nations through visually compelling and biblically grounded resources. Their library includes powerful prayer videos for nearly every country, thematic prayer series (such as a 9-day world religions guide or a 40-day guide for persecuted nations), and daily email devotionals to help fuel sustained intercession.

The Voice of the Martyrs

The Voice of the Martyrs supports persecuted Christians worldwide and offers targeted prayer tools to help believers stand with them. Their prayer resources include a dedicated prayer website, global prayer guides, and a free app that offers regular updates on how to pray for the persecuted church.

Avenues for Prayer

As you seek to foster a culture of global intercession in your church, the goal isn’t to add more complexity to already full schedules—it’s to integrate missions-minded prayer into the rhythms you already have. Ask yourself: Where does our church already pray? How could we intentionally equip those moments with information that fuels prayer for the nations?

Here are several existing avenues you might consider:

Church Newsletter or Email Updates

Does your church send a regular email or printed newsletter? Consider adding a recurring missions prayer feature. You might highlight a different missionary (securely), people group, or global issue each week or month. Keep it short, specific, and consistent.

Weekly Prayer Gatherings

If your church hosts prayer gatherings—whether in small groups, Sunday evening services, or midweek meetings—use these moments to guide focused intercession for the nations. Provide brief profiles of missionaries your church supports or unreached people groups to help inform and direct the prayer time.

Sunday Morning Corporate Prayer

Many churches include a time of pastoral or corporate prayer during their Sunday worship gatherings. Even if the time is limited, you can regularly include global prayer requests. This might look like praying for a different missionary each month, spotlighting a crisis in a specific region, or aligning prayers with the church’s mission partnerships.

Other Rhythms to Consider

• Missions Team Meetings: Invite broader participation by opening with intercession for specific needs.

• Youth and Children’s Ministry: Use age-appropriate stories and tools to involve the next generation in praying for global missions.

• Sermon Application: Whenever missions-related themes are preached, include a time of response through prayer for the unreached.

• Annual Missions Emphasis Events: Let prayer be central to your missions conferences, commissioning services, and global focus months.

You don’t have to launch a new program to begin—just look at where prayer already exists in the life of your church and start there. Every prayer offered on behalf of God’s global mission is a step toward deeper engagement and faithful sending.

Praying for Your Missionaries

Praying for the missionaries your church has sent (or adopted) is one of the most meaningful ways to be “fellow workers for the truth” (3 John 1:8). Here are several practical ways to encourage and organize consistent prayer on their behalf:

Create a Sign-Up for Missionary Updates

Give your church members a secure and simple way to receive updates from your missionaries. This could be through an online form or a sign-up sheet hosted at a missions table. List the names of missionaries securely (e.g., initials or general regions) and allow members to opt in. Once people sign up, pass their email addresses along to the missionaries (with permission) so they can be added to prayer update lists. Encourage your members not just to read updates—but to respond with a short message of encouragement and assurance of prayer.

Equip Advocacy Teams to Pray

If your church has established Advocacy Teams—small groups of members dedicated to supporting a specific missionary—make prayer a core expectation. Include it in the team’s role description, and provide regular reminders and updates to keep prayer central. Missionaries can help fuel this by starting a group chat with their Advocacy Team (via a secure app) where they can share real-time requests, answered prayers, and personal encouragements.

Set Apart Times for Missionary Prayer

Look for small windows of time to invite the congregation into focused prayer. For example:

• Before or after worship services once a month

• During a regular prayer night or missions emphasis week

• As part of a quarterly commissioning or re-entry moment

These brief but intentional moments help form habits and bring the faces and stories of your missionaries to the forefront of church life.

Prayer Is Participation

Prayer may feel small. It may seem like the least we can do. But in God’s economy, prayer is often the spark that ignites global movements.

A pastor once showed up for a scheduled missions prayer gathering at another church—only to realize it had been cancelled. Rather than heading home, he stayed in his car and decided to pray. That evening, the Spirit burdened him to pray for a specific unreached people group known for being hostile to the gospel. It was just him, a quiet car, and a simple act of intercession.

What he didn’t know was that, around the same time, God was stirring a family in his congregation with an unexplainable burden for that very same people group. Over time, the conviction grew. That family would eventually sell their home, leave their careers, and be sent out as cross-cultural missionaries—devoted to bringing the gospel to the people their pastor had prayed for alone in his car.

Prayer works. It shapes hearts, moves missionaries, and mobilizes churches. Most of all, it aligns us with the heart of God—who desires all people to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).

So whether you're a missions leader, a pastor, or a church member, know this: you don’t have to cross an ocean to join the Great Commission. You can start by bowing your heart before the Lord of the harvest. When you pray for the nations, you are participating in the mission of God.

So start somewhere. Start today. And don’t stop—because prayer is not preparation for the mission. It is the mission.

Next Steps

Ready to take the next step in leading your church to participate in global missions through prayer? Here are a few simple ways to begin:

1. Choose one prayer rhythm to integrate into your church this month—such as highlighting a missionary in your newsletter, praying for the nations in a Sunday service, or introducing a daily prayer guide.

2. Invite others in your church leadership, missions team, or small group leaders to read this resource and consider how you can build a prayerful missions culture together.

3. Become an Upstream member and get access to our entire content library (theupstreamcollective.org/join). Once inside the Members Area, click on the Cultivating Missions Awareness tag to explore all our resources on this topic.