Is Prayer the Work?

We prayed a lot last week on campus in InterVarsity--24 hours a day, 7 days during that week, in fact. And the discussion came up at one point--is this sufficient to have the type of impact on campus or do we need to do something else? This came up specifically in conjunction with the question of evangelism. Is prayer the work or is it preparation for the work or is it something in between?

Perhaps an analogy might help.

At the end of each semester, students have this glorious season called exams. For many days, they are in exam mode. What exam mode means is not simply that they must go to a specified room and get a specified set of questions to answer or problems to solve. Exam mode means that they are both going to take exams and also that they are engaged in all types of rituals in order to help prepare them for said taking of said exams. They drink caffeinated beverages. They get together in study groups. They pour over notes. They read books. They discuss ideas. They don't sleep.

Now it would be extremely odd if the students did all these rituals and never actually went and took the exam. Indeed, it might be borderline psychotic. It would be a little less disturbing but still questionable if they went to their exams apart from participating in any of these rituals.

And so it is with prayer and evangelism. We must pray, but we must also take a risk. There are many of us who wish it were not so, and that prayer was simply enough. But it's not. God will not allow us to hide behind anything to miss out on the joy of taking risks for the sake of His name--not even to hide behind something as pious-sounding as prayer. Prayer and speaking the gospel is like exam season--it's all one thing, with two separate movements.

And so this Thursday we're taking a risk at our large group. I'm speaking and the title of the night is Christianity is Revolutionary. To a campus full of activists who are passionate about justice, I'm going to argue that God is the first and supreme activist who also has the final word over all of it for our good: Hope Wins. And we're challenging our Christian students to invite friends for whom this would be a good entry point for the gospel.

I'll probably post some core thoughts from my talk over the next few days. In the mean time, please pray, we need it...