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Conference focuses on Great Commission prayer
April 06, 2004
By David Roach

Attendees at the first annual Great Commission Prayer Conference offer prayers during one of the sessions. They were some of the 180 participants at the March conference, which was jointly sponsored by the North American Mission Board, the Kentucky Baptist Convention abd Southern Seminary. Photo by Rob Chambers

Christians must make prayer a priority if they hope to fight the powers of darkness and make an impact for Christ, according to speakers at the first annual Great Commission Prayer Conference March 19-20 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The conference, sponsored jointly by the North American Mission Board, the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) and Southern Seminary, focused on the theme, “A Great Commission Prayer Conference … Invading the Kingdom of Darkness on our Knees.” The conference included 180 participants from across Kentucky and Indiana.

“The goals of this conference were threefold: to educate pastors, prayer leaders and laypersons in issues relating to prayer, to encourage those who lead prayer in their churches, associations and state conventions and to aid prayer leaders in building networks through fellowship,” said Eric Allen, director of the Prayer Strategies Office of the KBC and conference co-coordinator.

Conference attendees listened to plenary addresses by Bill Mackey, executive director of the KBC; John Avant, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga.; and Chuck Lawless, senior associate dean of Southern’s Billy Graham School of Missions Evangelism and Church Growth.

The conference also included 18 workshops taught by seminary faculty and other leaders from around the United States. Worship was led by teams from several Louisville-area churches.

Preaching from Ephesians 6, Lawless told participants that Christians must pray with persistence in order to maximize the power of prayer in their ministries.

“You are in a battle,” he said. “You are trying to take the Gospel of light into the kingdom of darkness. You are being used of God to rescue people who are held in the bondage of sin, and this battle is intense. This battle is real, and we need prayer warriors who simply do not give up in the task.”

The task of prayer can be grueling, Lawless said. But Christians must continue to pray because of prayer’s power to affect missions and evangelism, he said.

“You must pray even when the battle hurts. And you must pray on even when it seems like you are praying by yourself. And you must pray on even when the results seem few. You cannot give up in the battle,” Lawless said.

“We have an obligation to pray for all our missionaries today who are on the frontlines, taking the Gospel into the darkness. Our task is significant. We need to be praying for missionaries.”

Response to the conference has been overwhelmingly positive, said John Ewart, associate vice president for distance education and innovative learning at Southern and conference co-coordinator. In fact, the success of this year’s conference has encouraged leaders to begin planning for next year.

“We have already started planning for next year’s conference in partnership with the Kentucky Baptist Convention,” Ewart said. “Our intent is to build upon the success of this year and to continue developing a prayer conference as an annual event. We want to see the ongoing growth of the awareness and practice of prayer on our campus and in our churches.”

According to Lawless, the conference laid a foundation for effective prayer ministries in local churches across Kentucky and Indiana.

“One goal was simply to raise the priority of prayer on this campus and in this state,” he said. “I believe we gave our prayer leaders practical tools to build prayer ministries in the local church.”

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