Why Not Pray for Conversions?

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14.13

As I have noted before public intercessions are increasingly political. Those leading them can end up grandstanding and do not appreciate just how much of a turn-off this is. Rarely have I heard prayers for evangelisation. Rather, we get a wish list reminiscent of Miss World contests aspirations for world peace and donkey sanctuaries. It was timely then that the national Thy Kingdom Come programme back in May invited us to pray implicitly for FIVE people to come to faith. We should be doing more of this more often.

A wise Anglo-Catholic priest once told me to "pray-them-in" when I asked about mission. At the time the Aberdeen diocese had a fancy American Episcopalian evangelisation programme called Mission 21. I found it managerial and wishy-washy an exercise in Christian window dressing without explicit reference to Christ's redeeming work. Mission 21 was essentially a package that presented the status quo as a therapy and tried to slap on a bit of marketing advice. The evangelicals hated it and the Anglo-Catholics ignored it. “Pray-them-in" sounded much more digestible. Over the years we did pray and God blessed us. I’d recommend it. Don't be shy with God, He wants you to ask.

Is Forgotten Britain Finding Faith?

There is anecdotal evidence that the Quiet Revival (or whatever you want to call it) is not just about young professionals types coming to faith after reading Tom Holland’s Dominion but is also impinging on the working class. Some hard research into this would be fascinating if not timely. My gut tells me that there is now a shift in this demographic towards faith whereas up until recently there had been a culture of suspicion. It goes without saying that, to peek into new landscape is also to take onboard that nationalism plays a significant part.