Church uses free media resources to rally believers to pray
When Dianne Dow stepped into the role of missions coordinator at her church in Peoria, IL, she not only wanted to keep in touch with the missionaries the church supported, but also educate the church on what was happening worldwide.
In her search for resources to do that, she found OneWay’s Prayercast videos. She began sharing the 3- to 5-minute videos during missions moments in their Sunday service. As the church focuses on a certain region, they watch a Prayercast video for that country to help them know how to pray.
Rallying the church to pray for the world through OneWay’s free media resources in this way is at the heart of what we do.
“The greatest gain that I have seen is a vision for the lost — not only reaching out to our own community and being light and salt, but also recognizing that we want to partner with those that reach areas we will not reach,” Dow explained. “I think there’s a greater understanding that our role as believers is to be ambassadors to reach the lost and not just sit in the four walls of a church.”
Churches can download and share any of the hundreds of Prayercast videos on our website, which receive an estimated 3 million views each month. Users around the world use the video library, which includes a prayer video for each nation of the world and more than 130 videos to guide prayer for the Muslim world.
“If I want to pray for Afghanistan, for example, [Prayercast has] done an incredible job giving me a lot of text to read, in addition to a video to watch with a person who knows Jesus from that culture,” says Dow. “There is a wealth of resources.”
City on a Hill Church is also involved with Voice of the Martyrs and concerned for persecuted believers around the world. Dow uses Prayercast videos as “a teaching medium” for countries regarding persecution as well as countries where supported missionaries of the church serve. As a church, Dow says, they not only watch a video from Prayercast but also then spend time praying through the points.
A second Prayercast resource has also blessed this congregation. Two years ago, Dow invited the church family to join Prayercast’s Ramadan Prayer Challenge. During Ramadan 2023, a member posted each day’s challenge video to the church’s private Facebook page to lead people in asking God to move powerfully among Muslim people.
To Dow, it’s been beautiful to see people one by one being moved as they more fully grasp God’s heart for people who don’t know Him.
“There are more people to catch that vision. But we start where we are,” Dow says. “We just continue to share and to encourage.”
Learn more about how OneWay’s free missional media resources could encourage and inspire the prayers of your church, too, at owm.org/church-partnerships.