In the previous Link magazine, we shared how we’re seeking to use social media to encourage engagement in God’s global mission. How else could technology help you join in?
Technology is a double-edged sword: it can feed our sense of distraction, but when used intentionally there are many ways it can aid us too. You only have to look at tools like the printing press to see how God can work powerfully through technology to spread the gospel – when people catch the vision for how to use it.
For tens of thousands of people every month, the PrayerMate app is a practical tool God is using to help them pray. It fits into a wider movement of tech tools supporting mission, such as Bible translation software, online training, livestreamed services, radio broadcasts into closed countries, and so on.
Of course, PrayerMate can’t do the praying for you – it still requires that intentionality to carve out time to set aside for it, and to establish a daily discipline. But it can really help to facilitate faithfulness in prayer.
How does it work?
Practically speaking, PrayerMate is a collection of personalised prayer lists. You add names of the people you’d like to pray for, and then every day it suggests a smaller selection from across all of your lists to actually get on and pray for, which you just swipe through one by one. It means that over time you can be reminded to pray for everyone without feeling overwhelmed by too many different prayer needs in one go. It also includes features like regular reminders and event notifications, the ability to subscribe to prayer feeds and shared lists with a group of friends.
It helps turn our vague intentions (‘I should pray more for so and so’) into daily, actionable habits. In many ways it’s not so different to using physical prayer cards or lists, but whilst they can be easily lost or forgotten, PrayerMate goes with you everywhere. That way, it’s right there in your pocket when somebody tells you something they’d value prayer for.
The joy of partnering in prayer
One of the joys of developing PrayerMate over the last 14 years is how it has connected us with this amazing community of God’s praying people around the world. Over the years we’ve heard so many stories of how PrayerMate has helped people engage in global mission, in big and small ways.
Like the commuter who said they’d scrolled past the same prayer letter from their mission partner friends in their email inbox so many times, and then when it popped up in PrayerMate they finally got on and read it and prayed for their work in the South of France. Or the person who saw a prayer request in the app that God would bring an end to war in a particular country – only to read on their news feed that same day that a historic peace treaty had finally been signed by that country’s president. Or the mission worker sharing the encouragement of how it helped them partner with their supporters as they laboured amongst students in Canada.
At the end of the day, partnering in prayer with people on the front line of world mission is a real privilege. Hearing their stories of how God is at work in contexts totally different from my own is a great blessing, and I love being able to partner with them through prayer. Praying for them in turn helps me be more proactive in looking for those gospel opportunities in my own context. You also get the joy of hearing back from mission partners about how your specific prayers were answered.
So, if you want to get involved in praying for global mission and are finding it tough, PrayerMate is a simple but powerful tool to support you. Why not start small? Get the app (it’s a free download!), subscribe to the Crosslinks prayer feed and commit to praying regularly. You’ll also find several Crosslinks mission partners have their own feeds – look out for the PrayerMate link on their profiles on the Crosslinks website.
The nature of prayer is that it’s something we often do behind closed doors, so nobody knows if you’re doing it or not. But through prayer you can be a part of God’s great work around the world. Let’s not neglect it.
Andy Geers, PrayerMate founder