By Tobin Perry 

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Southern Baptist leaders and missionaries serving throughout the world came together at 10:02 on the morning of Oct. 2 through a webcast to pray for spiritual awakening and to ask God to provide laborers for the vast mission fields of North America and around the world.

Hosted by the North American Mission Board, the online webcast marked the second year Southern Baptists have set aside Oct. 2 to pray in the spirit of Jesus’ words in Luke 10:2: “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

The prayer time was divided into three parts—for spiritual awakening, North American missions and international missions.

Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd (@ronniefloyd), pastor of Cross Church in Springdale, Ark., started off the prayer webcast by urging Southern Baptists to pray for a spiritual awakening in North America. After reminding viewers of previous spiritual awakenings in North America, he urged listeners to pray for another one.

“This is a critical season, a unique moment in time; therefore we must wake up spiritually and give ourselves to the Lord completely because the Lord is coming soon,” Floyd said. “This is why we are praying together now—from all over the world. Join me as we pray for spiritual awakening.”

Floyd was followed by Jim Daly (@dalyfocus), president of Focus on the Family, who prayed for Southern Baptist pastors and Kathy Litton, NAMB’s national consultant for ministry wives, who prayed for pastors’ wives. Before his prayer for pastors, Daly told viewers of a new partnership between NAMB and Focus on the Family that allows SBC pastors to take advantage of a care line by calling 1-844-PASTOR1.

Bob White, the executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, prayed for state conventions. White asked God to develop “a culture of missionary support” throughout the convention.

Gary Frost, NAMB’s vice president for the Midwest Region, led Southern Baptists into the North American portion of the prayer event by praying for the continent’s cities.

“Father, in the cities of North America are hurting people,” Frost prayed. “I pray in the name of Jesus that You would raise up in the midst of these cities those who would have a burden for the lost.”

Other leaders who prayed for North America included:

  • Former SBC President James Merritt (@drjamesmerritt), the senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Ga., who asked God to provide more churches to join the effort in reaching North American cities for Christ.
  • NAMB missionary Daniel Yang, who has planted Trinity Life Church in Toronto.
  • Chaplain Jeff Houston, the installation chaplain at Fort Campbell, Ky., who prayed for those serving in the military and the Southern Baptist chaplains who support them.

Newly elected International Mission Board President David Platt (@plattdavid) led in prayer for a renewed push to reach the nations with the gospel. Platt focused the prayers of Southern Baptists upon the “harvest known as the 7-plus billion people among the nations, many of them have never even heard the gospel,” along with praying for global spiritual awakening.

“We pray that You would draw the peoples to yourself in a way that resounds to Your glory—particularly among those who are the toughest to reach, the most dangerous to reach,” Platt prayed.

After Platt the following leaders prayed for international mission work:

  • Mark Patenaude, an IMB missionary in Thailand, prayed for international missionaries and their families around the world.
  • Don Alan, an IMB missionary in the Middle East, prayed for the unreached and unengaged people groups of the world.
  • Former SBC president Bryant Wright (@bryantwright), pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., prayed for Southern Baptist churches engaging the world with the gospel.

NAMB President Kevin Ezell (@kevezell) concluded the webcast by reminding viewers to pray Luke 10:2—for God to provide workers for the harvest—every day at 10:02 a.m. or 10:02 p.m.

“What a blessing to have you participate today,” Ezell told the viewers before his concluding prayer. “We are so grateful, so thankful. Our convention is so diverse, but we can rally around prayer and the need for spiritual awakening and the need to reach people with the gospel around the world.”

Ezell said the webcast will remain available online as a prayer resource for groups or individuals who wish to make use of it. It can be found at namb.net/tentwo.

Tobin Perry writes for the North American Mission Board.