By Charitie Sandoz
In the fall of 2021, while serving on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Youth Pastor Leadership Team to facilitate an evangelistic outreach, I worked with leaders from many denominations, including Laura from The Cathedral in Rapid City, SD.
We quickly became friends, and that spring. I attended several Masses and a Good Friday service with her. At a service, Father Brian emphasized evangelism and missional living; he concluded with a prayer for God to call ministers from their congregation.
The church weekly prayed a prayer of vocation, written by the diocese’s bishop, beseeching God to increase those going into ministry, which other regional churches also prayed every Mass.
A section states, “Look upon us with favor and choose from our homes those who are needed for your work. Send your Spirit to strengthen us and give us open hearts and minds ready to say ’Yes’ when You call.”
In the prayer, the parishioners asked God to choose ministers from their homes, that they would be willing, and that the church families would encourage people to follow God’s call.
Each time I went to Mass with Laura and heard the congregants pray in unison, it impressed me that they followed what Jesus told all the Church to do.
He instructed His disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into His fields” (Luke 10:2 NLT). The ESV further emphasizes to “pray earnestly.”
This command to the disciples continues today as the harvest is still great, and the harvesters are still few. The church must follow the Lord’s command to pray.
Jesus’ instruction to “pray earnestly,” as God remains the Lord of the harvest, applies today. He makes a way to preserve the harvest, which includes church participation. “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results” (Jam. 5:16).
Prayer has great power and produces more than personal efforts alone can. God chose prayer as a vehicle to impact the harvest. Notice that He does not have the church pray for equipment or buildings but for workers. God moves through Spirit-filled laborers, and the church needs to pray for them to accomplish the harvest.
The Cathedral implemented Jesus’ command in a tangible and practical form as the church prayed together during each service. This practice accomplished several vital aspects; it taught people to follow Jesus’ command to pray for Him to call more people by regularly expressing this need. And secondly, it provided an opportunity to respond to the Spirit’s direction by setting an expectation to say “Yes” to His bidding.
As workers age, the church must continue to listen to the Lord of the harvest. Each church can follow this example by making space to pray weekly for laborers and create opportunities for earnest, Spirit-empowered prayer. Pray earnestly and prepare for God to speak.
Jesus continued in Luke, “Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” God commissions us into the battle of harvest, won by intercession for the worker. As the church prays, the Spirit calls, saying “go,” and Jesus and His church send out (Acts 13:1-3).
