By Gregg Boll, Director of Missions

We would like to have your church join us in prayer for our city and the entire metro area.  The Scriptures admonish us to pray for our nation, our city, and our governing leaders. (II Chronicles 7:13-14, Jeremiah 29:7, I Timothy 2:1-3; See the bottom of the article for these passages)

Our God, who made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, and determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation (Acts 17:26), has providentially placed you in Kansas City.  As such, it is our spiritual duty to seek the prosperity of our city and to pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its prosperity will be our prosperity (Jeremiah 29:7)

Recently, Pastor Luis Mendoza gathered a few pastors and believers from around the metro at his church to begin an intentional prayer movement that we hope will sweep through our churches and throughout the city.  Kansas City is plagued by the societal woes that every other major city around America is dealing with; crime, vandalism, failing schools, homelessness, violence, broken families, gun violence and homicide, labor and sex trafficking, poverty, and single-parent families, just to name a few.  As awful as these things are, we know that they are all symptomatic of the real problem which is the spiritual darkness of our city and the spiritual bankruptcy of people without Christ.  The only real answer that would have any appreciable impact on the colossal problems of our city is the gospel, for people to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  While no society or city in this broken and fallen world will ever fully eradicate these social ills, it will experience God’s blessing and healing in direct proportion to the number of people who come to the Lord in faith and repentance.  For righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. (Prov. 14:34)  I find it an amazing and humbling thought that God was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah of His wrath and destruction if He found only 10 righteous men there in the city.  Jesus told us that a little leaven leavens the whole lump and that we are to be salt and light in a decaying and dark world. 

Just a few of us praying fervently for our city and living genuinely for Christ can have a far greater impact upon our city than a billion dollars of government aid or any other worldly solution to our city’s woes.

Please, lead your church to pray specifically and regularly for our city in your worship service.  Encourage life groups and Bible study groups within your church to pray for our city.  Even if you live in a relatively peaceful, crime-free area of the city, you owe it to your brothers and sisters in Christ who do live in those areas.  Many of our BR-KC churches are ministering faithfully in the urban core and doing a phenomenal job meeting needs, but they desperately need our prayers.  Perhaps, out of this prayer initiative, a greater partnership between our churches could grow to work together to take the gospel to the city and push back the darkness that seems to have such a stronghold.

Please, watch for announcements of future joint prayer services led by Pastor Luis Mendoza of Palabra Viva and join us. 

II Chronicles 7:13-14:
If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Jeremiah 29:7:
Seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its prosperity will be your prosperity.

I Timothy 2:
First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.