A 365 Day Global Prayer Journey - January 16 (Day 16)

The church in Africa has given us early church fathers such as Augustine, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world in the Egyptian Coptic Church, the melody of John Newton's "Amazing Grace", and more recently, the Global Day of Prayer. Today, let's offer our prayers for the African church which has so enriched our shared faith. Please read "The Church in Africa" on pages 36-38, then return here for our prayer time.

My prayer for today:  Lord, we thank You for Your faithfulness to the church in Africa and to the efforts of early missionaries there. Lord, our hearts rejoice at the fruitfulness we see as the church in many places has demonstrated that it is the only social organization that can deal with some of the challenges facing African countries. What a lesson and witness that is to us, Father, as we seek to make a difference in our own societies. Thank You for the beautiful African part of Your body. Lord, we want to join with them in prayer today, asking for You to teach the churches about discipleship. Your Commission to us was to make disciples, not merely converts. We pray for churches to have wisdom how to best come against the compromises and idolatries that stand in the way of true discipleship. Lord, thank You also for the African church's faithfulness in defending Biblical faith and Scriptural accuracy. We pray for their continued boldness. For those Africans in churches in other lands, Lord, we pray that they will be fully accepted as an integral part of the congregation and that they will rise to positions of leadership where they can shape churches and even entire denominations. We pray against anything that would detract from the unity You desire for the African church, the unity that You prayed for. Rise up more leaders and theologians who can help African Christians grow spiritually. Thank You for the missions vision of Africa; we join them in prayer that African churches would financially support their own missionaries and not look to the west for every financial resource needed. We pray for churches to see missions as essential to their mission and lead the way in sacrificial giving to missionaries. We pray for Africans who are crossing national borders to minister to other africans - we pray for you to call more and more to minister to their near neighbors. Where there are western missionaries, we pray that they will truly partner with African believers and not automatically take the lead role. We ask You, Lord, to minister to the African church and continue to purify her by the washing of the Word of God. Help us continue to learn from her, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.