21 Day Missions Prayer Guide: Introduction

Writing to You From 36,000 Feet: Our 21-Day Missions Project Begins

Hi Praying Friends,

I’m writing to you while cruising at 36,000 feet aboard an Airbus A350-900, on a 13-hour non-stop flight from Minneapolis to Seoul, Korea. It’s Monday, September 15—Day One of a 21-day missions journey that will take me to Korea and Greece.

About a week or two before this trip, the Lord put it on my heart to write a 21-Day Missions & Prayer Guide for friends, supporters, and partners—as well as anyone else who may be interested. My intention is to share a resource that will inform, encourage, and inspire you, combining biblical foundations, scholarly insights, and stories from the field.

The content for these reflections is drawn from two sources:

1. A course I am teaching called Missiology: A Study of Missions for the Three Streams School of Theology at CIL Church.

2. A devotional series from my livestream, The Missionary Enterprise.

This summer I was joyfully immersed in academic studies of missions and missiology. That experience ignited a deep passion—not only to understand God’s missionary heart more fully, but also to see how every believer, no matter what their role in God’s story, has a vital part to play in His mission.

To begin, let’s consider three theological concepts that undergird the foundation of this prayer guide.

Three Foundational Truths

1. God is a missionary God.

From beginning to end, the Bible is a missionary book about a missionary God. The meta-narrative of Scripture portrays a God whose essence is love, a love that “reaches into human history to reconcile a fallen and rebellious humanity to himself and to reestablish his reign over all creation” (Encountering Theology of Mission, Ott & Strauss, p. 65). It is God Himself who takes the initiative to restore the divine-human relationship.

The Latin word missio means “sending.” It is God who sends His emissaries, His messengers, and ultimately His Son as agents in this story of salvation. Mission is not an obligation coerced by guilt; it is God’s heartbeat for reconciliation, as seen from Genesis to Revelation.

In our first Missiology class we put it this way: “If the preponderance of evidence from the biblical narrative testifies that the essential nature of God is love, then God’s mission of redemption and restoration naturally overflows from his identity—his essence of divine, self-giving love” (Study Guide #1, p. 5).

Mission flows from who God is.

2. We read the Bible as a missionary book.

The Bible, as God’s self-revelation, reveals His missionary character—it is the story of God’s mission unfolding. A holistic view of Scripture affirms a missional hermeneutic—an approach that interprets the Bible as the coherent story of God’s mission. “The mission of God serves as the integrating theme of the biblical narrative, informing how the church understands its purpose, identity, and calling” (Study Guide #1, p. 3).

Every page of Scripture points toward God’s redemptive purpose for all humanity—the salvation of “every nation, tribe, people, and language” (Revelation 7:9).

If the Bible reveals God’s missionary heart, then His people are called to embody that mission—living as witnesses who carry His love into the world.

3. God’s people are called to join God’s mission.

If the Bible is “all about mission,” then to understand it properly is to understand the heart of God Himself. Worship, discipleship, and mission are inseparable. Mission is not only about where we go or what we do; it is about who we are becoming.

A missional spirituality forms us to see the world through God’s eyes, to love as He loves, and to participate in His redemptive mission with humility and courage. Every believer is called, in one form or another, to be sent as God’s representative.

As Scott Sunquist defines it: “A missionary is one sent from the heart of God to proclaim the present and coming Kingdom of God to all the nations of the earth.”

The Heart of This Guide: Prayer is Essential to God’s Mission

These three truths serve as the starting line for this prayer guide. God invites all of us to co-labor in His mission of redemption. With this perspective, prayer is far more than a spiritual discipline—it is a powerful and essential way of aligning our hearts with God’s heart, doing God’s work in God’s way, and joining His mission of inviting everyone, everywhere, into a life-transforming relationship through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Response

Most Holy God,

Thank You for revealing Yourself as the God who sends—

the God whose love reaches into human history,

and whose heart longs for relationship with all humnaity

every nation, tribe, and tongue.

Open our eyes to see Your mission in Your Holy word

Form in us a missional heart that loves as You love.

Teach us to pray not only for ourselves,

but also for Your redeeming work among the nations.

Here we are, Lord—

send us, use us, and align our hearts with Yours.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today’s Real Time Prayer Focus

I’m literally writing this (and hopefully sending it) from the plane. So far, so good! Please pray for safe travel, physical strength, health, and anointing to do God’s work in God’s way. Ask the Lord to prepare everyone involved—the Worship Quest Academy team, the students gathering this weekend, the churches we will be serving, the meetings we’ll attend, and the Korean people we’ll encounter.

Thank you for praying with me. Together, we are part of God’s great mission!

Grace and peace,

Rob