During Baptist Mid-Missions’ 100th anniversary celebration in 2020, BMM President Patrick Odle issued a missions challenge for our own time:
What part does God want you to play in taking the gospel to the world? BMM would not be what BMM is today without partners, people who believed in the things I have spoken of—for 100 years.
He laid out Advance the Vision—a 20-year goal offering five ways churches and individuals can partner with Baptist Mid-Missions to advance the gospel worldwide. We are asking God to provide:
Pray daily for the Lord to send missionaries from our churches through Baptist Mid-Missions into His harvest. Read the story below, “The 100-Year Prayer Meeting,” for an outstanding example of the power of prayer in missions. Join in Dr. Odle's idea that he shared with AtV partners in early 2021: Set your alarm at 9:38 each day to pray in light of Matthew 9:38.
Become a corps of new donors giving to the Global Impact Fund to support the cause of Christ around the globe.
Store up treasure in the best investment of all— one that shapes lives for eternity.
Join the ranks of a mission agency founded on unchanging biblical principles and take the Good News to the billions of souls for whom Christ died.
Expand with us in the next century by bringing your passion and creativity to reach new places with the gospel.
We can make a difference in our own time just as the people of the 100-Year Prayer Meeting did (see story below)! Become part of God’s work through Baptist Mid-Missions.
Download our Advance the Vision brochure here.
If we could see the invisible, supernatural power unleashed by persevering prayer, we would be astounded at our intercession’s impact.
Consider this example. In 1727, a German nobleman named Nikolaus von Zinzendorf set in motion what became known as the 100-Year Prayer Meeting. Zinzendorf challenged the community of Protestant refugees living on his estate to form bands for Scripture reading, discipleship, and prayer. This effort healed the community’s former spirit of dissension. With renewed passion for the Lord, 48 men and women pledged to pray daily. A 24-hour-a-day prayer chain ensued, and others continually joined them.
It continued around the world for more than 100 years.
Truly, the impact of those prayers have shaped Christianity to this day. One of the most profound transformations was on missions. In 1732, two of Zinzendorf’s community members surrendered to take the gospel to the West Indies’ slave population—with a willingness to become slaves themselves to reach them. In a flood of surrender, more community members answered the call to worldwide missions, sparking the world’s first major Protestant missionary movement.
Sixty years later, William Carey left for India, citing inspiration from these missionaries. The 100-Year Prayer Meeting also played a key role in the salvation of John Wesley. And it is likely that these centuries-long prayers laid the groundwork for the Great Awakenings of England and America in which hundreds of thousands of people were saved and Christianity was reinvigorated in these lands.