Every disciple-making movement (DMM) is marked by extraordinary prayer. Extraordinary prayer means praying more than you currently or ordinarily do. Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.” The book of Acts shows that every significant breakthrough in the early church was preceded by prayer. Prayer ushers us into God's presence, aligns us with His purpose, releases His power, to advance His Kingdom, for His glory. Extraordinary prayer is practiced individually and in groups. Here’s a simple template:

  1. Thanksgiving and Challenges: Offer praise to God for His presence and progress in your disciple making activities. Share challenges and difficulties in your efforts to make disciples.

  2. Scripture Reading: Begin by reading a Bible passage. As you reflect on the passage, consider these questions to help guide your prayer: "What does this passage teach us about making disciples?" You may also find it helpful to consult the DBS Story Sets.

  3. Prayer: Allow the words of Scripture to inspire and guide your prayers for upcoming DMM plans, desires, and activities.

Ideas for Prayer

the DMM prayer
Ask God to use you to start a disciple making movement (DMM).

  1. Ask God to increase your devotion to disciple-making prayer. Acts 1:14, 2:42, 3:1, 4:24
  2. Ask God to guide you to a person of peace; someone ready to discover more about God and help others do the same. John 4:35; Matthew 10:11; Acts 26:16-18
  3. Ask God to help you disciple them by teaching a simple resource called a Discovery Bible Study (DBS). Matthew 28:16-20
  4. Ask God to use you to coach them by guiding and encouraging them to multiply. Acts 20:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:10
THE OPEN PRAYERS
  1. Open Doors: Pray for opportunities to engage the lost. Colossians 4:3 NIV
  2. Open Eyes: Pray to see the condition of the lost. John 4:35 NIV; Matthew 9:36 NLT
  3. Open Mouth: Pray for boldness and clarity in witnessing. Ephesians 6:19 ESV; Colossians 4:4 NLT
  4. Open Heart: Pray for people to receive the truth about God. Acts 16:14 NLT
THE SEVEN SAILS PRAYER
A Disciple Making Movement (DMM) revolves around seven key elements, often likened to sails. Just as a sailing vessel requires two actions for movement—raising the sails (man's responsibility) and the wind filling the sails (God's sovereign choice)—DMM acknowledges both human initiative and divine guidance.​ See The 7 Sail Diagram. 

  1. Focus on God's word: Pray for an increase of people who read, obey and share God's word. 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Matthew 7:24-27, Acts 4:20

  2. Multiply Extraordinary Prayer: pray for the emergence of DMM prayer groups. Acts 1:14, 2:42; Romans 12:12

  3. Cast Vision: pray for opportunities to share about God's activity in disciple making and reception of invitations to be trained. John 15:27; 1 Corinthians 16:9

  4. Train believers: pray for effective instruction of the DMM principles and core resources like Discovery Bible Study (DBS). 1 Corinthians 11:1; Matthew 4:19; Matthew 28:20

  5. Go Out Among the Lost: pray for faithful and fruitful engagement with people both in situational and intentional efforts. Luke 14:23; Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19

  6. See Groups Start: pray for the emergence of Discovery Groups that multiply and mature into churches. Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2; Acts 2:41-47
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  7. Ongoing coaching: pray for meetings with DMM leaders that encourage and mature. 1 Thessalonians 3:10; Acts 14:22 
CONTACT LIST PRAYER
Contact List Prayer is a method for praying through your contact list based on the current day of the month, with each day corresponding to a different letter of the alphabet. It combines prayer with intentional outreach and opens possibilities for discipling others.  Here’s a summary of the process:

Pick a Letter: Choose the letter that corresponds to the current day of the month. 
1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D, 5=E, 6=F, 7=G, 8=H, 9=I, 10=J, 11=K, 12=L, 13=M, 14=N, 15=O, 16=P, 17=Q, 18=R, 19=S, 20=T, 21=U, 22=V, 23=W, 24=X, 25=Y, 26=Z.

Review Those Contacts: Look for people in your contact list whose last names begin with that letter.

Reach Out: Ask God to guide you toward someone on that list to engage. Let them know they are on your heart and ask how you can pray for them.

Pray for them. You can pray and share it as a text or a voice memo. 

Engage: Reach out and follow up as the Lord leads. Be attentive to chances to invite them to learn about becoming disciple-makers.

Resources for Prayer

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