One blistering hot, summer day in 1806, five students from Williams College in the far northeastern corner of Massachusetts met for their regular small-group prayer meeting. On this particular day, a late afternoon thunderstorm forced the group to take shelter under a nearby haystack as one of the students, Samuel Mills, challenged the group to prayerfully consider a mobilization of students for worldwide missions. This simple prayer meeting was to become the catalyst for what has been called “the Second Great Awakening” and perhaps the largest student missions endeavor ever - the Student Volunteer Movement. According to historians who have chronicled this student missions phenomenon, close to 20,000 foreign missionaries sprang out of this student-led revival.

Listen to one observation about this period in history, “[These] were exciting times. England was an industrial giant with great colonial pride. Rail travel across the continent was becoming commonplace, and half of the world’s railroad mileage was in the United States. The last frontier in the Middle West was closing. Thomas Edison and others were perfecting the telegraph and telephone and developing uses for electricity. The phonograph, kinetoscope, and stereopticon were providing entertainment and spreading popular culture. Cities were growing, and they were filled with young people. Those developments prepared the climate for a new era of Christian youth movements.” (See The Complete Book of Youth Ministry.)

The culture and technology are quite different today, but the similarities between what happened then and what is happening today are revealing. Rapid technological advances, world-wide commerce, and instantaneous international communication have created one global community. As never before, the world’s cities are experiencing incredible population growth and this planet is literally filled with young people!

It’s time to call another prayer meeting like the one I described above that spawned a world-wide student-led revival of missionary interest.

Our Lord Himself challenged His disciples to pray that way in Matthew 9:37 & 38, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest”, and in Luke 10:2, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.”

We must do the same! I really believe that the Lord can use students again to literally impact the world for eternity, but the revival must start with prayer.

It’s important to remember that God is still calling people into full-time vocational ministry. The world-wide need is even greater now than it was then. God’s plan is still that His people must pray for “the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.”

According to projections by the United Nations, the total population of the world will exceed seven billion people sometime in the middle of October 2012. If the harvest of souls was great in the first century, just think of what it will be by the time our world’s population reaches seven billion. It’s more important than ever that we pray “the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers.”

It’s time to be intentional about implementing this Biblical strategy. Praying for laborers is God’s plan, and I believe it is something that He wants to bless. If the Lord used the fervent prayers of five college students meeting under a haystack to propel almost twenty thousand missionaries into the harvest, just think of what He could do if churches all across this nation (and maybe even around the world) would intentionally mobilize their people to pray specifically for harvest workers. Who knows what might happen? Perhaps our Lord would supernaturally bless a new prayer emphasis to launch another great awakening of students into worldwide vocational ministry!

So I am asking youth workers everywhere to prayerfully consider an organized and intentional prayer emphasis for harvest workers. Let’s set aside Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009, as “Harvest Sunday.” We can pray in Sunday School, in youth group meetings, and in church services. We’ll also organize other creative ways to call our people to pray. This could be huge. Perhaps through our combined efforts to be intentional about praying for harvest laborers, God may choose to launch another great movement of students heading into global missions.

Let’s all begin to think of how we can network with others to make this happen. Let’s call on youth groups, churches, Christian colleges, and missionary organizations to join with us on Sunday, October 11, 2009, for “Harvest Sunday.”

It only makes sense for us to select that particular day for this renewed prayer emphasis. It is the anniversary weekend of when the world’s population reached the six billion mark, (see http://www.unfpa.org/6billion/) and it is close to the time of year, projected for October 2012, when our population is slated to hit seven billion. Plus, it’s during the harvest season, so this time of year can be a God-given visual aid of praying for harvest workers.

Let’s do everything we can to challenge youth workers and other church leaders to make “Harvest Sunday” a reality this year on October 11th. Let’s think this through and share ideas of how we can emphasize intentional prayer for harvest workers that day. Perhaps some readers will want to make contacts with other influential leaders and so on. We need to get the momentum rolling, so let’s share ideas and creative ways to promote this endeavor.

In the meantime, place this date on your calendars. Sunday, October 11, 2009, is “Harvest Sunday.” Please send me your ideas at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it – or post your ideas on Facebook’s “Friends of Vision For Youth, Inc.”

It’s time for another prayer meeting!