Elliot Ku

These prayer points were compiled for our church’s monthly prayer meeting.

Sydney

Sydney is one of Australia’s largest cities, hosting some of Australia’s most prestigious universities, businesses, and corporations. Consequently, Sydney is a melting pot for different cultures and is thus a strategic hub for evangelism.

Pray for:

1. Muslims – there are approximately 160,000-200,000 living in the Sydney area and the Muslim population has increased nearly 200-fold since 1947. Pray that God will help every Christian see God’s compassion towards Muslims and be moved to share the gospel with them despite the potential challenges. Pray that the Holy Spirit will move their hearts to see the true beauty of the Gospel.

2. Chinese International Students. Every year, thousands of international students from China attend local Australian universities and return to their respective hometowns with new knowledge on ways to improve their country. Pray that these students will be affected by the gospel through university ministries (like FOCUS) so that they will not merely return home with greater intellectual capacities, but with a radically changed life.

3. Upcoming Evangelistic Events. Over the next few months, Sydney will be hosting a variety of evangelistic events such as Disrupt Sydney (Speaker: Matt Chandler), RICE Rally (Speaker: Francis Chan), and Search for Success (Speaker: Francis Chan, Professor John Lennox). Pray that Christians all throughout Sydney will be proactive in inviting their unchurched friends along and that their friends will be open to going along to these events. Also pray boldly that their hearts will be fertile soil so that there will be fruit when seeds of the gospel are sowed.

4. A ‘relaxed’ attitude towards the gospel. Sydney is currently in a type of ‘post-Christian’ climate where many are tolerant yet ignorant about the Christian God. Consequently, many are happy to profess some sort of faith in God, to ‘do’ right Christian things, yet keep God at a safe distance (especially when it begins to have an impact on their lives). Pray that cultural Christianity throughout Sydney will die away and that those who’ve stepped away from the church will be drawn back. Also pray that churches in Sydney will be prepared to engage with culture instead of merely rejecting it. Pray that there will be a greater awareness of the emptiness of cultural idols and that their hearts will be turned to God. Pray specifically for groups like the Centre for Public Christianity[1] (CPX) who are a Christian voice in the public sphere – pray that they will continue to gain more exposure and that the public will be even more infomed about the one true and living God who is both intellectually credible and existentially satisfying.

5. New Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird. Pray that he will have a priority to honour God before honouring men, and that he will lead our state in a God-glorifying direction.

[1]The Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) is a not-for-profit media company that offers a Christian perspective on contemporary life. We seek to promote the public understanding of the Christian faith by engaging mainstream media and the general public with high quality and well-researched print, video and audio material about the relevance of Christianity in the 21st century. For more information, please visit http://publicchristianity.org/