Strategic prayer

  1. Evangelicals represented 25% of the population in 1900, but less than 8% today. Surveys and studies disagree on whether this is now rising, stagnant or still in decline. While some evangelical and charismatic groups continue to grow,the decline of the historic denominations more than offsets this growth.
  2. The new landscape of Canada offers significant challenges for evangelicals. The terms “born-again” and “evangelical” tend to carry negative weight, and there is a great gap in the public perception of “spirituality” as opposed to “religion”. Overcoming the suspicion and dismissiveness of an unbelieving public and a hostile media will require humility, patience, wisdom and love.
  3. The remarkable diversity of evangelicals reflects Canadian society in general. They are not only in mainline denominations and conservative Protestant groups, but they are increasingly from new, independent churches and emergent expressions as well. Evangelicals are racially, culturally and linguistically varied and include many immigrant communities. Pray for this diversity – and the unity found therein – to become both a strength for and testimony by evangelicals to the truth and power of the gospel.
  4. Canadian evangelicals work together more effectively now than in earlier years, but they are still fragmented, again reflective of the cultural mosaic of Canadian society in general. Pray for the work of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, which seeks to draw together and represent evangelicals from all backgrounds.