College Prayer Initiative Sparks Missions Movement

by John Kennedy

Brian Hargett, a U.S. missionary with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, U.S.A., and his wife, Mindy, became part of the national Chi Alpha team in 2018 as mission mobilization directors. One of their first notions to generate interest in transforming the world focused on Jesus’ words in Luke 10:2 (NIV), “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

“The next verse does not say go find laborers, but rather pray for laborers to be sent,” Brian says. “What if our labor shortage was connected to our prayer shortage?”

As a way to motivate students to that end, the Hargetts initiated a campaign that encourages saying a brief prayer every day at 10:02 — a.m. or p.m. — to send more workers into the mission field. Subsequently, hundreds of students and Chi Alpha staff began pausing daily to ask the Lord to do just that.

“Jesus told us to pray the prayer and He will answer the prayer,” Brian says. “As we pray, we see the Lord mobilize more workers.”

Nearly seven years into it, the 10.2 prayer campaign is still going strong on campuses. Thousands of people, prompted by a phone alarm at 10:02, pause to offer a prayer every day. That simple habit has resulted in more Chi Alpha students yielding to full-time ministry. 

“Some students who pray for missionaries become missionaries themselves,” Brian says. “The Holy Spirit taps them on the shoulder so that they become answers to those prayers.”

As mission mobilization directors, in addition to their work with U.S. Missions, the Hargetts network with Assemblies of God World Missions on student short-term trips and opportunities for longer assignments upon graduation. In the past decade, more than one-third of all new AG world missionaries from the United States started with Chi Alpha.

“Compared to other college ministries, Chi Alpha is in a unique position because of the direct connection with U.S. Missions and AG World Missions,” Mindy says.

Autumn is a pivotal time for the campaign, as many Chi Alpha groups introduce the concept during an emphasized week or month of missions in October or November. Some chapters devote October 2 as an extended time of focused prayer for nations and laborers to serve among unreached people groups.

The initiative’s goal also includes providing mission opportunities for reaching non-Christians. Last year, Chi Alpha sent 1,031 students on 192 teams around the world as well as 1,937 students on 268 trips across the United States.

“University students will not change the world they are not aware of,” Brian says. “There sometimes is a lack of awareness of exactly how unreached people are.”

The value of Christian students engaging with unreached people on their home turf is that it moves beyond merely a concept to flesh and blood reality, according to the Hargetts. Before coming to the national office in Springfield, Missouri, they spent 22 years on staff with Chi Alpha at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Chi Alpha groups tailor the 10.2 prayer initiative to particular campus needs, but Mindy notes there is a useful “T.H.U.M.B.” prayer acronym identifying the largest blocs of unreached groups: Tribal people on Monday; Hindus on Tuesday; the unreligious and university students on Wednesday; Muslims on Thursday; and Buddhists on Friday.

Caleb Murray, Chi Alpha director at Marshall State University in Huntington, West Virginia, has utilized the daily prayer method since its implementation in 2018. Consequently, Caleb, a U.S. missionary associate, says more international students have attended meetings, more students have responded to a missions calling, and itinerating budgets have been met quicker.

“One of the biggest impacts of the 10.2 prayer movement is the idea that it’s not about us trying harder, it’s about relying on God more,” says Caleb. He says the initiative has transformed how he views prayer.

“It doesn’t matter if we have the best missions culture or all the best missions literature,” Caleb says. “What is important is that we need to be praying for God to send laborers to the harvest field.”

---

John Kennedy

John W.  Kennedy served as news editor of AG News from its inception in 2014 until retiring in 2023. He previously spent 15 years as news editor of the Pentecostal Evangel and seven years as news editor at Christianity Today.